Philosophy, Literature and Classics (BA) (Full-Time, 2021 Entry)
This course is closed
for Clearing 2024
This course is closed for Clearing 2022
If you would like to study at Warwick, there are other courses available for 2025 entry.
UCAS Code
VQ58
Qualification
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Duration
3 years full-time
Start Date
27 September 2021
Department of Study
Department of Philosophy
Location of Study
University of Warwick
Combining the study of tremendously rich and influential traditions, this degree explores the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, which are still vital to literary and philosophical work today. Throughout the course, you’ll develop the knowledge and skills needed to understand and appreciate these vital relationships.
Course overview
Your first year lays the foundations, including study of either Latin or Ancient Greek, while your second and third years offer enormous choice of modules across all three departments. Two of your core modules – Problems in Philosophy and Literature, and Textual Studies – are taught jointly across departments, giving you the opportunity to combine these interests directly.
If you wish to expand your experience beyond your study at Warwick, we can support you to apply for an intercalated year abroad or on a work placement. This extends the duration of your degree to four years, with your third year spent abroad or on placement, and will be reflected in your degree qualification (i.e. BA Philosophy, Literature and Classics with Intercalated Year).
Course Structure
In Year One study is distributed as follows: 45 CATS in Philosophy, 30 CATS in Classics, 30 CATS in English, and 15 CATS in a combined module.
In Year Two, 90 CATS are distributed evenly across the three departments, plus 30 CATS of options in any of the three.
Year Three offers a 30 CATS core module, 30 CATS each of options in Classics and in English, and 30 CATS to be freely chosen across the three departments, with some further flexibility in option choice in Years Two and Three.
How will I learn?
Our main teaching methods are lectures, lecture-discussions, and seminars alongside private study and study skills sessions. Our students benefit from expert guidance from staff in developing strong analytical and critical skills, and our students highly rate the feedback they receive. In addition to compulsory teaching, we also offer many extra academic activities, including optional lectures, colloquia, discussion groups and workshops.
Contact hours
Typically three hours of contact time per week per module, in most cases this would be two hours lecture and one hour seminar but is variable depending on teaching methods.
Class size
Seminar sizes are typically 12-15 students. Lectures vary by module from 20-220.
How will I be assessed?
We track your progress and provide you with feedback through regular non assessed work, assessed essays and written examinations. Your final degree classification is based on assessed essays, other assessed work (which may include, for example, group work or video presentations), examinations and an optional dissertation or individual project. Your second and third year work carries equal weight in determining your final degree classification. The intermediate and final years each count for 50% of your degree.
General entry requirements
A level:
- AAB to include grade A in English Literature or English Language and Literature or Latin or Greek
IB:
- 36 to include 6 in Higher Level English Literature or English Language and Literature or Latin or Ancient Greek
BTEC:
- We welcome applications from students taking BTECs as long as essential subject requirements are met.
Additional requirements:
You will also need to meet our English Language requirements.
International Students
We welcome applications from students with other internationally recognised qualifications.
Find out more about international entry requirements.
Contextual data and differential offers
Warwick may make differential offers to students in a number of circumstances. These include students participating in the Realising Opportunities programme, or who meet two of the contextual data criteria. Differential offers will be one or two grades below Warwick’s standard offer (to a minimum of BBB).
Warwick International Foundation Programme (IFP)
All students who successfully complete the Warwick IFP and apply to Warwick through UCAS will receive a guaranteed conditional offer for a related undergraduate programme (selected courses only).
Find out more about standard offers and conditions for the IFP.
Taking a gap year
Applications for deferred entry welcomed.
Interviews
We do not typically interview applicants. Offers are made based on your UCAS form which includes predicted and actual grades, your personal statement and school reference.
Year One
Introduction to Philosophy
You'll have a wide-ranging introduction to philosophy, including ancient, continental, moral and political philosophy, followed by epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and aesthetics, and logic. You'll learn to engage critically with different viewpoints and critically analyse and evaluate arguments central to philosophy.
