German and Philosophy

German and philosophy is a combination with a particularly rich intellectual logic. German-speaking thinkers have shaped the course of Western philosophy more profoundly than any other national tradition, from Leibniz and Kant through Hegel and Marx to Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein. To study philosophy alongside German is therefore to engage with the tradition that produced many of its greatest texts in their original language, reading the work of thinkers who thought in German and who cannot be fully understood without that linguistic and cultural context.

At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year, full-time degree brings together two of the university's strongest humanities disciplines in a programme that rewards serious intellectual ambition.

You will develop your German language skills to a high level, reading literary, cultural, and philosophical texts in German and engaging with the culture, history, and intellectual traditions of the German-speaking world. In philosophy you will study epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, logic, the philosophy of mind, and the history of philosophy, developing the analytical rigour and argumentative clarity that the discipline demands. The combination means you will encounter German idealism, critical theory, and phenomenology in both the original and in translation, and you will develop a comparative perspective on philosophical traditions that is unusual and genuinely valuable.

Graduates of German and philosophy from Edinburgh are well placed for careers in law, the civil service, research, academia, journalism, international organisations, and roles in the cultural and creative sectors that value both linguistic range and philosophical depth. The analytical skills philosophy develops and the cultural and linguistic competence that German provides are a combination that employers across many sectors find valuable. Many graduates also go on to postgraduate study in philosophy, European studies, or related humanities fields, and academic research in the history of philosophy or German intellectual history is a natural destination for those with the strongest scholarly interests.