Philosophy
Explore important questions that tackle today’s biggest challenges.
Explore important questions that tackle today’s biggest challenges.
Are you ready to explore your curiosity and expand your mind? At Kent, you'll develop skills in analysis, negotiation and creative problem-solving, reflecting on real world issues and gaining the knowledge and drive to shape your own future and the world around you. Our philosophy degree gives you a skill set that is in demand in many industries and sectors, allowing you to forge your own path and explore your interests and passions.
We encourage you to be critical and creative and to ask fundamental questions across reality, knowledge, logic and ethics. Our course is designed to ensure you can thrive and work in the way that is best for you. We have very few exams across the course, so you can choose the modules that interest you the most and be assessed in the ways that show your best work.
You'll be part of our philosophical community, learning from friendly teaching staff who are also world-leading in their fields. You'll be welcome at our regular debates, seminars and socials – a chance to listen and a chance to be heard.
A wide range of modules, very few of which are compulsory, means you can tailor your degree to your own philosophical interests or explore new ones.
Philosophy at Kent was ranked 2nd in the UK for student satisfaction and 6th for research quality in The Complete University Guide 2024.
From teaching, to poker, to law, our Philosophy graduates follow their own ambitions. Whatever future you’re planning, our degree can help you get there.
Studying abroad will boost your CV and improve your career prospects. You'll also discover a new culture, learn a lot about yourself and have a fantastic time.
A degree in philosophy opens up career options in a variety of fields. Recent graduate William McCaughey now works in business insights and analytics.
Our typical offer levels are listed below and include indicative contextual offers. If you hold alternative qualifications just get in touch and we'll be glad to discuss these with you.
At Kent, you’re more than your grades. We look at each student’s circumstances as a whole before deciding whether to make an offer to study here. We also take this flexible approach when we receive your exam results.
Check our Clearing vacancy list or call us now +44 (0)1227 768896 to find out if we have a course that’s right for you. See our Clearing website for more details on how Clearing works at Kent.
The following modules are offered to our current students. This listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation:
This module will cover classic and contemporary philosophical topics concerning what reality is like, and whether (and how) we come to know about it. A variety of topics will be covered, such as problems of scepticism, sources of knowledge, the relation between mind and body, identity of people over time, and whether there is more to reality than is discussed in natural science.
This module will introduce students to a number of big questions in ethics. The questions may include the following: What makes a life good? Is it happiness? Or is it something else? Another big question is: What makes actions right or wrong? Is it God demanding or forbidding them? Or are actions perhaps right to the extent that they serve to make lives better off, and wrong to the extent that they make lives worse off? Some philosophers have thought so. Others wonder: What if I steal money from someone so rich that my act in no way makes their life go any worse. Might it still be the case that I have acted wrongly—even if I haven't made anyone worse off? A third bit question is this: What’s the status of morality? Is it, for example, the case that what’s right for me might be wrong for you? Does it make any sense at all to talk about moral claims being true or false, even relative to moral communities? Might moral judgments be nothing but expressions of sentiments? Throughout the course, students will be examining these and similar questions from the point of view of a variety of philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, and David Hume.
Since Plato's Dialogues, it has been part of philosophical enquiry to consider philosophical questions using logic and common sense alone. This module aims to train students to continue in that tradition. In the first part students will be introduced to basic themes in introductory formal logic and critical thinking. In the second part students will be presented with a problem each week in the form of a short argument, question, or philosophical puzzle and will be asked to think about it without consulting the literature. The problem, and students’ responses to it, will then form the basis of a structured discussion. By the end of the module, students (a) will have acquired a basic logical vocabulary and techniques for the evaluation of arguments; (b) will have practised applying these techniques to short passages of philosophical argument; and (c) will have acquired the ability to look at new claims or problems and to apply their newly acquired argumentative and critical skills in order to generate philosophical discussions of them.
What do philosophers do? How do they think? What do they typically think about? How do philosophers write? What sorts of writing are acceptable in philosophy? How should you write? How should philosophy best be read in order to be understood and assessed?'
