The Warwick MPhil in Philosophy is a leading research programme for students looking to progress to independent study. Engage in focused research at master’s level under close expert supervision, as part of an active research community.

You will gain advanced expertise on your chosen range of topics in Philosophy, as well as carry out your own research project. The skills and subject knowledge you will gain will prepare you ideally for independent academic research.

Teaching and learning

During this two-year programme research programme, you will be required to study, and will receive supervisions in, three main areas of philosophy.
The key areas of study will cover historical areas including key figures such as Plato, Descartes, Kant, Husserl and Wittgenstein, and also Moral and Political Philosophy, Aesthetics, Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind.

In each of your three chosen areas, you will write two 5,000 word supervised research papers, one due at the end of your first year, the other due at the end of the first term of the second year. In the remainder of your second year, you will undertake and submit a research thesis of approximately 30,000 words.

The primary means of study is by fortnightly supervisions, with at least one term of the first year devoted to each of the three areas of study you have chosen. You will be assigned a specialist supervisor for each area, who will agree topics for the papers which you will produce for each supervision. In addition, you will be encouraged to attend appropriate graduate classes to support your supervisory preparation. Graduate classes may be taken from amongst those offered on our Masters programmes, or be research led classes put on for the benefit specifically of MPhil students and PhD students.