I. The Department of Philosophy offers graduate programs leading to the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees with a major in Philosophy. The master’s program is designed to provide comprehensive training in philosophy for students seeking work beyond the bachelor’s level, whether for self-enrichment, background for other areas, or in preparation for doctoral work. The doctoral program provides students with the broad background necessary for effective teaching as well as the specialized research skills required for a career in philosophy at the college or university level.

II. MA Degree Program

Program objectives are: (1) development of expertise in the discipline to teach introductory courses; (2) ability to write a research paper on a philosophical topic for formal presentation; and (3) ability to demonstrate knowledge and skills for advanced study.

A. Program Admission

Students desiring admission to the graduate program in philosophy should correspond with the coordinator of graduate admissions in Philosophy as early as possible in the admission procedure, and as far in advance as they can before the semester in which they plan to enter. The Philosophy Department admits students for the fall semester of each academic year. Prospective applicants should write directly to the Department of Philosophy to request information and application forms. Application deadline (for all materials to be received) is January15 for the MA program.

B. Program Prerequisites

1. A bachelor’s degree from a recognized college or university. Official transcripts should be sent to the Office of Graduate Admissions.
2. A minimum of a 2.5 quality point average on a scale of 4.0. Students with less than a 2.5 quality point average may, on occasion, be admitted.
3. An acceptable score on the general test of the Graduate Record Examination.
4. At least 18 semester hours in undergraduate philosophy courses including the following courses or their equivalent: introduction to philosophy, ethics, elementary logic, intermediate logic, history of ancient philosophy, and history of modern philosophy. Students who lack one or more of these courses may be admitted to the program only on the condition that they take the appropriate course as soon as possible.
5. Three letters of recommendation from people qualified to judge the student’s ability to undertake graduate work.
6. A 10-20 page writing sample and a 1-2–page statement of purpose should be submitted to the Coordinator of Graduate Admissions in Philosophy.

1. Thirty to thirty-three hours of class work, 23 of which must be at the 7000 level or above. Students who write a thesis are required to take 30 hours, 3 of which are credit for the thesis. Students who do not write a thesis are required to take 33 hours. Students who elect to write a thesis should familiarize themselves with the Thesis/Dissertation Preparation Guide before beginning to write. Students with approved collateral areas may take up to six hours outside the department if they are writing a thesis or nine hours if they are not.
2. A written comprehensive examination covering the major areas and history of philosophy.

III. PhD Degree Program

Program objectives are: (1) development of expertise in the subject matter to teach a variety of undergraduate courses in of specialization; (2) development of ability to produce original research papers of sufficient quality for presentation at professional meetings and conferences and publication in professional journals, in addition to ability to impart research skills to students at all levels; (3) ability to contribute to philosophical discussions across the subdivisions of the field; and (4) preparation to assume the role of a philosophy faculty member.

A. Program Admission

The Philosophy Department admits students for the fall semester of each academic year. Prospective applicants should contact the Department of Philosophy to request information and application forms. Application deadline (for all materials to be received) is January15 for the PhD program.

1. Fulfillment of university requirements for admission to the Graduate School, including a score on the GRE acceptable to the department.
2. The equivalent of the BA degree, usually with a major in philosophy. This must include at least the following courses or their equivalents: Intermediate Logic, Survey of Ancient Philosophy, Survey of Modern Philosophy, and Ethics. Students lacking one or more of these courses may be admitted to the program provisionally, on the condition that they make up the missing course work as soon as possible (graduate credit will not be granted for make-up work).
3. Three letters of recommendation, to be submitted by persons competent to judge the prospective student’s ability to undertake graduate work. (These letters are to be sent directly from the referee to the department’s coordinator of graduate admissions).
4. Transcripts of prior academic work. Official copies should be sent to the Office of Graduate Admissions. A minimum GPA of 3.00 (on a scale of 4.00) will be expected.
5. A 10-20 page writing sample and a 1-2–page statement of purpose should be submitted to the Coordinator of Graduate Admissions in Philosophy.

A student will be retained continuously in the program until completion of the degree providing the following conditions are met:

1. All students will be required to maintain a GPA of at least 3.5. Should the student’s GPA fall below that mark, a period of one semester will be allowed to correct the deficiency. At the discretion of the chair and the coordinator of graduate studies, this period may be extended one additional semester.
2. Students will be expected to demonstrate satisfactory progress in fulfilling the graduation requirements outlined below.

