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Philosophy Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Karl Marx on Human Flourishing and Proletarian Ethics , Sam Badger

The Ontological Grounds of Reason: Psychologism, Logicism, and Hermeneutic Phenomenology , Stanford L. Howdyshell

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Interdisciplinary Communication by Plausible Analogies: the Case of Buddhism and Artificial Intelligence , Michael Cooper

Heidegger and the Origin of Authenticity , John J. Preston

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Hegel and Schelling: The Emptiness of Emptiness and the Love of the Divine , Sean B. Gleason

Nietzsche on Criminality , Laura N. McAllister

Learning to be Human: Ren 仁, Modernity, and the Philosophers of China's Hundred Days' Reform , Lucien Mathot Monson

Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence: Methods, Archives, History, and Genesis , William A. B. Parkhurst

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Orders of Normativity: Nietzsche, Science and Agency , Shane C. Callahan

Humanistic Climate Philosophy: Erich Fromm Revisited , Nicholas Dovellos

This, or Something like It: Socrates and the Problem of Authority , Simon Dutton

Climate Change and Liberation in Latin America , Ernesto O. Hernández

Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa as Expressions of Shame in a Post-Feminist , Emily Kearns

Nostalgia and (In)authentic Community: A Bataillean Answer to the Heidegger Controversy , Patrick Miller

Cultivating Virtue: A Thomistic Perspective on the Relationship Between Moral Motivation and Skill , Ashley Potts

Identity, Breakdown, and the Production of Knowledge: Intersectionality, Phenomenology, and the Project of Post-Marxist Standpoint Theory , Zachary James Purdue

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

The Efficacy of Comedy , Mark Anthony Castricone

William of Ockham's Divine Command Theory , Matthew Dee

Heidegger's Will to Power and the Problem of Nietzsche's Nihilism , Megan Flocken

Abelard's Affective Intentionalism , Lillian M. King

Anton Wilhelm Amo's Philosophy and Reception: from the Origins through the Encyclopédie , Dwight Kenneth Lewis Jr.

"The Thought that we Hate": Regulating Race-Related Speech on College Campuses , Michael McGowan

A Historical Approach to Understanding Explanatory Proofs Based on Mathematical Practices , Erika Oshiro

From Meaningful Work to Good Work: Reexamining the Moral Foundation of the Calling Orientation , Garrett W. Potts

Reasoning of the Highest Leibniz and the Moral Quality of Reason , Ryan Quandt

Fear, Death, and Being-a-problem: Understanding and Critiquing Racial Discourse with Heidegger’s Being and Time , Jesús H. Ramírez

The Role of Skepticism in Early Modern Philosophy: A Critique of Popkin's "Sceptical Crisis" and a Study of Descartes and Hume , Raman Sachdev

How the Heart Became Muscle: From René Descartes to Nicholas Steno , Alex Benjamin Shillito

Autonomy, Suffering, and the Practice of Medicine: A Relational Approach , Michael A. Stanfield

The Case for the Green Kant: A Defense and Application of a Kantian Approach to Environmental Ethics , Zachary T. Vereb

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Augustine's Confessiones : The Battle between Two Conversions , Robert Hunter Craig

The Strategic Naturalism of Sandra Harding's Feminist Standpoint Epistemology: A Path Toward Epistemic Progress , Dahlia Guzman

Hume on the Doctrine of Infinite Divisibility: A Matter of Clarity and Absurdity , Wilson H. Underkuffler

Climate Change: Aristotelian Virtue Theory, the Aidōs Response and Proper Primility , John W. Voelpel

The Fate of Kantian Freedom: the Kant-Reinhold Controversy , John Walsh

Time, Tense, and Ontology: Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Tense, the Phenomenology of Temporality, and the Ontology of Time , Justin Brandt Wisniewski

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

A Phenomenological Approach to Clinical Empathy: Rethinking Empathy Within its Intersubjective and Affective Contexts , Carter Hardy

From Object to Other: Models of Sociality after Idealism in Gadamer, Levinas, Rosenzweig, and Bonhoeffer , Christopher J. King

Humanitarian Military Intervention: A Failed Paradigm , Faruk Rahmanovic

Active Suffering: An Examination of Spinoza's Approach to Tristita , Kathleen Ketring Schenk

Cartesian Method and Experiment , Aaron Spink

An Examination of John Burton’s Method of Conflict Resolution and Its Applicability to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict , John Kenneth Steinmeyer

Speaking of the Self: Theorizing the Dialogical Dimensions of Ethical Agency , Bradley S. Warfield

Changing Changelessness: On the Genesis and Development of the Doctrine of Divine Immutability in the Ancient and Hellenic Period , Milton Wilcox

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

The Statue that Houses the Temple: A Phenomenological Investigation of Western Embodiment Towards the Making of Heidegger's Missing Connection with the Greeks , Michael Arvanitopoulos

An Exploratory Analysis of Media Reporting of Police Involved Shootings in Florida , John L. Brown

