As the study of fundamental questions connected to reality, existence, the mind, language and thought, Philosophy at Kent is designed to develop your ideas, independent thought and problem-solving skills.

A PhD in Philosophy enables you to undertake a substantial piece of supervised research in the subject that makes an original contribution to knowledge and is worthy of publication.

A PhD, also known as a doctorate, is a requirement for a career as an academic or researcher. In addition, it has become a qualification valued by many employers who recognise the skills and commitment a PhD requires. Employers also recognise that a PhD indicates excellent research capabilities, discipline and communication skills.

Over the duration of the PhD, you produce an original piece of research of up to 100,000 words. Recent research theses have included ‘Evolutionary Ethics Without the Error: How Care Ethics Can Vindicate Moral Realism’, ‘Morality as Ideology: Marx, Materialism and Ideology-Critique’, ‘Causality in Complex Systems:  An Inferentialist Proposal’, ‘Moral Epistemology, Particularism and Generalism’, ‘Intelligence, Relevance, Action and Perception’, ‘The Story of My Life: Virtue, Character and Narrative’, ‘Reasoning, Objectivity and Interdisciplinarity:  Making the Links’, and ‘Vulnerability in Bioethics: Humans and Animals’.

The Department of Philosophy offers supervision from world-class academics with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, able to support and guide you through your research. Your progress is carefully monitored to ensure that you are on track to produce a thesis valued by the academic community. Throughout your programme, you are able to attend and contribute to research seminars, workshops, and research and transferable skills training courses.

You may be eligible for a fully-funded PhD scholarship to support your studies with us. The PhD in Philosophy at Kent can be funded through the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) collaborative doctoral partnerships. Please indicate in your application if you want to be considered, and explain your eligibility. For the full list of scholarships available within the School, please see our postgraduate funding page.

Think Kent video series

Responsibility is a familiar concept that we employ in a variety of everyday contexts. Yet, on reflection, many of our familiar intuitions about responsibility are difficult to reconcile. In this talk, Dr Lubomira Radoilska, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, identifies and explores four major puzzles that derive from current thinking about responsibility. She shows how they could be addressed by rethinking responsibility on the model of authorship.