In this module we will introduce you to some of the most interesting questions in philosophy, both from its history and from current debates. As we do this we will show you how to think, read and write as a philosopher.
This module provides an introduction to some of the key issues in the philosophy of law. All of the ideas discussed are linked by focusing on the notion of 'right'. Students will be exposed to a variety of questions and issues, such as: ‘What is a right?’, ‘Are there such things as natural rights?’, ‘Is there any absolute right?’, ‘What is involved in saying that one has a right to free speech or a right to private property?’, ‘Who has a right and why?’, ’Do future people have rights?’, ‘Do we have a right against social deprivation?’ and ‘Do children have a right to be loved?’..
We will take a classic philosophical text, and work through it. We think about the historical context, and what the author was trying to do with it, and grapple with some interpretative difficulties.
This module provides a thematic introduction to selected topics and debates that span global philosophical, religious and cultural traditions. It will explore issues such as the nature of reality, of the self, and of goodness or value, the foundations of ethics and the ideal society, and the goals of life in a variety of worldviews. Cross-referencing cultural traditions with broader theoretical and philosophical debates, it seeks to provide a foundation for understanding key concepts and themes found within the world's traditions of philosophy and religion, and exploring their implications for fundamental debates about truth, society, psychology and the good life.
You have the opportunity to select elective modules in this stage.
Theoretical philosophy is one of the main strands of contemporary philosophy. Among other things, theoretical philosophy addresses issues concerning the nature of reality (metaphysics), the nature of knowledge (epistemology), and the nature of correct reasoning (logic).
This module will introduce students to a range of issues and theories in theoretical philosophy. And students will learn to employ the methods of analytic philosophy to address questions such as: What is knowledge? How is knowledge possible? Is there a god? Do we have free will? What is the nature of time? What is causation? Is there one true logic?
Theoretical philosophy is one of the main strands of contemporary philosophy. Among other things, theoretical philosophy addresses issues concerning the nature of reality (metaphysics), the nature of knowledge (epistemology), and the nature of correct reasoning (logic).
This module will introduce students to a range of issues and theories in theoretical philosophy. And students will learn to employ the methods of analytic philosophy to address questions such as: What is knowledge? How is knowledge possible? Is there a god? Do we have free will? What is the nature of time? What is causation? Is there one true logic?
Groups of marks or bursts of sound are just physical entities but, when produced by a writer or a speaker, they are used to point beyond themselves. This is the property of aboutness or intentionality. Other physical entities generally do not have this property. When you hear a sentence, you hear a burst of sound, but typically you also understand a meaning conveyed by the speaker. What is the meaning of a word – some weird entity that floats alongside the word, a set of rules associating the word with objects, an intention in the mind of the speaker….? What is the difference between what your words imply and what you convey in saying them? How are words used non-literally, how do hearers catch on to the meaning of a newly minted metaphor? How can we mean and convey so much when uttering a concise sentence? When someone says something offensive, is it part of its meaning that it is offensive, or just how it is used? In this module we shall try to find some answers to the questions listed above.
The aim of this course is to engage in the study of specific topics in the philosophy of mind, language, or action and to engage with the criticism of contemporary approaches as it is found in the works of Wittgenstein, Ryle, Anscombe, and/or Austin.
Logic is the study of the methods and principles used to distinguish correct reasoning from incorrect reasoning and, as such, it is a crucial component of any philosophy course. Moreover, logic has applications other than the testing of arguments for cogency: it is also a widely used and useful tool for clarifying the problematic concepts that have traditionally troubled philosophers, e.g., deductive consequence, rational degree of belief, knowledge, necessary truth, identity, etc. Indeed, much contemporary philosophy cannot be understood without a working knowledge of logic. Given this, logic is an important subject for philosophy students to master.
The module will primarily cover propositional and predicate logic. Regarding propositional and predicate logic, the focus will be on methods for testing the validity of an argument. These methods will allow students to distinguish correct from incorrect reasoning. The module will also cover inductive and modal logics. Regarding inductive and modal logics, the focus will be on clarifying epistemological concepts through the use of these logics.