Divine Temporality: Bonhoeffer's Theological Appropriation of Heidegger's Existential Analytic of Dasein , Nicholas Byle

Stoicism in Descartes, Pascal, and Spinoza: Examining Neostoicism’s Influence in the Seventeenth Century , Daniel Collette

Phenomenology and the Crisis of Contemporary Psychiatry: Contingency, Naturalism, and Classification , Anthony Vincent Fernandez

A Critique of Charitable Consciousness , Chioke Ianson

writing/trauma , Natasha Noel Liebig

Leibniz's More Fundamental Ontology: from Overshadowed Individuals to Metaphysical Atoms , Marin Lucio Mare

Violence and Disagreement: From the Commonsense View to Political Kinds of Violence and Violent Nonviolence , Gregory Richard Mccreery

Kant's Just War Theory , Steven Charles Starke

A Feminist Contestation of Ableist Assumptions: Implications for Biomedical Ethics, Disability Theory, and Phenomenology , Christine Marie Wieseler

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Heidegger and the Problem of Modern Moral Philosophy , Megan Emily Altman

The Encultured Mind: From Cognitive Science to Social Epistemology , David Alexander Eck

Weakness of Will: An Inquiry on Value , Michael Funke

Cogs in a Cosmic Machine: A Defense of Free Will Skepticism and its Ethical Implications , Sacha Greer

Thinking Nature, "Pierre Maupertuis and the Charge of Error Against Fermat and Leibniz" , Richard Samuel Lamborn

John Duns Scotus’s Metaphysics of Goodness: Adventures in 13th-Century Metaethics , Jeffrey W. Steele

A Gadamerian Analysis of Roman Catholic Hermeneutics: A Diachronic Analysis of Interpretations of Romans 1:17-2:17 , Steven Floyd Surrency

A Natural Case for Realism: Processes, Structures, and Laws , Andrew Michael Winters

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Leibniz's Theodicies , Joseph Michael Anderson

Aeschynē in Aristotle's Conception of Human Nature , Melissa Marie Coakley

Ressentiment, Violence, and Colonialism , Jose A. Haro

It's About Time: Dynamics of Inflationary Cosmology as the Source of the Asymmetry of Time , Emre Keskin

Time Wounds All Heels: Human Nature and the Rationality of Just Behavior , Timothy Glenn Slattery

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Nietzsche and Heidegger on the Cartesian Atomism of Thought , Steven Burgess

Embodying Social Practice: Dynamically Co-Constituting Social Agency , Brian W. Dunst

Subject of Conscience: On the Relation between Freedom and Discrimination in the Thought of Heidegger, Foucault, and Butler , Aret Karademir

Climate, Neo-Spinozism, and the Ecological Worldview , Nancy M. Kettle

Eschatology in a Secular Age: An Examination of the Use of Eschatology in the Philosophies of Heidegger, Berdyaev and Blumenberg , John R. Lup, Jr.

Navigation and Immersion of the American Identity in a Foreign Culture to Emergence as a Culturally Relative Ambassador , Lee H. Rosen

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

A Philosophical Analysis of Intellectual Property: In Defense of Instrumentalism , Michael A. Kanning

A Commentary On Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's Discourse on Metaphysics #19 , Richard Lamborn Samuel Lamborn

Sellars in Context: An Analysis of Wilfrid Sellars's Early Works , Peter Jackson Olen

The New Materialism: Althusser, Badiou, and Zizek , Geoffrey Dennis Pfeifer

Structure and Agency: An Analysis of the Impact of Structure on Group Agents , Elizabeth Kaye Victor

Moral Friction, Moral Phenomenology, and the Improviser , Benjamin Scott Young

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

The Virtuoso Human: A Virtue Ethics Model Based on Care , Frederick Joseph Bennett

The Existential Compromise in the History of the Philosophy of Death , Adam Buben

Philosophical Precursors to the Radical Enlightenment: Vignettes on the Struggle Between Philosophy and Theology From the Greeks to Leibniz With Special Emphasis on Spinoza , Anthony John Desantis

The Problem of Evil in Augustine's Confessions , Edward Matusek

The Persistence of Casuistry: a Neo-premodernist Approach to Moral Reasoning , Richard Arthur Mercadante

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

Dewey's Pragmatism and the Great Community , Philip Schuyler Bishop

Unamuno's Concept of the Tragic , Ernesto O. Hernandez

Rethinking Ethical Naturalism: The Implications of Developmental Systems Theory , Jared J.. Kinggard

From Husserl and the Neo-Kantians to Art: Heidegger's Realist Historicist Answer to the Problem of the Origin of Meaning , William H. Koch

Queering Cognition: Extended Minds and Sociotechnologically Hybridized Gender , Michele Merritt

Hydric Life: A Nietzschean Reading of Postcolonial Communication , Elena F. Ruiz-Aho

Descartes' Bête Machine, the Leibnizian Correction and Religious Influence , John Voelpel

