About

Department of Philosophy

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The Brotherton Library - Our subject librarian purchases books, journals and electronic resources to support learning, teaching and research

Brotherton library - the most historic of our three libraries

About the Department

The Department of Philosophy is one of the largest and most dynamic philosophy departments in the country. We offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Philosophy and the History and Philosophy of Science (HPS), as well as specialised PhD supervision across a wide range of topics. We have a first-rate record in both teaching and research and Leeds is consistently praised by its external examiners and students. Our high calibre staff have expertise in a broad range of areas and help to create our international reputation for excellence in learning and teaching.

The department incorporates four specialist Research Centres:

Centre for Aesthetics
Centre for Ethics and Metaethics
Centre for History and Philosophy of Science
Centre for Metaphysics and Mind

The Department also has close links with the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Interdisciplinary Applied Ethics.

Our graduates benefit from excellent career prospects in a wide variety of fields and a significant proportion of our PhD students have secured academic positions both in the UK and overseas.

Excellence in teaching and research

We have a proven track record of excellence in teaching and research:

  • Exceptional concentration of National Teaching Fellowships, awarded by the Higher Education Academy to mark excellence in teaching.
  • The latest Research Assessment Exercise (2008) rated 65% of our research 'world class' or 'internationally excellent', on a par with leading UK philosophy departments including Oxford and Cambridge.
  • Our last Undergraduate Programme Survey (2009-10) returned excellent results with rates of teaching satisfaction at 92% and overall satisfaction at 91%.
  • National Student Survey (2010-11) results confirm the quality of our undergraduate programmes and their teaching:

- 93% felt that their course was intellectually stimulating

- 87% believe our teaching staff to be "enthusiastic about  what they are teaching"

- 94% said teaching staff are "good at explaining things"

- 85% believe our teaching staff "made the subject interesting"

We are committed to listening to feedback in order to provide an excellent student experience at Leeds.

Pages in this document

  1. Department of Philosophy
  2. Why study Philosophy or History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds?
  3. What is Philosophy?
  4. What is History and Philosophy of Science
  5. Postgraduate community