Is it right that the talented profit from their (undeserved) talents? Should the government provide compensation for people who find it hard to meet that special someone? Should we think our duties to our compatriots are more important than our duties to people in other countries?
This course is divided into two parts. The first part examines classic topics in political philosophy, such as Rawls Theory of Justice, Nozick's libertarianism and the feminist and communitarian criticism of political liberalism. The second part of the course will explore issues within contemporary political philosophy, such as equality, our obligations to those in the developing world, and the politics of immigration. We will consider whether we can make sense of political obligation between states as well as within states. We will look at these issues in the context of particular recent case studies.
This module focuses on a range of practical ethical topics, connecting practical theories and stances with the nature of the world we live in. We interpret 'ethics' here very broadly and the topics we cover will change from year to year, but likely topics include: war and peace, animal ethics, media and data, and various topics in medical ethics.
We face and hear about moral problems every day. These problems range from life and death matters concerning abortion, euthanasia and the like to other types of case such as whether to tell a lie to prevent hurting someone's feelings. At some point we might wonder whether there is a set of rules or principles (such as 'Do not lie’) that will help us through these tricky problems; we might wonder whether there is something more simple underlying all of this ‘ethical mess’ that we can discern. Ethics contains several theories or stances that attempt to give us such principles and to sort out the mess. In particular, different ethical theories are attempts to articulate reasons why a certain course of action is ethically best; they are attempts to say what types of feature we should concentrate on when thinking about ethical problems. We will begin the module by reviewing certain ethical theories and understanding them in detail before turning to investigate various ethical problems and dilemmas.
This module focuses on a range of practical ethical topics, connecting practical theories and stances with the nature of the world we live in. We interpret 'ethics' here very broadly and the topics we cover will change from year to year, but likely topics include: war and peace, animal ethics, media and data, and various topics in medical ethics.
We face and hear about moral problems every day. These problems range from life and death matters concerning abortion, euthanasia and the like to other types of case such as whether to tell a lie to prevent hurting someone's feelings. At some point we might wonder whether there is a set of rules or principles (such as 'Do not lie’) that will help us through these tricky problems; we might wonder whether there is something more simple underlying all of this ‘ethical mess’ that we can discern. Ethics contains several theories or stances that attempt to give us such principles and to sort out the mess. In particular, different ethical theories are attempts to articulate reasons why a certain course of action is ethically best; they are attempts to say what types of feature we should concentrate on when thinking about ethical problems. We will begin the module by reviewing certain ethical theories and understanding them in detail before turning to investigate various ethical problems and dilemmas.
Many people today are reluctant to identify themselves as 'feminist': either because they see feminism as a useful political movement that has essentially served its purposes; or because they view feminism as a 'single-issue', militant ideology that they cannot identify with. This module is intended to give students an opportunity to reflect philosophically on what claims like this could mean: if we live in a post-feminist era, why do women earn, on average, two thirds of what their male counterparts earn? If we live in post-feminist era, why are women still under-represented in many fields (including politics, science and academic philosophy?). If feminism is a 'single-issue' ideology, why is it that feminists have proposed such a variety of solutions to the above problems, and from such a wide range of political standpoints?
The module explores some key debates in contemporary feminist philosophy, with particularly emphasis on its uncomfortable relationship with liberalism. The course draws attention to feminist critiques of key liberal concepts, such as consent, the social contract, autonomy, universal rights, and the private/public distinction. We go on to apply theoretical debates in feminist thought to the following political issues: prostitution, pornography, feminine appearance, multiculturalism, and human rights.
The module looks at various philosophical problems as presented in films. This will involve discussing a range of different philosophical topics, from different areas of philosophy. Film here is presented as a way into the philosophical discussion, which will be supplemented by appropriate primary and secondary texts. The course will then consider ways in which the medium of film itself presents philosophical problems.
Topics to be covered will vary from year to year, in light of the expertise of the person convening it and student feedback from previous years. At least some of the module will be devoted to philosophical issues concerning film will itself, such as whether film itself is or can be a form of philosophy.
