History and Philosophy of Science

This programme offers breadth across a wide range of historical and philosophical themes. It also encourages intensive investigation and specialisation: a survey of nearly 3,000 years of scientific ideas and communities, and an exploration of the inner workings of science's methods and theories.

The programme provides broad-based training in the history of science, the philosophy of science, and an “integrated history and philosophy of science”. The historical coverage is broad, from antiquity to the present, while the philosophical coverage spans causality and the philosophy of medicine as well as the metaphysics of chemistry and computer science.

MSc students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of one core module (15 credits), four optional modules (60 credits), three ancillary modules (45 credits), and a dissertation (60 credits).

The Postgraduate Diploma programme consists of one core module (15 credits), four optional modules (60 credits) and three ancillary modules (45 credits), available in full time mode.

The Postgraduate Certificate programme consists of one core module (15 credits) and three optional modules (45 credits), available in full time mode

Core modules

• Introduction to Science and Technology Studies

Optional modules

Students choose four options from the following:

• Science in the 19th Century
• Material Culture and Science in the 18th Century
• Early Modern Science
• Medieval Science and Medicine in Global Perspective
• Science in Antiquity
• Causality, Mechanism, and Classification in Science
• Knowledge, Evidence, and Explanation in Science
• Science, Art, and Philosophy
• Special Topics Seminar in History and Philosophy of Science
• One optional module from our sister MSc programme, Science, Technology, and Society,
• may be substituted here provided it contributes to a coherent programme of study.

Ancillary Modules

• Students choose three ancillary modules which may be options from our degrees,
• e.g. Science in the 20th Century and Beyond, and Curating the History of Science
• or they might be selected from any other programme at UCL.
• Module descriptions can be found on the STS website

Dissertation/research project

All MSc students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a dissertation of 10,000–12,000 words.

Teaching and learning

The programme is delivered through a combination of seminars, lectures, tutorials and research supervision. Student performance is assessed through coursework such as long and short essays, advocacy work and project work.

A minimum of a second-class Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard.

Wellcome Trust Scholarship