Introduction to Ancient Philosophy
You will learn about Ancient Greek thinkers such as Parmenides, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, focusing on metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. You will see contrast and continuity between treatments of these topics in the ancient literature and you will gain a foundation for further study of Greek philosophy, and of contemporary philosophical literature. You will develop skills in critical analysis, presenting rigorous arguments, oral and written, and learn how to discuss a topic with clarity, patience and sensitivity to the views of others.
Problems in Philosophy and Literature
This module introduces you to the combined study of philosophy and literature, bringing literary theory, criticism and philosophical thinking about literature to the study of epistemology, and metaphysics and ethics. You will study the latter key areas of philosophy as represented by the work of Descartes and John Stuart Mill respectively. You will move on to articulate your own interpretations of texts by authors such as Proust, Coetzee, Nietzsche and Beckett. To read, discuss and write reflectively about philosophical and literary texts, and you will combine the approaches and concerns of the two disciplines.
Latin at appropriate level
Students entering with Latin A Level will take the module Latin Literary Texts. This allows you to develop your understanding of Latin by further reading of significant works by authors and in genres which, for the most part, you will not have previously studied. As well as developing your ability to read Latin more fluently and to translate from Latin, the module also teaches you advanced grammar, and offers an ambitious introduction to literary criticism and philological analysis at degree level. Students without A-level Latin will take the accelerated modules Latin Language I and II.
OR
Greek at appropriate Level
Students with A-level Greek will take Greek Literary Texts
The purpose of this module is to build upon your prior study, to allow you both to broaden and deepen your understanding of Greek by further reading of significant works in major genres of archaic and Classical Greek literature, and to hone skills of critical interpretation. Additionally, the module will consolidate knowledge of grammar and syntax through work in class on classical Greek prose-writing.
Students without a qualification in Greek will take Greek Language I and II
These accelerated modules will teach you the fundamental elements of Ancient Greek in a clear and accessible way. By the end of the year you will be able you to read and translate passages of original Greek with accuracy and confidence, will have a firm knowledge of Greek vocabulary and syntax, and will be able to begin to appreciate pieces of Classical Greek prose in their original unadapted form.
Modes of Reading
What is a reader? How is our understanding and perception of a text formed? What does it mean to think critically when we read? This module allows you to explore these questions by putting a spotlight on the question of critical thinking in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By studying a series of literary texts in relation to some of the most influential literary and cultural theorists of the last hundred years, you will take your own position on everything from Marxism, queer and feminist theory to ecocriticism and postcolonial critique.
OR
Epic into Novel
Tracking the transition from the epics of the ancient world to the novels of modernity, this module introduces you to some of the most influential and formative works of world literature. You will study central texts of the classical world, such as Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid; the ancient Indian epic The Mahābhārata; Milton’s Paradise Lost; as well as novels like Henry Fielding’s bawdy comedy Tom Jones and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s novel of decolonising Kenya, A Grain of Wheat. Reading across history and cultures, between languages and genres, you will develop the skills to analyse narrative, character, and style.
Year Two
History of Modern Philosophy
You will discover the metaphysical and epistemological ideas of great Empiricist philosophers Locke, Berkeley and Hume on substance, qualities, ideas, causation and perception. You will then explore Kant's ideas, including metaphysics, space, self-awareness, causation, scepticism and freedom. You will develop skills in critical engagement, articulating your own views of the relative strengths and weaknesses of these arguments and interpreting key philosophical ideas.
Year Three
Textual Studies
This course draws on philosophy and literature for the intensive study of texts that are of both philosophical substance and literary interest. In seminars, you will explore these elements in texts by authors such as Plato, Augustine, Rousseau, Woolf and Nabokov. In tutorials, you will be guided to develop an independent research essay. You will learn to analyse, interpret and argue across the interdisciplinary divide and develop your own intellectual and imaginative project, resulting in your own research essay.
Examples of optional modules/options for current students
- Aristotle
- Politics and Poetics in Greek and Latin Literature
- Literature, Theory and Time
- Philosophy and the Good Life
- Food and Drink in the Ancient Mediterranean.
