Philosophy and Politics

Philosophy and politics is a combination that addresses the most fundamental questions about how societies should be organised, how power should be distributed and constrained, and how we can reason carefully about the values and principles that should guide collective life. Philosophy provides the analytical tools for examining these questions with precision, examining concepts such as justice, liberty, democracy, rights and authority with rigour. Politics applies and contests those concepts in the analysis of real institutions, states and political conflicts.

At the University of Liverpool you will study this three-year full-time programme, combining systematic philosophical training with a grounded engagement with political institutions, processes and ideas. The philosophy content covers logic, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy and metaphysics, developing the analytical precision and argumentative rigour that philosophical training provides. The politics content introduces you to comparative politics, UK and international political institutions, international relations, political theory and research methods, developing both empirical knowledge and theoretical understanding of how political systems work and how they are contested.

The programme includes a sandwich year in industry, a year abroad and an embedded work placement, meaning you graduate with professional and international experience alongside your academic credentials.

Philosophy and politics trains the ability to engage seriously with contested normative questions, to evaluate arguments carefully, to understand how ideals and institutions interact, and to communicate about complex political and philosophical issues clearly. These are capabilities at the heart of public service, law, policy and journalism.

Graduates work in the civil service, politics and government, think tanks, NGOs, law, journalism, public affairs, education and the third sector. The combination of philosophical precision and political knowledge is also well suited to postgraduate study in political philosophy, political science, law or public policy.