Philosophy

Philosophy is the discipline of careful reasoning about the questions that matter most and are hardest to answer: What can we know, and how do we know it? What exists, and what is the nature of reality? What makes actions right or wrong?

What is a just society? What is the mind, and how does it relate to the brain? These questions have occupied thinkers for over two and a half millennia, and studying philosophy means engaging with the most rigorous attempts to answer them while developing the critical tools to assess those attempts and to construct better arguments of your own.

At the University of East Anglia, this three-year full-time degree engages with the full range of philosophical inquiry, from classical questions in metaphysics and epistemology to contemporary debates about artificial intelligence, animal rights, religious diversity, the nature of language and creativity, and the ethics of applied technologies. You will develop the ability to analyse arguments with precision, to identify assumptions and implications that are not immediately apparent, to construct counterexamples and to defend a position under sustained critical scrutiny. Philosophy at UEA is taught with an emphasis on its contemporary relevance, connecting the analytical tradition to the real-world issues where philosophical reasoning has the most to contribute.

Typical entry is around 120 UCAS tariff points.

Philosophy graduates are consistently highly employable across a broad range of careers. Law, the civil service, public policy, management consultancy, journalism, finance, research, healthcare ethics, technology and education all value the analytical precision and ability to argue from first principles that philosophy develops. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in philosophy, law, ethics, cognitive science or related disciplines.

The intellectual rigour and clarity of thought that philosophy demands are assets in any profession where reasoning, persuasion and the careful assessment of evidence matter.