Anthropology and Philosophy

Anthropology and philosophy is a combination that encourages you to think deeply and comparatively about what it means to be human. Anthropology is the study of humanity in its full cultural and biological diversity, examining how different societies organise themselves, understand the world and give meaning to their lives. Philosophy asks the most fundamental questions about knowledge, reality, ethics and the nature of consciousness, drawing on a tradition of argument and analysis stretching from ancient Greece to the present.

Together, they provide an exceptionally rich framework for understanding both the diversity of human experience and the universal conditions that make that experience possible.

At Queen's University Belfast, this three-year full-time programme develops both disciplines in an integrated way, drawing on their complementary strengths. You will engage with cutting-edge debates in ethics, metaphysics, theory of knowledge and political philosophy, studying key thinkers from Plato and Aristotle through to contemporary analytical and continental philosophy. In the anthropology component, you will explore the concepts, methods and fieldwork traditions that anthropologists have developed to make sense of cultural difference, social organisation and human behaviour.

The combination encourages you to think across cultural boundaries and to appreciate how deeply the questions philosophy asks are shaped by cultural context.

Graduates from anthropology and philosophy programmes pursue careers in academia, the civil service, international development, journalism, policy, social work, education, law and the cultural sector. The combination of cross-cultural understanding and philosophical rigour is particularly valued in organisations working in international contexts, in ethics committees and advisory bodies, and in organisations dealing with diversity, human rights and the complexities of a globalised world. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in philosophy, anthropology, social theory or international development.