Philosophy at Royal Holloway

We live in a world of increasingly serious disagreements about the aims and values which should inform human life. Philosophical reflection has consequently become more and more essential to the assessment of human culture. However, university philosophy often tends these days to be a very specialised, technical subject which it can sometimes be hard to connect to other disciplines. The Philosophy Joint Honours and Minor Degrees at Royal Holloway are therefore specifically designed to give you access to key ideas and debates that are relevant to the other subjects studied. But this is a two-way street: just as studying philosophy will deepen your understanding of, say, the classical world, contemporary politics, literature and science, those subjects will in turn broaden your appreciation of why philosophical questioning is so important today.

The Joint degree and the Minor degree: what’s the difference?

With a Minor degree you take 1 unit of Philosophy each academic year (this might be one 1-unit course, or two, half-unit courses).  Since you take 4 units per year to get an honours degree, a Minor in Philosophy is equivalent to a quarter of your degree.

The Philosophy Minor is open to students studying Classics (including Classical Studies and Ancient History), Drama, English, Media Arts, Modern Languages and Music, and also Maths, Physics, and Politics and International Relations.
With a Joint Honours degree you take 2 units of Philosophy each academic year.  In other words, your time is divided equally between Philosophy and the subject you combine it with.

To obtain a Joint Honours degree, Philosophy can be combined with the following subjects: Ancient History, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature and Culture, Drama, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Music, Politics and International Relations