Aretē and Physics: The Lesson of Plato's Timaeus , John R. Wolfe

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

Praxis and Theōria : Heidegger’s “Violent” Interpretation , Megan E. Altman

On the Concept of Evil: An Analysis of Genocide and State Sovereignty , Jason J. Campbell

The Role of Trust in Judgment , Christophe Sage Hudspeth

Truth And Judgment , Jeremy J. Kelly

The concept of action and responsibility in Heidegger's early thought , Christian Hans Pedersen

Roots and Role of the Imagination in Kant: Imagination at the Core , Michael Thompson

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

Peirce on the Passions: The Role of Instinct, Emotion, and Sentiment in Inquiry and Action , Robert J. Beeson

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Philosophy PhD thesis collection

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The PhD theses in this collection must be cited in line with the usual academic conventions. These articles are protected under full copyright law. You may download it for your own personal use only.

Recent Submissions

Objectification of women: new types and new measures , wisdom as responsible engagement:how to stop worrying and love epistemic goods , prescribing the mind: how norms, concepts, and language influence our understanding of mental disorder , humean constitutivism: a desire-based account of rational agency and the foundations of morality , predictive embodied concepts: an exploration of higher cognition within the predictive processing paradigm , impacts of childhood psychological maltreatment on adult mental health , epistemic fictionalism , thinking for the bound and dead: beyond man3 towards a new (truly) universal theory of human victory , function-first approach to doubt , abilities, freedom, and inputs: a time traveller's tale , concept is a container , analysing time-consciousness: a new account of the experienced present , emotion, perception, and relativism in vision , justice as a point of equipoise: an aristotelian approach to contemporary corporate ethics , asymmetric welfarism about meaning in life , mindreading in context , economic attitudes and individual difference: replication and extension , mindful love: the role of mindfulness in willingness to sacrifice in romantic relationships , embodied metacognition: how we feel our hearts to know our minds , temporal structure of the world .

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Past Dissertations

Hyperlinked dissertations are available through  Proquest Digital Dissertations .

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Philosophy Dissertations and Theses

The Department of Philosophy Dissertations and Theses Series is comprised of dissertations and theses authored by Marquette University's Department of Philosophy doctoral and master's students.

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Place, Attachment, and Feeling: Indigenous Dispossession and Settler Belonging , Sarah Kizuk

Nepantla and Mestizaje: A Phenomenological Analysis of the Mestizx Historical Consciousness , Jorge Alfredo Montiel

The Categories Argument for the Real Distinction Between Being and Essence: Avicenna, Aquinas, and Their Greek Sources , Nathaniel Taylor

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Modeling, Describing, and Explaining Subjective Consciousness- A Guide to (and for) the Perplexed , Peter Burgess

Looking Through Whiteness: Objectivity, Racism, Method, and Responsibility , Philip Mack

Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Maritain on the Student-Teacher Relationship in Catholic Higher Education , Timothy Rothhaar

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

The Empathetic Autistic: A Phenomenological Look at the Feminine Experience , Dana Fritz

Concerning Aristotelian Animal Essences , Damon Andrew Watson

When to Trust Authoritative Testimony: Generation and Transmission of Knowledge in Saadya Gaon, Al-Ghazālī and Thomas Aquinas , Brett A. Yardley

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

The Status of Irrationality: Karl Jaspers' Response to Davidson and Searle , Daniel Adsett

Cosmic City - Cosmic Teleology: A Reading of Metaphysics Λ 10 and Politics I 2 , Brandon Henrigillis

Phenomenal Consciousness: An Husserlian Approach , John Jered Janes

Al-Fārābī Metaphysics, and the Construction of Social Knowledge: Is Deception Warranted if it Leads to Happiness? , Nicholas Andrew Oschman

The Epistemology of Disagreement: Hume, Kant, and the Current Debate , Robert Kyle Whitaker

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

'Our Feet are Mired In the Same Soil': Deepening Democracy with the Political Virtue of Sympathetic Inquiry , Jennifer Lynn Kiefer Fenton

Towards a Philosophy of the Musical Experience: Phenomenology, Culture, and Ethnomusicology in Conversation , J. Tyler Friedman

Humor, Power and Culture: A New Theory on the Experience and Ethics of Humor , Jennifer Marra

Care of the Sexual Self: Askesis As a Route to Sex Education , Shaun Douglas Miller

Re-Evaluating Augustinian Fatalism through the Eastern and Western Distinction between God's Essence and Energies , Stephen John Plecnik

The Fantastic Structure of Freedom: Sartre, Freud, and Lacan , Gregory A. Trotter

The Province of Conceptual Reason: Hegel's Post-Kantian Rationalism , William Clark Wolf

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Hume on Thick and Thin Causation , Alexander Bozzo

Evolution, Naturalism, and Theism: An Inconsistent Triad? , David H. Gordon

The Parable As Mirror: An Examination of the Use of Parables in the Works of Kierkegaard , Russell Hamer

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Contextualizing Aquinas's Ontology of Soul: An Analysis of His Arabic and Neoplatonic Sources , Nathan McLain Blackerby

The Social and Historical Subject in Sartre and Foucault and Its Implications for Healthcare Ethics , Kimberly Siobhan Engels

Investigations of Worth: Towards a Phenomenology of Values , Dale Hobbs Jr.

