This Philosophy: Global and Comparative Perspectives master’s programme is unique in Europe. It offers comparative perspectives from around the world that will enable you to be part of the next generation of thinkers, someone studying and shaping philosophy for a globalised 21st century.
Why study Global and Comparative Philosophy at Leiden University?
Leiden is the only Dutch university, and one of only a few in the world, to offer a master’s programme that combines Western perspectives with those of India, East Asia, and the Arab world, taught by internationally renowned experts in their fields. Leiden University is home to various institutes dedicated to study these traditions. In addition, Leiden University Library has a world-famous collections of Asian and Arabic manuscripts and materials.
What will you study?
This programme is philosophy at its broadest. In addition to western philosophy, the programme features philosophies from India, eastern Asia and the Arab world, combining conceptual analysis with hermeneutics and phenomenology, and historical contextualisation with cross-cultural comparison. In this way, you will learn from the world’s traditions of thought and how they mutually inform and enrich one other.
Is this programme for you?
If you enjoy discussing current issues in science, culture, and society, and want to know more about the history of the concepts we use for framing these issues, or alternative conceptions used in different cultures. You’ll relish the programme in Global and Comparative Philosophy if you sometimes feel that current debates fail to address the right questions but you’re unsure how to articulate this feeling.
Philosophy degree
Global and Comparative Philosophy at Leiden University is an accredited degree programme of Philosophy. After successful completion of this programme, you will receive a legally accredited master’s degree in Philosophy and the title Master of Arts (MA).
Career prospects
Create a world of opportunities with a master's degree from Leiden University.
What our graduates do
The one-year master’s programme in Global and Comparative Philosophy prepares you for any career in which reasoning skills, high levels of abstraction and critical thinking are valued. Our graduates are currently employed in a wide range of professions in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Successful completion of an MA can also lead to PhD research and a career in academia.
Currently 100% of our students find employment at university-graduate level within one year of completing our one-year MA in Global and Comparative Philosophy. We can attribute this both to the high quality of the programme and the talent and ambition of our students.
You will find our graduates working in an astonishingly wide range of professions and professional organisations. Examples include:
- Policy Officer at a ministry
- Copywriter at a media company
- Freelance editor
- PhD candidate at an foreign university
- Editor at a communications consultancy firm
- Consultant at an IT consultancy firm
- Editor at a company specialising in reviewing theses and dissertations
- Coordinator at an international human rights watch organisation
- PhD candidate at a university in Sweden
