BA Ethics, Value and Philosophy

Examine some of our most fundamental ideas about truth, reality, right and wrong and challenge society's views about them with our BA Ethics, Value and Philosophy.

Studying ethics, value and philosophy at the University of Reading will equip you with the ability to think logically, to evaluate arguments critically, and to challenge your own ideas and those of other people.

We are one of the only universities to offer BA Ethics, Value and Philosophy. You will learn about the central philosophical principles, concepts, problems, texts and figures, with an emphasis on moral philosophy and the theory of value. You will be taught by leading experts and authorities whose research strengths lie in moral philosophy and the philosophy of the mind and language. You will also have the chance to study non-Western philosophies, especially Indian philosophy.

This degree offers you the chance to study a wide variety of topics, from a number of different philosophical traditions. You'll study three compulsory modules in your first year:

Reason and Argument
Great Works in Philosophy
The Meaning of Life.

These modules give you an introduction to moral philosophy and the skills required for all philosophy. You can select three further modules of your choice, with the option to study a language with the Institution-Wide Language Programme.

In years two and three you will have the opportunity to explore your interests in more depth, with topics such as environmental and business ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion.

Additionally, in your second or final year you can explore the subjects of Ethics, Value and Philosophy from another cultural perspective at one of our partner universities in Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan or Australia. You will be taught in small, interactive seminar groups, encouraging discussion and debate with teaching staff and fellow students.

Placement

We encourage you to take placements as they provide you with a chance to put your newly acquired knowledge and skills into practice as well as allowing you to gain valuable real-world experience.

You can undertake a placement at any point in your degree and work in a company or charity relevant to your final year studies. For example, a previous student worked at a zoo to learn more about the ethical treatment of animals.

You can also choose our four-year BA Ethics, Value and Philosophy with Placement Experience course, which includes an integrated professional placement between your second and third year of study.

Other students have chosen to study abroad for one semester in their second or final year. Partner institutions include universities in Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan or Australia. For more information, please visit the Philosophy website.

Overview

Examine some of our most fundamental ideas about truth, reality, right and wrong and challenge society's views about them with our BA Ethics, Value and Philosophy.

This degree offers you the chance to study a wide variety of topics, from a number of different philosophical traditions. You'll study three compulsory modules in your first year:

Reason and Argument
Great Works in Philosophy
The Meaning of Life.

In years two and three you will have the opportunity to explore your interests in more depth, with topics such as environmental and business ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion.

Placement

We encourage you to take placements as they provide you with a chance to put your newly acquired knowledge and skills into practice as well as allowing you to gain valuable real-world experience.

You can also choose our four-year BA Ethics, Value and Philosophy with Placement Experience course, which includes an integrated professional placement between your second and third year of study.

Entry requirements A Level BBB

Select Reading as your firm choice on UCAS and we'll guarantee you a place even if you don't quite meet your offer. For details, see our firm choice scheme.

Our typical offers are expressed in terms of A level, BTEC and International Baccalaureate requirements. However, we also accept many other qualifications.

Typical offer

BBB

International Baccalaureate

30 points overall

BTEC Extended Diploma

DDM

Extended Project Qualification

In recognition of the excellent preparation that the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) provides to students for University study, we can now include achievement in the EPQ as part of a formal offer.

English language requirements

IELTS 7.0, with no component below 6.0

For information on other English language qualifications, please visit our international student pages.

Alternative entry requirements for International and EU students

For country specific entry requirements look at entry requirements by country.

International Foundation Programme

If you are an international or EU student and do not meet the requirements for direct entry to your chosen degree you can join the University of Reading’s International Foundation Programme. Successful completion of this 1 year programme guarantees you a place on your chosen undergraduate degree. English language requirements start as low as IELTS 4.5 depending on progression degree and start date.

Learn more about our International Foundation programme

Pre-sessional English language programme

If you need to improve your English language score you can take a pre-sessional English course prior to entry onto your degree.

Find out the English language requirements for our courses and our pre-sessional English programme

Compulsory modules

Reason and Argument

Explore arguments in different contexts such as newspaper opinions, social media spats and philosophical treaties. You’ll develop critical thinking and logic to evaluate claims and arguments.

Great Works in Philosophy

You’ll delve into the most important philosophical works, considering the significance of each text and analysing the arguments within them to sharpen your critical skills.

The Meaning of Life

Seek answers to the most important philosophical question. You’ll explore different perspectives on the matter to develop and explain your own judgement and defend your position.

Optional modules

Radical Philosophy

Question your assumptions and beliefs by exploring radical philosophical claims. You’ll compare and contrast different ways of doing philosophy, such as phenomenology and deconstruction.

Global Justice

Discover global perspectives on justice and freedom, from the Buddha to Christian female mystics, to acquire new insights and question your own beliefs and ideas.

Philosophical Skills for Life

Develop the skills needed to produce persuasive and nuanced academic arguments, research, and referencing. You’ll learn how to identify limitations and advantages of philosophical writing.

Optional Language Module

Learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you.

These are the modules we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they're informed by the latest teaching and research methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules

Ethical Argument

Develop your knowledge and skills by considering arguments in moral philosophy and contribute to debate by learning how to argue in a charitable but critical way.

Oppression, Inequality, and the Enemies of Democracy

Explore the concerns of society by asking questions within contemporary political philosophy. You’ll enhance your ability to think reflectively and critically about the role of fairness in society.