1. General Requirements
1. A minimum of 72 hours of graduate credit beyond the bachelor’s degree is required. At least 60 hours credit must be at the 7000 level or higher.
2. At most 18 hours of graduate work may be transferred from graduate work elsewhere and applied towards the 72 hours needed for the PhD. Only graduate hours that were not used for a previous graduate degree, that relate in content to the graduate program, and that do not exceed university time restrictions can be transferred.
3. For students who have attained a master’s degree, a minimum of 42 hours of graduate credit is required beyond that master’s degree. At least 36 hours of graduate credit must be at the 7000 level or higher. More hours may be required at the discretion of the department’s advisory committee.
4. No more than 18 credit hours of dissertation (PHIL9000) will count towards satisfying the total number of graduate hours required for the PhD. A minimum of 6 hours of dissertation is required for the PhD.
2. Residency Requirements:
   At least 24 credit hours must be earned while the student is in continuous residence in the program.
3. Distribution Requirements
1. Core Requirements—Students must take a core of twelve hours in major figures in the history of philosophy (at least three in ancient and three in modern); six hours in theoretical philosophy; and six hours in practical philosophy, three of which must be in ethics.
2. Additional Requirements—Students must take the proseminar, normally during the first semester of graduate work; at least one course must be a systematic study of a major figure. At least two courses must be in the analytic tradition, and two in the continental tradition; these will normally be courses in the twenty-four hour core.
4. Examination Requirements:
   1. Qualifying Examinations—Qualifying examinations are taken in August of the student’s second year. They consist of two four-hour written examinations, one in the history of ancient philosophy and one in the history of modern philosophy. A general reading list is provided for each area. Only students who pass the qualifying examination may continue work for the PhD.
      NOTE: It is expected that the doctoral qualifying examination will be coordinated with the master’s comprehensive examination, so that those whose scores fail to qualify them for advanced doctoral study but are sufficient for the master’s degree may then complete the requirements for a terminal master’s degree.
   2. Area Examinations—Area examinations are taken in August of the student’s third year. They consist of two four-hour written examinations, one in theoretical philosophy (metaphysics/epistemology) and one in practical philosophy (ethics/social-political philosophy). A general reading list is provided for each area. Only students who pass the area examinations may continue work for the PhD.
5. Language Requirements:
   Students must demonstrate sufficient ability to translate philosophical texts by sitting for a two-hour translation examination in two of the following languages: French, German, Classical Greek, Latin. Other languages may be substituted if they are shown to be relevant to the student’s course of study.
6. Dissertation Requirements
   1. Dissertation Committee—The student must select a dissertation director. The coordinator of graduate studies in consultation with the graduate faculty will select three additional readers.
   2. Dissertation Proposal Defense—The student will submit a proposal for the dissertation to the committee and defend the proposal before the graduate faculty. This defense will normally occur before the end of the sixth semester.
   3. Dissertation Defense—The dissertation committee will schedule a defense of the completed dissertation in coordination with the chair and the coordinator of graduate studies. Notice will be given, copies of the dissertation made available, and a public oral defense of the dissertation will be held. Upon approval of the dissertation committee and faculty, the dissertation will be submitted to the Graduate School and the degree awarded.
   4. Students should familiarize themselves with the Thesis/Dissertation Preparation Guide before beginning to write.

6211. Studies in Ancient Philosophy. (3). Readings from primary sources, supplemented by commentary from antiquity and modern scholarship, including Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic period. May be repeated for maximum of 9 hours credit with permission of graduate coordinator.

6311. Studies in Modern Philosophy. (3). Readings from major philosophers of 17th to early 19th centuries, supplemented by commentaries from modern and contemporary sources. May be repeated for a maximum of 9 hours credit with permission of graduate coordinator.

6421. Philosophy of Mind. (3). Survey of major issues and positions in recent philosophy of mind; behaviorism; reductive, non-reductive, and eliminative versions of materialism; functionalism; mental causation; phenomenal consciousness; psychoanalysis and the unconscious; computational and connectionist models of mind.

6422. Recent Anglo-American Philosophy. (3). An examination of major developments in philosophy in England and the United States from 1900 to present with reading from such philosophers as Russell, Moore, Ayer, Wittgenstein, James, Dewey, Lewis, Quine, and other contemporary authors.

6441. Recent Continental Philosophy. (3). Major figures in 20th century European thought; movements such as phenomenology, existentialism, structuralism, critical theory, and hermeneutics. May be repeated for maximum of 9 hours credit with permission of graduate coordinator.

6551. Social and Political Philosophy. (3). Theories of society, culture, institutions, government, law, power, authority, rights, and obligation.

6632. Advanced Logic. (3). The nature of axiomatic systems and foundations of mathematics.

6661. Philosophy of Science. (3). Survey of several central issues in the philosophy of science. Topics may include issues such as competing understandings of scientific practice, scientific explanation, the continuity and discontinuity of scientific theories, and the relations between the various sciences.

6671. Aesthetics. (3). Treatment of philosophical theories concerning the nature and role of art and the possibility of aesthetic evaluation.

6801-20. Special Topics in Philosophy. (3). Topics in areas of epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, logical theory, axiology. Area to be covered will be in the online course listing. May be repeated for a maximum of 15 hours credit.

†7001-8001. Proseminar. (3).

†7002-8002. Teaching Skills for Graduate Assistants. (3). This course is designed to impart the skills necessary for both serving as a teaching assistant as well as for designing and teaching one’s own philosophy course. May be repeated for up to 12 hours.

Topics vary in all of the following courses. They are announced in the online course listing and described in the departmental course outline booklet. Some of these courses may be repeated for credit if not to improve a previous grade.

7020-8020. Seminar in Major Figures. (3).

7030-8030. Seminar in Continental Philosophy. (3). May be repeated for a maximum of 9 credit hours.

7040-8040. Seminar in Normative Philosophy. (3). May be repeated for a maximum of 9 credit hours.

7201-8201. Seminar in Classical Philosophy. (3). May be repeated.

7203-8203. Seminar in Contemporary Philosophy. (3). May be repeated.

7301-8301. Seminar in Modern Philosophy. (3-6). May be repeated.

7414-8414. Seminar in Metaphysics. (3).

7421-8421. Seminar in Epistemology. (3).

7442-8442. Seminar on Heidegger. (3).

7541-8541. Seminar in Social and Political Philosophy. (3).

7551-8551. Seminar in Ethical Theory. (3).

7800-7810–8800-8810. Special Topics in Philosophy. (3).

†7994. Reading and Research. (1-9). May be repeated for a maximum of 9 credit hours.

†7996. Thesis. (1-9). May be repeated for a maximum of 9 credit hours.

8051. Colloquium on Philosophical Problems. (3).

†8071. Research in Progress Seminar. (1-12). May be repeated for a maximum of 12 credit hours.

8252. Seminar on Aristotle. (3).

†8994. Advanced Reading and Research. (1-12). May be repeated for a maximum of 12 credit hours.

†9000. Dissertation. (1-12). May be repeated for a maximum of 12 credit hours.

†Grades of S, U, or IP will be given.