Developing Capabilities: A Feminist Discourse Ethics Approach , Chad Kleist

Hegel and the Problem of the Multiplicity of Conflicting Philosophies , Matthew M. Peters

Aquinas, Averroes, and the Human Will , Traci Ann Phillipson

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Nature, Feminism, and Flourishing: Human Nature and the Feminist Ethics of Flourishing , Celeste D. Harvey

Kierkegaard in Light of the East: A Critical Comparison of the Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard with Orthodox Christian Philosophy and Thought , Agust Magnusson

The Secular Transformation of Pride and Humility in the Moral Philosophy of David Hume , Kirstin April Carlson McPherson

Living within the Sacred Tension: Paradox and Its Significance for Christian Existence in the Thought of Søren Kierkegaard , Matthew Thomas Nowachek

Moral Imagination and Adorno: Before and After Auschwitz , Catlyn Origitano

Essence and Necessity, and the Aristotelian Modal Syllogistic: A Historical and Analytical Study , Daniel James Vecchio

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Subversive Humor , Chris A. Kramer

Virtue, Oppression, and Resistance Struggles , Trevor William Smith

Health As Embodied Authenticity , Margaret Steele

Recognition and Political Ontology: Fichte, Hegel, and Honneth , Velimir Stojkovski

The Conceptual Priority of the Perfect , Matthew Peter Zdon

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Dangerous Knowledge? Morality And Moral Progress After Naturalism , Daniel Diederich Farmer

Nietzsche's Revaluation of All Values , Joseph Anthony Kranak

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Re-Enchanting The World: An Examination Of Ethics, Religion, And Their Relationship In The Work Of Charles Taylor , David McPherson

Thomas Aquinas on the Apprehension of Being: The Role of Judgement in Light of Thirteenth-Century Semantics , Rosa Vargas Della Casa

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Naturalized Panpsychism: An Alternative to Fundamentalist Physicalism and Supernaturalism , Earl R. Cookson

The Concept of Personhood in the Phenomenology of Edmund Husserl , Colin J. Hahn

The Humanistic, Fideistic Philosophy of Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) , Charles William Peterson

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

Knowledge and Thought in Heidegger and Foucault: Towards an Epistemology of Ruptures , Arun Anantheeswaran Iyer

William James's Undivided Self and the Possibility of Immortality , Anthony Karlin

The Poetics of Remembrance: Communal Memory and Identity in Heidegger and Ricoeur , David Leichter

The Ontological Foundations for Natural Law Theory and Contemporary Ethical Naturalism , Bernard Mauser

Sexualized Violence, Moral Disintegration and Ethical Advocacy , Melissa Mosko

Spinoza on Individuals and Individuation: Metaphysics, Morals, and Politics , Matthew David Wion

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

The Paradox of Nature: Merleau-Ponty's Semi-Naturalistic Critique of Husserlian Phenomenology , Shazad Akhtar

Hume's Conception of Time and its Implications for his Theories of Causation and Induction , Daniel Esposito

Arabic Influences in Aquinas's Doctrine of Intelligible Species , Max Herrera

The Attestation of the Self as a Bridge Between Hermeneutics and Ontology in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur , Sebastian Kaufmann

Love's Lack: The Relationship between Poverty and Eros in Plato's Symposium , Lorelle D. Lamascus

Friendship and Fidelity: An Historical and Critical Examination , Joshua Walter Schulz

Natural Law Theory and the "Is"--"Ought" Problem: A Critique of Four Solutions , Shalina Stilley

Attending to Presence: A Study of John Duns Scotus' Account of Sense Cognition , Amy F. Whitworth

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

Friendship and Self-Identity in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur , Cristina Bucur

The Finality of Religion in Aquinas' Theory of Human Acts , Francisco José Romero Carrasquillo

The finality of religion in Aquinas' theory of human acts , Francisco J Romero

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

Self-Identity in Comparative Theology: The Functional lmportance of Charles Taylor's Concept of the Self for a Theology of Religions , Richard Joseph Hanson

Theses/Dissertations from 2007 2007

Husserl's Noema: A Critical Assessment of the Gestalt and Analytic Interpretations , Peter M. Chukwu

A Social Contract Analysis of Rawls and Rousseau: Supplanting the Original Position As Philosophically Most Favored , Paul Neiman

To Validate a Feeling: the Role of the Mood of Angst in Human Being , Gregory P. Schulz

The Conception and Attributes of God: A Comparison of Charles Sanders Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead , Scott W. Sinclair

John Rawls, Public Reason, and Natural Law: A Study of the Principles of Public Justification , Christopher Ward

Submissions from 2006 2006

Hans Jonas's ethic of responsibility applied to anti-aging technologies and the indefinite extension of the human life span , Jeffrey P Goins