Optional modules

Meaning and the Mind

Consider questions such as How can there be minds in a physical world? How does a mental state (like a memory or a perceptual experience) come to represent the world? What role does consciousness play in the mind? Discuss and analyse some of the core arguments in philosophy of mind, including with historical reference to the figures who originally formulated those arguments.

Global Philosophies

Participate in cross-cultural conversations about global issues such as gender, race, social identities, and death. You will be introduced to and taught how to analyse a range of concepts, including Buddhist, Jain, and African American critical theories, performative theories, and phenomenological theories.

Aesthetics

Explore topics that are central to philosophical aesthetics including beauty, definitions of art and truth in literature. This will enable you to develop critical understanding of philosophical problems raised by art and aesthetic experience.

Philosophy through the Ages: The Minds that Shaped our World

You’ll engage with a range of ideas and theories from classic texts that mark some of the most important and influential ideas in philosophy, from Socrates to the present day.

Ignorance, Doubt, and Relativism

Investigate the concept of knowledge and analyse and evaluate some of the core arguments in contemporary epistemology. You will learn about the different theories of knowledge and explore famous works from Ernest Sosa, Alvin Goldman, David Lewis, Edward Craig, and Miranda Fricker.

Optional Language Module

Learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules

Dissertation in Philosophy

Engage in original and independent research to produce an extended essay that focuses on a philosophical topic of your choice. You’ll also submit an assessed research proposal and give a presentation.

OR

Independent Learning Module

Choose a philosophical topic that fascinates you to form the basis of an extended essay. This will enhance your independent learning skills, self-awareness and ability to reflect on your progress and strengths.

Optional modules

Free Will and Responsibility

Investigate the concepts of freedom and responsibility using philosophical thinking and by applying approaches from different cultures.

Philosophy of Language: Animals, Babies, Colours and Language Death

Engage with questions concerning meaning, language and communication. To address these, you'll engage with foundational texts in linguistics, psychology and anthropology and research informed by developments in the cognitive sciences.

Early Chinese Philosophy

Deepen your understanding of the history of philosophy. You’ll focus on early Chinese philosophy to include the Confucian and daoist traditions, as well as moral, social, and political philosophy.

Current Moral Philosophy

Explore current debates in ethics, roughly focusing on material published in the last 20 years. These debates could be totally new, or they could be current takes and debates about much older issues (such as Aristotle's ethics).

Fairness

Learn about leading contemporary theories of fairness, including the relation of fairness to impartiality, equality, proportionality, need, desert, and free-riding. You'll address conflicts between fairness and other values, while developing your skills in dealing with abstract moral concepts and normative arguments.

Business Ethics and Social Responsibility

Explore and debate critical issues in business ethics from a moral, practical and, sometimes, political perspective. You will learn about topics such as the morality of sweatshop labour, the ethics behind advertising, and the corporate obligation to do what is right.

Society and State in Ancient Greece

Study the classic works in Ancient Greek political philosophy, including some or all of Aristotle's Politics and Rhetoric and Plato's Republic and Gorgias. You'll look at the philosophers' conceptions of politics, society, and government, and examine their relevance to modern concerns and issues.

The Scandal of Film

Study the role films play in our cultural lives. Explore film in relation to reality, the human condition, philosophy and art.

Hume and Wittgenstein

Speech Attacks: Bullshit, Lies, Propaganda

Discuss the foundations of speech act theory and examine ways that it has been applied to philosophical problems in feminist theory and political and social theory. Explore lies and bullshit, and what (if anything) is wrong with these uses of language. And we will discuss the nature of propaganda and 'fake news' and how to resist its effects.

Paradoxes

Explore some of the great contemporary and historical paradoxes in philosophy, and their proposed solutions. Philosophy is full of paradoxes – logical, semantic, metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and others, which shed light on big philosophical issues.

Metaphysics

Discover metaphysics, one of the foundation stones of philosophy, and how the way we deal with metaphysical problems affects our approach to problems in many other areas of philosophy, such as philosophy of mind and epistemology.

Philosophy of Religion

Explore central topics within the philosophy of religion. You’ll examine contemporary ideas and their historical origins, evaluating their significance and validity.

Optional Language Module

Learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Fees

New UK/Republic of Ireland students: £9,535 per year for 2025/26 then fixed per year at this fee for the standard duration of your course.

New international students: £25,250 per year for 2025/26 then fixed per year at this fee for the standard duration of your course.

Tuition fees

To find out more about how the University of Reading sets its tuition fees, see our fees and funding pages.

Additional costs

Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details.

Financial support for your studies

You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. Students from the UK may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover these costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available.

Careers

Throughout our degrees students complete career and skills related modules, encouraging them to think about what careers they would like and what skills they will need.

Studying Philosophy will equip you with a range of transferable skills. In particular you'll develop skills in clear thinking, logical analysis and the critical assessment of argument, which are greatly valued in a variety of professional careers such as law, politics, management and marketing.

Recent graduates have found employment in the civil service, journalism, consultancy, finance, local and central government, and recent employers have included the Ministry of Defence, Cambridge University Press, Yellow Media Works, local authorities and other universities.

Around one in four of our students continue their studies, including conversion courses, and teacher training.

BA Ethics, Value and Philosophy

Placement

Tuition fees

Additional costs

Financial support for your studies

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