Students will gain a good understanding of several topics in philosophy. They will also critically explore whether the medium in which philosophy is conducted is potentially a constraint on or a complement to the aims of the philosophy. The module will enable students to evaluate issues, both timely and timeless, in a manner that's informed by an interdisciplinary approach to philosophy.
This module introduces students to key issues in environmental ethics, the study of (a) the ethical relations and commitments of humans towards the non-human world, (b) the ethical standing of the non-human world itself, relating this study to the applied case of manmade climate change. The course is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part focuses on the conceptions of the environment in various traditions, and on the main theories of ethics, value, rights and duties. The practical part looks at applications of these theories, investigating the existing ethical approaches to the environment, before looking in more detail at the challenges of environmental destruction and manmade climate change.
Some questions which may be addressed: What are the main ethical theories? What are values, and do they even exist? What is the difference between positivist and natural right theories? What exactly is the environment/nature? Are humans part of nature or something else? Has something gone wrong in our relation to nature? Is all life sacred? To whom does the Earth belong? What has axiological priority – humans or the Earth (Gaia)? Do only humans have an intrinsic value or basic rights, or do such normative concepts also apply beyond humans? Can the paradoxes of collective action be overcome? What are the main ethical approaches to the environment? What are public goods, and in what relation do they stand to the planetary boundaries? Whose duty is it to prevent global warming? What is more important, preventing global warming or establishing social-economic justice? Through which political system can sustainability be best achieved? Who is to bear the costs of climate change? How might victims of climate displacement be compensated? What theory of justice is required to answer such questions? Do we owe anything to yet unborn humans? What do we owe to animals and plants, if anything? If it is too late to prevent the extinction of our species, what remains to be done?
You have the opportunity to select elective modules in this stage.
Theoretical philosophy is one of the main strands of contemporary philosophy. Among other things, theoretical philosophy addresses issues concerning the nature of reality (metaphysics), the nature of knowledge (epistemology), and the nature of correct reasoning (logic).
This module will introduce students to a range of issues and theories in theoretical philosophy. And students will learn to employ the methods of analytic philosophy to address questions such as: What is knowledge? How is knowledge possible? Is there a god? Do we have free will? What is the nature of time? What is causation? Is there one true logic?
The aim of this course is to engage in the study of specific topics in the philosophy of mind, language, or action and to engage with the criticism of contemporary approaches as it is found in the works of Wittgenstein, Ryle, Anscombe, and/or Austin.
Logic is the study of the methods and principles used to distinguish correct reasoning from incorrect reasoning and, as such, it is a crucial component of any philosophy course. Moreover, logic has applications other than the testing of arguments for cogency: it is also a widely used and useful tool for clarifying the problematic concepts that have traditionally troubled philosophers, e.g., deductive consequence, rational degree of belief, knowledge, necessary truth, identity, etc. Indeed, much contemporary philosophy cannot be understood without a working knowledge of logic. Given this, logic is an important subject for philosophy students to master.
The module will primarily cover propositional and predicate logic. Regarding propositional and predicate logic, the focus will be on methods for testing the validity of an argument. These methods will allow students to distinguish correct from incorrect reasoning. The module will also cover inductive and modal logics. Regarding inductive and modal logics, the focus will be on clarifying epistemological concepts through the use of these logics.
The module will study some of the major works in the history of modern philosophy of cognitive science and artificial intelligence. An indicative list of topics is: The Turing test; the Chinese Room argument; the frame problem; connectionism; extended and embodied cognition; artificial consciousness. The approach will be philosophical and critical, and will involve the close reading of texts. Students will be expected to engage critically with the works being studied and to formulate and argue for their own views on the issues covered.
