Philosophy and Psychology

Philosophy and psychology is one of the most intellectually compelling joint honours combinations available, because the two disciplines are engaged in a long-running and productive dialogue about the nature of the mind. Philosophy of mind asks what consciousness is, how mental states relate to brain states, what it means to perceive, believe or intend. Psychology investigates these questions empirically, designing experiments to understand how people actually think, feel, perceive and behave.

Together they give you access to both the conceptual rigour needed to ask the right questions and the empirical methods needed to test answers against evidence.

At Durham University, this three-year full-time programme is offered with a particularly rich set of structural features: a sandwich year with embedded work placement opportunities, a year abroad and an extended professional and international dimension within a compact degree. Durham's philosophy department and psychology department are both highly regarded, and the combination is taught at a level consistent with Durham's high academic standards. The typical entry tariff for this programme is around 168 UCAS points.

You will study core areas of philosophy including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, logic and philosophy of mind alongside core psychology content including cognitive, social, developmental and biological psychology, and research methods in both quantitative and qualitative traditions. The philosophy strand develops your conceptual precision and ability to construct and evaluate arguments, while the psychology strand develops your ability to design studies, collect and analyse data, and evaluate empirical evidence critically.

Graduates of philosophy and psychology programmes are well placed for a wide range of careers. Psychology-oriented roles in research, clinical settings, human resources, organisational development, marketing research and user experience design draw on the empirical strand of the degree. The philosophy strand opens doors in law, public policy, journalism, management consulting and the civil service, where the capacity for precise, rigorous argument is valued.

Clinical psychology, as a professional career requiring postgraduate doctoral training, is a common aspiration for psychology graduates who go on to further study. The combination's distinctive intellectual character makes Durham's graduates particularly effective in roles requiring both analytical depth and empirical grounding.