David Hume and the Principle of Sufficient Reason , Ginger Lee

Virtue Theory in Plato's Republic , Griffin T. Nelson

The Principle of Alternate Possibilities: Finding Freedom after Frankfurt , Matthew F. Pierlott

Theses/Dissertations from 2005 2005

Is There a Future for Marxist Humanism? , Jacob M. Held

Self-Love and Morality: Beyond Egoism and Altruism , Li Jing

Eikos Logos and Eikos Muthos: A Study of the Nature of the Likely Story in Plato's Timaeus , Ryan Kenneth McBride

Hume's Conclusions on the Existence and Nature of God , Timothy S. Yoder

Submissions from 2004 2004

The foundations of the politics of difference , Peter Nathaniel Bwanali

The Foundations of the Politics of Difference , Peter Nathaniel Bwanali

The Place of Justice in the Thinking of Emmanuel Levinas , Michael H. Gillick

New Waves in Metaethics: Naturalist Realism, Naturalist Antirealism and Divine Commands , Daniel R. Kern

Reason in Hume's Moral System , John Muenzberg

Conceiving Mind: A Critique of Descartes' Dualism and Contemporary Immaterialist Views of Consciousness , Kristin P. Schaupp

Respecting Plurality in Times of Change: Hannah Arendt's Conceptions of Political, Personal, and Ethical Responsibility , Stephen Schulman

Francis Suárez on the Ontological Status of Individual Unity vis-à-vis the Aristotelian Doctrine of Primary Substance , John W. Simmons

Through a Glass Darkly: Bernard Lonergan and Richard Rorty on the Possibility of Knowing Without a God's-Eye-View , Russell Snell

Theses/Dissertations from 2003 2003

Building a Heideggerian Ethic , Kelly A. Burns

St. Thomas Aquinas and the Self-Evident Proposition: A Study of the Manifold Senses of a Medieval Concept , Michael V. Dougherty

Ricoeur's Narrative Development of Gadamer's Hermeneutics: Continuity and Discontinuity , Keith D'Souza

Beauty's Resting Place: Unity in St. Augustine's Sensible Aesthetic , Matthew J. Hayes

Empathy and Knowledge: Husserl's Introductions to Phenomenology , Kevin Hermberg

The Transactional Model: A Critical Examination of John Dewey's Philosophy of Freedom , Mark N. Lenker III

Reflection on the "good" As a Source of Freedom in Virtue Theory , John D. Morse

Theses/Dissertations from 2002 2002

An Evaluation of Alvin Plantinga's Religious Epistemology Does It Function Properly? , James Beilby

Merleau-Ponty: Embodied Subjectivity and the Foundation of Ethics , Sarah A. Fischer

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St Andrews is one of the leading international centres for philosophy in Britain. We offer graduate teaching at a level that matches the best graduate programmes elsewhere in the world, in a wide area of philosophy and the history of philosophy.

For more information please visit the Department of Philosophy home page.

This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

Recent Submissions

Skill-based acquaintance : a non-causal account of reference , voluntarism and virtue in hume's moral philosophy , conceptual baggage and how to unpack it , essays on indiscernibility , aristotle on the limits of final causes. the case of extended teleology .

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As a PhD student in the Harvard philosophy program, you’ll have the opportunity to develop your ideas, knowledge, and abilities. You'll work with other doctoral students, our faculty, and visiting scholars, all in a stimulating and supportive environment. The program has strengths across a broad range of topics and areas, so you'll be able to pursue your interests wherever they may lead, especially in moral and political philosophy, aesthetics, epistemology, philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, the history of analytic philosophy, ancient philosophy, Immanuel Kant, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. In addition, students can pursue joint degrees with classics, Harvard Law School, and in Indian philosophy.

Incoming cohorts consist of five to eight students per year. You will have substantial access to our renowned faculty and all the resources that Harvard makes available. This relatively small size also gives students a sense of intellectual community.

The curriculum is structured to help you make your way towards a dissertation: graduate-level coursework, a second-year research paper, a prospectus to help you identify a dissertation topic, and then the dissertation itself. Past dissertations in the department have addressed a broad range of topics: Aristotle, Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau; contemporary moral and political philosophy; metaphysics; epistemology; and logic.

In addition to your research, you will also have the opportunity to develop your teaching skills in many different settings across the University.

You can find graduates of the PhD program in many universities. Some of our students have gone on to faculty positions at Yale University, Princeton University, Brown University, and Stanford University. Other graduates have gone on to diverse careers in, among others, the arts, the law, secondary education, and technology.

In addition to the standard PhD in philosophy, the department offers a PhD in classical philosophy in collaboration with the Department of the Classics and a coordinated JD/PhD program in conjunction with Harvard Law School.

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of Philosophy and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Areas of Study

Philosophy | Classical Philosophy | Indian Philosophy 

For information please consult the Department webpage on the  graduate program overview .

Admissions Requirements

Please review admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of Philosophy .

