The master’s in Philosophy is a one-year, English-taught programme. The programme offers five specialisations:

Lecture

You will take courses at both the Leiden Institute for Philosophy and other institutes of the Faculty of Humanities.

Parliaments in democratic systems serve as the people’s representatives, legislators and overseers of the executive. They have the power to define the framework in which the executive can act and must report about its action. For parliaments to fulfil their roles, though, they depend on access to information.…

The Theoretical Philosophy programme consists of 60 EC, to be completed in one year.

Many dangerous diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola and Q fever have jumped from animals to humans. But it is not only because of these diseases that we should include animals in our health policy, but also because of their right to health.

Research within the department of Philosophy of Law is mainly focused on the history of the philosophy of law.

Learn about the newest research from the researchers who are performing it.

Lecture

The Centre is the proud home of several research programmes.

This Philosophy bachelor's programme offers perspectives from around the world. It will make you one of the next generation of students who will shape philosophy in the 21st century, ready to take on academic or professional challenges that call for critical thinking, analysis and argumentation skil…

This subproject of 'From Homo Economicus to Political Animal' analyzes Greek economic thinking of the Hellenistic period.

While phenomenology and Yogacara Buddhism are both known for their investigations of consciousness, there exists a core tension between them: phenomenology affirms the existence of essence, whereas Yogacara Buddhism argues that everything is empty of essence (svabhava). How is constructive cultural…

University Lecturer Ahab Bdaiwi:

In the wake of controversial disclosures of classified government information by WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden, questions about the democratic status of secret uses of political power are rarely far from the headlines. Despite an increase in initiatives aimed at enhancing government transparency – such…

Find out how to apply for Global and Comparative Philosophy at Leiden University by following our step-by-step guide.

Find out how to apply for Theoretical Philosophy at Leiden University by following our step-by-step guide.

Find out how to apply for Philosophy of the Arts at Leiden University by following our step-by-step guide.

Find out how to apply for Moral and Political Philosophy at Leiden University by following our step-by-step guide.

Find out how to apply for Modern European Philosophy at Leiden University by following our step-by-step guide.

Find out how to apply for Philosophy of Law, Governance and Politics at Leiden University by following our step-by-step guide.

If you want to continue your academic education, the logical next step after obtaining your bachelor’s degree is to follow a master’s. You can do so in a university inside or outside the Netherlands, including several options right here at Leiden University!

Lecture

The programme consists of 60 EC, to be completed in one year.

The leading argument of this doctoral thesis is that Aristotle’s text De Interpretatione is of methodical relevance for present-day philosophical thinking. In the era of science and technology, the status of philosophy has become problematic.

The Philosophy of Law Department is responsible for various courses both in the Bachelors and the Masters.

Lecture

This dissertation deals with Hegel’s theory of the sublime (das Erhabene). I focus specifically on die heilige Poesie (sacred poetry), a form of art that he identifies with the Judaic Psalms and which I claim to be the core of Hegel’s approach to sublimity. I claim that Hegel’s apparent lack of interest…

The following dissertation reconstructs Paul Natorp's philosophical psychology. It argues that psychology's main object is the lived experience of concrete subjects, understood as a transcendental structure of logical-reflexive conditions for the recognition, appropriation, and evaluation of objective…

The dissertation focuses on the work of German philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, founders of critical theory at the Frankfurt School. Specifically, it is a study of the “early” writings, dated between 1925 and 1940, to reconstruct the early stages of critical theory. The thesis argues…

This research aims to address the relationship between cinema and political thought in Latin America, in order to question a limited understanding of cinema politics, which has dominated the field of study since the middle of the last century, and to propose a different one that we will call politics…

Starting from Husserl’s somewhat controversial claim about the immortality of the constituting subjectivity, this thesis uses the limit-case of death in order to present a phenomenological exploration of the notion of subjectivity and its relationship to nature. It also offers a second-order discussion…

Highlights the extent to which the two thinkers share a common philosophical framework, while also demonstrating how Levinas shifts the orientation of philosophical thinking from truth to justice.

Indirect Method, Critique, and Responsibility in Derrida, Hegel, and Heidegger. Explores why Derrida, Hegel, and Heidegger conceive of their thought as a “movement” rather than as a presentation of results or conclusions.

The programme consists of 60 EC, to be completed in one year.

To be eligible for Theoretical Philosophy at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Moral and Political Philosophy at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

Lecture

To be eligible for the MA Philosophy specialisation Global and Comparative Philosophy at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.