University of East Anglia (UEA), BA (Hons), Philosophy and Politics

Philosophy and Politics go well together, because the political is one area of human life that is guided and governed by big ideas and in which the way that those ideas play out has major effects in real life. Philosophy is the art of thinking clearly about the deepest issues that matter to human beings and in the wider world, so that bringing the rigour of philosophy to political thinking has great benefits for the political animal, whether that is you as a citizen with a vote or you as a politician campaigning for office. Among the issues in philosophy that experts at UEA are particularly engaged in are some that relate to the future of our planet, the rights of future generations, and our Western intellectual and cultural heritage from the Ancient Greeks, to the great works of political thought, literature, cinema and art. With the experts in political science you will also get to study the philosophical underpinnings of democracy; the clash between different world views; and the philosophical basis of utopian political systems. In your second or third year you will take a module in Political Philosophy, which brings the two areas of study together, and you may also wish to follow this up in a dissertation.

The degree allows you to engage equally with both Politics and Philosophy, choosing from a wide range of modules in each discipline. Alternatively you can weight the degree slightly in favour of one or the other in your second year. There are opportunities in your final year to take research-led special subject modules or a dissertation on an individual topic of your own. 

On both sides of the degree you will engage in a mixture of historical reflection and cutting edge contemporary work— exploring and debating the ideas and theories of great thinkers from antiquity to the present day.