Academic Background

Applicants to the program in Philosophy are required to have a solid undergraduate background in philosophy, indicating that they have a good grounding in the history of philosophy, as well as familiarity with contemporary work in ethics, epistemology and metaphysics, and logic.

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GRE General: Optional

Writing Sample

A writing sample is required as part of the application and should be between 12 to 30 pages long. The sample must address a substantial philosophical problem, whether it is an evaluation or presentation of an argument, or a serious attempt to interpret a difficult text. The upload of the writing sample should be formatted for 8.5-inch x 11-inch paper, 1-inch margins, with double-spaced text in a common 12-point font, such as Times New Roman.

Applicants seeking admission to the coordinated JD/PhD program must apply to and be separately admitted to Harvard Law School and the Department of Philosophy.

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Browse by phd thesis by university of warwick department.

Akova, Fırat (2020) Effective altruism and extreme poverty. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Anantharaman, Muralidharan (2019) Political liberalism and epistemic permissivism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Anaya Ruiz Esparza, José Alfonso (2017) Perceptual non-evidential knowledge : an epistemology of perception from an Austinian perspective. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Allen, David James (2015) Philosophy and the sciences in the work of Gilles Deleuze, 1953-1968. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Arnold, Adam Robert (2015) The authority of us : on the concept of legitimacy and the social ontology of authority. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ali, Zulfiqar (2010) Ethics as aesthetics : Michel Foucault's genealogy of ethics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ambrose, Darren (2002) Beyond Hegel : Levinas and the persistence of skepticism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Allard-Nelson, Susan K. (2002) Normativity and Aristotelian virtue ethics: an evaluation and reconciliation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Allan, Neil Peter (2001) Kafka : phenomenology and post-structuralism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Albert, Eliot (1999) Towards a schizogenealogy of heretical materialism : between Bruno and Spinoza, Nietzsche, Deleuze and other philosophical recluses. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ahmad, Saeedah (1994) James and Russell on neutral monism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ashby, David (1992) The limitations of dispersive freedom : Michel Foucault and historiography. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ainley, Alison Claire (1992) Ethics and embodiment : an examination of "the feminine" and the body in recent French philosophy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Blaiklock, Jack (2023) Emotional experience, imagination, and our understanding of evaluative concepts. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bazzurro Gambi, Leonello (2021) Juan Luis Martínez’s poetics of assemblage. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Barry, Lucy Clare (2019) Autonomy, an ethics of freedom, and the question of answerability. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bieliavskyi, Vladyslav (2018) Free will and responsibility in personality theories of Freud and Rogers: meaning, application, and integration. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Berger, Benjamin (Researcher in philosophy) (2016) From nature to spirit : Schelling, Hegel, and the logic of emergence. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Broome, Matthew R. (2014) Philosophical reflections on the nature of psychosis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bassi, Yasmin (2013) Interventionism and the exclusion problem. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Booth, Jennifer Elizabeth (2006) Experience, action and affordance perception. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bailey, Thomas W. (2003) Kant, Nietzsche, and the moral agent. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Barker, Tom Paul (2003) Disclosure and inscription: Heidegger, Derrida, and the technological difference. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bani, Nayère (2002) The eclipse of being: Heidegger on the question of being and nothing and the ground of nihilism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Brassier, Ray (2001) Alien theory : the decline of materialism in the name of matter. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Boyer, Amalia (2000) Materialist ontology and the problem of politics : Spinoza : Deleuze and Guattari's capitalisme et schizophrénie. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bracken, Pat (1998) Trauma and the age of postmodernity: a hermemeutic approach to post traumatic anxiety. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bazin, Jacqueline H. M. (1997) The myth of psychical distance in aesthetic experience. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Beddoes, Diane J. (1996) Breeding demons : a critical enquiry into the relationship between Kant and Deleuze with specific references to women. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Beardsworth, Sara (1993) The philosophical foundations of Kristeva's thought. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bennett, Laura Jane (1992) Realism and evidence in the philosophy of mind. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Blincoe, Nicholas Joseph (1992) Derrida and economics : the economics of depression. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Burnham, H. Douglas (Hugh Douglas) (1992) Kant, Heidegger and spacing. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Brassett, Jamie D. (1992) Cartographies of subjectification. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Boothroyd, David (1987) Metaphysics and the other. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bernard, Malcolm (1984) Economy and strategy : deconstruction as feminism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Corrado, Maria Giovanna (2023) Audition and the world: an account of the materiality of the objects of auditory perceptual experience. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Chennells, Matthew (2023) (In)compatible : shared intention, ordinary uncertainty and social commitment. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Carneiro, Diogo Nuno Rodrigues (2021) Reasons of justice : objectivity as trans-positionality. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Copelj, Erol (2019) Mindfulness: the feeling of being tuned-in, and related phenomena : phenomenological reflections of a Buddhist practitioner. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Cunningham, Joseph John (2015) The remit of reasons. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Camacho, Enrique (2013) Justice, legitimacy and political boundaries : the morality of border control. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Chouraqui, Frank (2009) A study in ambiguity : Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty on the question of truth. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Crawford, Jane-Ann (2001) Creative involution : overcoming man : becoming-woman. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Crespo-Perona, Miguel Ángel (1999) An aesthetics of sacredness : a Nietzschean reading of James Joyce and T. S. Eliot. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Chetwynd, S. B. (Susan Beryl) (1997) The embedded self : an investigation into moral thinking and thinkers. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Cardinal, Daniel (1995) Condillac and the language of sensation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Chapman, Helen Christine (1992) The philosophy of tragedy : the tragedy of philosophy : the mimetic interrelationship of tragedy and philosophy in the theoretical writings of Friedrich Hölderlin. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Clarke, Bernard (1992) Self-deception. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dal Poz, Irene (2019) Foucault and the politics of self-government. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dennis, Matthew (2018) Cultivating our passionate attachments : self-cultivation in practical philosophy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dabbagh, Sorush H. (2006) Moral reasons : particularism, patterns and practice. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