Tuition fees
Find out more about fees and funding.
Additional course costs
There may be costs associated with other items or services such as academic texts, course notes, and trips associated with your course. Students who choose to complete a work placement or study abroad will pay reduced tuition fees for their third year.
Warwick Undergraduate Global Excellence Scholarship 2021
We believe there should be no barrier to talent. That's why we are committed to offering a scholarship that makes it easier for gifted, ambitious international learners to pursue their academic interests at one of the UK's most prestigious universities. This new scheme will offer international fee-paying students 250 tuition fee discounts ranging from full fees to awards of £13,000 to £2,000 for the full duration of your Undergraduate degree course.
Find out more about the Warwick Undergraduate Global Excellence Scholarship 2021
Your career
Graduates from Classics courses have gone on to work for employers including:
- Acturis
- Cancer Research UK
- Comic Relief
- English Heritage
- EY
- John Lewis and Partners
- KPMG
- Teach First
- The British Museum
- Waitrose and Partners
They have pursued roles such as:
- Business and related associate professionals
- Conference and exhibition managers and organisers
- Finance and investment analysts and advisors
- Legal associate professionals
- Management consultants and business analysts
- Marketing associate professionals
- Teaching and other educational professionals
Helping you find the right career
Our department has a dedicated professionally qualified Senior Careers Consultant. They offer impartial advice and guidance together with workshops and events throughout the year. Previous examples of workshops and events include:
- What can you do with a Classics and Ancient History degree?
- Careers in the Creative Industries
- Warwick careers fairs throughout the year
- Next steps after your classics degree ... hear from alumni
- Networking for Classics students
"The lecturers are all very welcoming"
“I wanted to study at Warwick because the honours modules offered the option of extra original language classes which was very important to me. The classes are much smaller and give Classics students the chance to gain a more intimate understanding of the texts you have studied in lectures and seminars.
My favourite module has been Ancient Greek Theatre. Greek Theatre was great since we covered a wide range of both tragedians and comedians and I found comedy’s engagement with literary genres to be so interesting that I chose it as my topic for my dissertation.
The lecturers are all very welcoming and you don’t feel at all intimidated to talk to them about any concern you have. Their doors are always open for a chat and they are happy to go through essay questions, feedback or just to talk about how you’re getting on."
Jonathan
BA Classics
"Get involved with the Philosophy society"
"It's easy to get involved with the Philosophy Society, which always welcomes new members. At the start of term they hosted a Skype Q&A session with philosopher Peter Singer, which was really well-done, and they often host revision sessions to help with exams.
Outside of the society, the philosophy common room is the place to get to know other philosophy students from every year, and talk to anyone about philosophy in general. I'm also a Philosophy Ambassador, which means I help out on offer holder days and introduce people to the department.
I also enjoy going to the gym regularly at university. People tend to think that philosophers and philosophy students sit and only focus on training their minds, but we go to the gym and participate in sports just as much as anyone else. Even Plato was a wrestler!"
Stefan
BA Philosophy
"Intertwine philosophy with your everyday life"
“If I could sum up the Philosophy course at Warwick in one word it would be ... modern. I found that, unlike some institutions that tend to focus only on the typical Plato and Aristotle type modules, Warwick gives you the opportunity to intertwine philosophy with your everyday life.
One of my favourite modules was ‘Philosophy through Film’ which involved investigating whether films could actually do philosophy. Although we didn’t get to swap lectures for film screenings, we had fun movie nights, thoughtful debates and eventually created our own short films which is less daunting than it sounds.
Our lecturers encourage us to genuinely investigate the aspects of philosophy that interests us so that we are constantly interested in what we study and keen to contribute our own ideas.”
Oray
BA Philosophy
About the information on this page
This information is applicable for 2021 entry. Given the interval between the publication of courses and enrolment, some of the information may change. It is important to check our website before you apply. Please read our terms and conditions to find out more.