Philosophy and the Arts MA

Find out more about our Philosophy of the Arts taught Master's degree at Warwick

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MA

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time

29 September 2026

Philosophy

University of Warwick

Philosophy and the Arts is an interdisciplinary degree, allowing you to combine philosophy with any or all of three arts disciplines. This MA is designed for students to take advantage of Warwick's strengths across Philosophy, English, History of Art, and Film and Television Studies.

This course allows you to combine the study of philosophy with any/all of three arts disciplines. Warwick has been a home for interdisciplinary work in philosophy and literature since the early days of the university.

This degree is designed to take advantage of our strengths across Philosophy, English and Comparative Literary Studies, History of Art, and Film and Television Studies. Warwick has excellent research strength in all of these areas, and it also has considerable scholarly interaction across these fields, especially through the programming of the Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts.

On this course, you will follow a programme of taught modules. If you choose to take the dissertation route, you will take three taught modules followed by a 10,000-word dissertation. If you take the non-dissertation route, you will take five taught modules. Your exact pathway will depend on your selection of optional modules. Philosophy modules are assessed through essay-based assignments.

Seminar class sizes range from 8-20 people for this course.

For taught components, there are typically two hours of teaching per module per week for this course.

You will submit assessed essays during the academic terms. You will also begin planning your dissertation and generally you will undertake your supervision sessions for this with your agreed supervisor during the summer term. As long as you pass your taught components, you will then focus on completion of your MA dissertation in the summer months (July and August).

Reading lists 

If you would like to view reading lists for current or previous cohorts of students, most departments have reading lists available through Warwick Library on the Talis Aspire platform.

You can search for reading lists by module title, code or convenor. Please see the modules tab of this page or the module catalogue. 

Please note that some reading lists may have restricted access or be unavailable at certain times of year due to not yet being published. If you cannot access the reading list for a particular module, please check again later or contact the module’s host department. 

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Any compulsory modules will be registered for you and you will be able to choose your optional modules when you join us.

2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a related subject; a writing sample of around 2,500 words on a philosophical topic.

See our departmental guidanceLink opens in a new window.

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

There are no additional entry requirements for this course.

Optional modules

Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:

If you choose to write a dissertation, you will take three optional modules (one from Philosophy and two from the other contributing departments). If you follow the non-dissertation route, you will take five optional modules (up to three from Philosophy and at least two from the other departments). In previous years, optional modules have included:

Page updates

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