De Forest Duer, Alexandra (2003) The dialectics of eros: from Plato to Dante. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Doyle, Tsarina (2002) Nietzsche on epistemology and metaphysics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dixon, Joan Elizabeth (1997) Time, consciousness and scientific explanation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dibben, Colin (1994) Influence and infection : Georges Bataille and the fate of critique. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Earley, Christopher (2023) Crisis and engagement : a philosophy of contemporary art. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Evans, Brigid (2023) Ain’t talkin’ ‘bout love : intellectual disability and broad sexual exclusion. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Evans, Zack (2016) Intentional agency. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Espejo-Serna, Juan C. (2016) A Rylean account of intelligent actions and activities. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ennis, Kathleen (2008) Michel Foucault and Judith Butler: troubling Butler's appropriation of Foucault's work. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ferro, Bernardo (2023) Freedom beyond liberalism : a reconstruction of Hegel’s social and political philosophy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Flenady, Gene (2018) Indifference and determination: Kant’s concept/intuition distinction and Hegel’s doctrine of being. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Faramarzi, Danyal (2015) Nietzsche's epistemology : a Kantian reading. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fossey, Peter (2014) Desire and value in practical reasoning. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Finozzi, Riccardo (2013) The ethics of thinking in Heidegger, Bruno & Spinoza. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fenton, Michael P. (2009) The possibility of empirical knowledge. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Faulkner, Keith W. (2004) Deleuze and the three syntheses of time. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Frowe, Ian (1999) Language, ideology and education. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fisher, Mark (1999) Flatline constructs : Gothic materialism and cybernetic theory-fiction. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Floridi, Luciano (1990) The search for knowledge : from desire to defence : hypothesis for the introduction of a Peirceisch interpretation of the genetic principle of the process of knowing as a fundamental orientation for a future gnoseology. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fine, Kit (1969) For some proposition and so many possible worlds. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Giavazzi, Michele (2020) Rule of the knowers : the epistocratic challenge to democracy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Giavazzi, Michele (2020) Rule of the knowers: The epistocratic challenge to democracy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gaydon, Philip Keith (2019) Lived epistemology, the childlike and a virtuous education. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Godwin, Matthew (2018) Sophia and poiesis : Nietzsche, aesthetics, and the quest for knowledge. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ganitsky, Tania (2018) Unworking poetic address: a comparative study on Emily Dickinson, Maurice Blanchot, Paul Celan and Jean-Luc Nancy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Grewal, Siddhant (2016) Intentionalism as metacriticism : a reassessment of the intentional fallacy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gracieuse, Marjorie (2011) Deleuze and the problem of hierarchy : the crowned anarchy of desire. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Greaves, Thomas Guy (2007) The poverty of ecology: Heidegger, living nature and environmental thought. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gripps, Richard (2001) Alienation and the sciences of mind : understanding Schizophrenia without cognitivist theory. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Greenspan, Anna (2000) Capitalism's transcendental time machine. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Groves, Christopher (1999) Hegel and Deleuze: immanence and otherness. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Goodman, Steve (1999) Turbulence : a cartography of postmodern violence. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gargett, Adrian (1997) Sextant in dogtown : a project. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Granger, Stewart Edward (1983) A pragmatic theory of truth and ontology. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Honsbeek, Samuel (2022) The invention of knowing : a study of Nietzsche's casual-genetic enquiries into knowledge. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hetterley, Jae (2022) Being and interpretation : Kant, Heidegger, and fundamental ontology. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hart, Michael Richard (2012) Platonic education : teaching virtue in a constantly changing moral culture. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hernandez, Juan P. (2011) The Seinsfrage and the place of the objective in Heidegger's early work. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Heldt, Caleb (2011) Dialectic and caesura : immanence and transcendence in Sartre's ontology. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hughes, Julian C. (2000) Understanding dementia : a Wittgensteinian critique of models of dementia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hall, Stephen Alexander (2000) Outside the gate : a study of Nietzsche's project of revaluation as mediated via the work of D.H. Lawrence. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Haldane, Adrian (1999) On the possibility of Kant's answer to Hume : subjective necessity and objective validity. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Horton, Roderyck John (1986) Some foundational problems in the theory of measurement. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ivanov, Ivan V. (2016) Observational concepts and experience. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Irwin, Jones (1997) Reviving an ancient-modern quarrel : a critique of Derrida's reading of Plato and Platoism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Jeong, Jihun (2019) Nietzsche on the social whole and unity. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Jakušić, Dino (2017) The possibility of ontology. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Joseph, Vivan (2015) The relation between attention and awareness in visual experience. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Johnson, Andrew Tyler (2012) Being in the earth : Heidegger and the phenomenon of life. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Jennings, Sarah (2010) The dialectic of conscience within Hegel's philosophy of right. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Jones, Rachel (Rachel Ellen) (1997) Mosaics of the self : Kantian objects and female subjects in the work of Claire Goll and Paula Ludwig. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Jones, Kath Renark (1996) Re-thinking desire. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Jovejoy, James Grant (1992) Heidegger's early ontology and the deconstruction of foundations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Joughin, Martin (1984) Inquiry in question. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kreetz, Tristan (2021) Wakeful consciousness as biological phenomenon : a teleological account. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kay, James (2020) Hegel and Spinoza on the philosophy of nature. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kaushall, Justin N. (2018) The historical negation of aesthetic categories: Adorno’s inheritance of Kant’s critique of judgment. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kalantari, Seyed Ali (2013) Thoughts and oughts. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kuzma, Joseph Dlaboha (2011) Erotic scenographies : Blanchot, Nietzsche & the exigency of return. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kolkman, Michael (2009) Towards a philosophy of freedom : Fichte and Bergson. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kelly, Alexander J. (2009) Properties and powers. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kim, Hyosup (2009) Nietzsche's substantive ethics: towards a new table of values. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kollias, Hector (2003) Exposing romanticism : philosophy, literature, and the incomplete absolute. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Känd, Kaupo (2000) Beyond society : a study of Hegel's and Nietzsche's political thought. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kurak, Michael D. (1999) The foundations of cognition : variations on the theme of an a priori structure of awareness. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Koutoupis-Kitis, Elizabeth (1982) Problems connected with the notion of implicature. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Logan, Fraser (2023) Nietzsche on honesty. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Luvisotto, Giulia (2021) An aretaic account of responsibility for beliefs. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lordan, Thomas (2018) Kant and the concept of cognitive finitude. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Locatelli, Roberta (2016) Relationalism in the face of hallucinations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lambert, Richard (2015) The diffêrance of an almost absolute proximity : Hegel and Derrida. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Laleh, Justin (2013) The presence of Nietzsche in Heidegger's The fundamental concepts of metaphysics : a philosophical Auseinandersetzung. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lynch, Kevin, Ph.D. (2011) A defense of a deflationary theory of self-deception. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lafferty, Michael Gerald (2006) Arthur Danto's philosophy of art. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lord, Beth (2003) Kant's productive ontology : knowledge, nature and the meaning of being. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lee, Kyoo Eun (2000) Cartesian deconstruction : self-reflexivity in Descartes and Derrida. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Livingston, Suzanne (1998) Touch-sensitive : cybernetic images and replicant bodies in the post-industrial age. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lyne, Ian (1995) The temporality of language : Kant's legacy in the work of Martin Heidegger and Walter Benjamin. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lamb, Virginia (1976) The aesthetics of a phenomenologist: Mikel Dufrenne's "La phénoménologie de l'expérience esthétique". PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

