The programme provides students with an intellectual training in the disciplines of History and Philosophy, which are mutually enriching subjects. Its key premise is that understanding the present (and anticipating the future) requires the ability to study and interpret the past and to appreciate how the tools of historical inquiry and the insights of philosophical theory combine to illuminate human societies, including those of the contemporary world.The study of History at Queen's spans the period from early Greece and the Roman Empire to the twentieth century, as well as teaching the history of Ireland, Britain, continental Europe, Africa, Asia and North America.The study of Philosophy enables students to learn about cutting-edge debates on ethics, metaphysics, theory of knowledge and political philosophy, as well as studying some of the key thinkers in the history of philosophy, such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Mill and Marx. The programme is designed to equip students with a range of skills which together foster the ability to practise self-motivated learning and increase the capacity to undertake independent learning in a progressive way.