Groups of marks or bursts of sound are just physical entities but, when produced by a writer or a speaker, they are used to point beyond themselves. This is the property of aboutness or intentionality. Other physical entities generally do not have this property. When you hear a sentence, you hear a burst of sound, but typically you also understand a meaning conveyed by the speaker. What is the meaning of a word – some weird entity that floats alongside the word, a set of rules associating the word with objects, an intention in the mind of the speaker….? What is the difference between what your words imply and what you convey in saying them? How are words used non-literally, how do hearers catch on to the meaning of a newly minted metaphor? How can we mean and convey so much when uttering a concise sentence? When someone says something offensive, is it part of its meaning that it is offensive, or just how it is used? In this module we shall try to find some answers to the questions listed above.
Is it right that the talented profit from their (undeserved) talents? Should the government provide compensation for people who find it hard to meet that special someone? Should we think our duties to our compatriots are more important than our duties to people in other countries?
This course is divided into two parts. The first part examines classic topics in political philosophy, such as Rawls Theory of Justice, Nozick's libertarianism and the feminist and communitarian criticism of political liberalism. The second part of the course will explore issues within contemporary political philosophy, such as equality, our obligations to those in the developing world, and the politics of immigration. We will consider whether we can make sense of political obligation between states as well as within states. We will look at these issues in the context of particular recent case studies.
This module focuses on a range of practical ethical topics, connecting practical theories and stances with the nature of the world we live in. We interpret 'ethics' here very broadly and the topics we cover will change from year to year, but likely topics include: war and peace, animal ethics, media and data, and various topics in medical ethics.
We face and hear about moral problems every day. These problems range from life and death matters concerning abortion, euthanasia and the like to other types of case such as whether to tell a lie to prevent hurting someone's feelings. At some point we might wonder whether there is a set of rules or principles (such as 'Do not lie’) that will help us through these tricky problems; we might wonder whether there is something more simple underlying all of this ‘ethical mess’ that we can discern. Ethics contains several theories or stances that attempt to give us such principles and to sort out the mess. In particular, different ethical theories are attempts to articulate reasons why a certain course of action is ethically best; they are attempts to say what types of feature we should concentrate on when thinking about ethical problems. We will begin the module by reviewing certain ethical theories and understanding them in detail before turning to investigate various ethical problems and dilemmas.
Many people today are reluctant to identify themselves as 'feminist': either because they see feminism as a useful political movement that has essentially served its purposes; or because they view feminism as a 'single-issue', militant ideology that they cannot identify with. This module is intended to give students an opportunity to reflect philosophically on what claims like this could mean: if we live in a post-feminist era, why do women earn, on average, two thirds of what their male counterparts earn? If we live in post-feminist era, why are women still under-represented in many fields (including politics, science and academic philosophy?). If feminism is a 'single-issue' ideology, why is it that feminists have proposed such a variety of solutions to the above problems, and from such a wide range of political standpoints?
The module explores some key debates in contemporary feminist philosophy, with particularly emphasis on its uncomfortable relationship with liberalism. The course draws attention to feminist critiques of key liberal concepts, such as consent, the social contract, autonomy, universal rights, and the private/public distinction. We go on to apply theoretical debates in feminist thought to the following political issues: prostitution, pornography, feminine appearance, multiculturalism, and human rights.
This module will introduce students to classical as well as contemporary discussions in the intersection between politics, philosophy, and economics. Topics to be covered will vary from year to year, in light of the expertise of the person convening it and student feedback from previous years. Topics that may be covered include Authoritarianism, Behavioural economics, Rational Choice Theory, Game Theory, Libertarianism and Paternalism, Markets and Trade, Private Property and the Legitimacy of Organ Sale.
Through these and related topics, students will gain a good understanding of the complementary and in some cases conflicting perspectives and methodologies contained in politics, philosophy, and economics, and enable them to evaluate contemporary issues in a manner that's informed by a comprehensive set of relevant traditions.
The module looks at various philosophical problems as presented in films. This will involve discussing a range of different philosophical topics, from different areas of philosophy. Film here is presented as a way into the philosophical discussion, which will be supplemented by appropriate primary and secondary texts. The course will then consider ways in which the medium of film itself presents philosophical problems.
Topics to be covered will vary from year to year, in light of the expertise of the person convening it and student feedback from previous years. At least some of the module will be devoted to philosophical Issues concerning film will itself, such as whether film itself is or can be a form of philosophy.