McDade, Pedro (2020) Reciprocity and its role in economic cooperation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Martina, Giulia (2019) Changing appearances : a minimalist approach. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

McIntire, William (2016) Living as sublimated dying : understanding aesthetics and ethics from Freud and Nietzsche. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Muldoon, James (2016) Hannah Arendt and council democracy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mitchell, Jonanthan (2015) Exemplars as evaluative ideals in Nietzsche’s philosophy of value. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Moore, Richard Thomas (2009) Learning to do things with words. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mitcheson, Katrina Maud (2009) Nietzsche's philosophy of overcoming and the practice of truth. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mitchell, Elizabeth Gay (2005) Different ways of seeing: the language games of mothering. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mitinunwong, Kanit (2002) An ontology of practice. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

McClure, Bruce David (2001) Between the seen and the said : Deleuze-Guattari's pragmatics of the order-word. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mandarini, Matteo (1998) Efficient material-abstraction : towards a critical materialist pragmatics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mullarkey, John (1993) Bergson and perspectivism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

McCarney, Joe (1970) The concept of morality. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Noonan, Christopher (2021) Evolutionary debunking arguments and explanatory constraints on belief. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Niklas, Filip (2021) Hegel’s critique of determinism : justifying unfreedom as a moment of freedom. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Nie, Chenwei (2021) Understanding delusions : evidence, reason, and experience. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Niederhauser, Johannes Achill (2018) Heidegger on death and being. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Newbigging, Eric Lomax (1997) The particularity of autonomy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Oda, