About the Department of Philosophy at King's College London
Consistently ranked among the top philosophy departments in the country for research and teaching, the Department of Philosophy at King’s College London is one of the largest and most distinguished in the country, with twenty six permanent members of staff, including six new appointments joining us in September 2012, plus nine current postdoctoral fellows.
Research
The Department of Philosophy at King’s was ranked as one of the top-three UK philosophy departments in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. We have particular research strengths in:
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the history of philosophy, including Indian philosophy (we are one of the few philosophy departments in the UK who can claim to cover the entire history of philosophy, from the presocratics through to the foundations of twentieth century analytic philosophy and beyond)
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philosophy of mind and psychology
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philosophy of language and linguistics
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metaphysics and philosophy of science
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ethics and political philosophy
Teaching
University league tables consistently place us within the top 10 philosophy departments in the UK (The Times, The Guardian and The Complete University Guide 2013).
The Department of Philosophy is also firmly committed to excellence in teaching, offering a wide range of programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level, including specialist, research-led MA programmes in the philosophy of psychology, the history of philosophy, the philosophy of medicine, and language and cognition.
Our National Student Survey (NSS) satisfaction results are consistently excellent. In the most recent NSS, 95% were satisfied with the quality of the teaching on their course, and 98% of our students reported that they find their course intellectually stimulating. Our scores for feedback, provision of learning resources and personal development were also consistently above the sector average (source: National Student Survey 2012)
Links and partnerships
The Department of Philosophy at King's is proud to have links to a number of philosophy departments around the world. In particular, we are pleased to offer a joint-PhD with the University of Singapore, one of King’s College’s many international partner institutions. We also offer a range of exchange programmes that allow our students at all levels to study for part of their degrees at our partner universities in North America and elsewhere while paying King's tuition fees.
Closer to home, our partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry allows us to offer an unrivalled interdisciplinary MSc in the Philosophy of Mental Disorder. We are also delighted to play an integral part in the College’s Wellcome Trust-funded Humanities & Health project through our Philosophy of Medicine seminar series, which runs fortnightly during term time.
Community
Everybody in our community, from the academic staff to our visiting fellows and in particular the student body, plays an active role in the life of the Department.
We have a large and very lively postgraduate community, who not only participate in the research and teaching culture of the Department, but also organise a wide selection of reading and study groups to aid peer-to-peer learning.
We are also proud of the excellent work carried out by Phil-Soc, our undergraduate-run student philosophy society, who each year arrange a magnificent schedule of weekly talks by invited speakers from around the country and beyond.