Students will gain a good understanding of several topics in philosophy. They will also critically explore whether the medium in which philosophy is conducted is potentially a constraint on or a complement to the aims of the philosophy. The module will enable students to evaluate issues, both timely and timeless, in a manner that's informed by an interdisciplinary approach to philosophy.
This module introduces students to key issues in environmental ethics, the study of (a) the ethical relations and commitments of humans towards the non-human world, (b) the ethical standing of the non-human world itself, relating this study to the applied case of manmade climate change. The course is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part focuses on the conceptions of the environment in various traditions, and on the main theories of ethics, value, rights and duties. The practical part looks at applications of these theories, investigating the existing ethical approaches to the environment, before looking in more detail at the challenges of environmental destruction and manmade climate change.
Some questions which may be addressed: What are the main ethical theories? What are values, and do they even exist? What is the difference between positivist and natural right theories? What exactly is the environment/nature? Are humans part of nature or something else? Has something gone wrong in our relation to nature? Is all life sacred? To whom does the Earth belong? What has axiological priority – humans or the Earth (Gaia)? Do only humans have an intrinsic value or basic rights, or do such normative concepts also apply beyond humans? Can the paradoxes of collective action be overcome? What are the main ethical approaches to the environment? What are public goods, and in what relation do they stand to the planetary boundaries? Whose duty is it to prevent global warming? What is more important, preventing global warming or establishing social-economic justice? Through which political system can sustainability be best achieved? Who is to bear the costs of climate change? How might victims of climate displacement be compensated? What theory of justice is required to answer such questions? Do we owe anything to yet unborn humans? What do we owe to animals and plants, if anything? If it is too late to prevent the extinction of our species, what remains to be done?
In this module we consider what it is that history studies—individual actions, social structures, states, empires, religious movements, social classes, periods and regions, civilizations, large causal or law-governed processes. We explore whether history as a whole has meaning, structure, or direction, beyond the individual events and actions that make it up and the nature of causal influence among historical events or structures that underwrites historical explanations.
We continue by examining what is involved in our knowing, representing, and explaining history by asking what role is played by the interpretation of the "lived experience" of past actors in our historical understanding, and how the historian arrives at justified statements about this lived experience. Can we arrive at justified and objective interpretations of long-dead actors, their mentalities and their actions, or does all historical knowledge remain permanently questionable?
Finally, we consider the extent to which human history is constitutive of the human present. Can historical understanding of events in the past inform our policies and actions in current situations judged in important respects to be sufficiently similar?
You have the opportunity to select elective modules in this stage.
Some modules have lectures, some have seminars, and all have class discussions. Some promote ‘student active’ learning techniques which encourage you to work on individual or group research, and present your findings to the rest of the class.
Assessment of philosophy modules is by essays, in-class assignments, seminar participation or tests, or a combination of these methods.
For a student studying full time, each academic year of the programme will comprise 1200 learning hours which include both direct contact hours and private study hours. The precise breakdown of hours will be subject dependent and will vary according to modules.
Methods of assessment will vary according to subject specialism and individual modules.
Please refer to the individual module details under Course Structure.
This programme aims to:
You gain knowledge and understanding in:
You gain intellectual skills in:
You gain subject-specific skills in the following areas:
You gain transferable skills in the following:
It’s wonderful being able to carve out my own academic path and to have been supported in that.
Whether you have a specific career in mind or haven’t thought beyond university, we can help you plan for success.
As a Philosophy student, you’ll benefit from a structured programme of employability events, including workshops and opportunities to gain hands-on experience through paid and voluntary work opportunities.
Your knowledge and understanding of reasoning allow you to take an analytical approach, which will make you really stand out to employers. Being able to think critically helps you to address challenges in the workplace in innovative ways, while excellent communication skills mean you’ll bring colleagues along with you. All of which will give you lots of career options when you graduate, so you can effect change in the places you want to see it.
I’d always recommend Kent… brilliant and supportive teaching staff and the campus itself with all it has to offer.
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