Chinese and World Philosophies
Chinese and world philosophies is a degree that takes seriously a question that Western academic philosophy has often sidelined: what does the intellectual world look like if you include the major philosophical traditions of China and East Asia alongside those of Greece, Europe, and the modern West? Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and the many schools of classical Chinese thought represent sophisticated and extensive bodies of reflection on ethics, politics, knowledge, mind, and the good life, and engaging with them alongside Western philosophy produces a genuinely broader and more critical philosophical education.
This four-year full-time programme at the School of Oriental and African Studies includes a foundation year, providing additional preparatory support for students who need more time to develop their academic skills and background knowledge before the main degree begins. SOAS is a world-leading institution for the study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and its philosophy provision reflects a commitment to engaging seriously with non-Western traditions. With a typical tariff of 120 points, the foundation year pathway makes this distinctive degree accessible to students who may not have followed a conventional academic route.
You will engage with Chinese language (to the extent required for reading philosophical texts), classical Chinese philosophical texts in translation and in the original, and the comparative questions that arise when you place Chinese and Western traditions in dialogue. Ethical theory, political philosophy, philosophy of mind, and epistemology all look different when Chinese traditions are part of the conversation, and the skills of careful textual reading and argument that philosophy requires are developed across a wider range of material.
Graduates from this programme move into careers in academia, education, the diplomatic and civil service, international organisations, journalism, think tanks, and roles connected to China and East Asia across business and the public sector. Postgraduate study in philosophy, East Asian studies, or Chinese is a natural next step.