Religion, Philosophy and Ethics

Religion, philosophy, and ethics together address questions that matter profoundly and that never become out of date: what is the nature of reality and our place in it? How should we live and treat others? What is the status of religious belief and experience?

What grounds moral claims, and how should we reason about ethical dilemmas? As the current description of this programme notes, this degree is for those who are always asking why, and the questions these disciplines address are genuinely among the most enduring and important that human beings ask.

At York St John University, this three-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, providing a supported entry route for students building towards degree-level study. Across the full programme, you will engage with the philosophical traditions of Western and world philosophy, examining the history of ideas from ancient Greece through the Enlightenment to contemporary debates in epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. Religious studies approaches religion as a serious intellectual subject, examining the major world religious traditions in their historical, cultural, and textual dimensions, as well as the contemporary debates about religion's role in public life and the challenges of religious diversity.

Ethics brings normative questions into focus, developing the analytical frameworks, from utilitarianism and Kantian ethics to virtue ethics and care ethics, that allow you to think rigorously about what we ought to do and why.

The programme includes a foundation year, a sandwich year, a year abroad, and a work placement, providing substantial breadth of experience alongside the academic curriculum. This gives you both the intellectual depth of a serious humanities degree and the professional and international experience that strengthens your readiness for graduate employment.

Graduates from religion, philosophy, and ethics programmes work in education, journalism, the civil service, law, healthcare ethics, community and social work, management, cultural organisations, and research. The capacity for careful reasoning about complex questions is valued across many professions. Postgraduate study in philosophy, theology, religious studies, or ethics supports those pursuing academic or specialist careers.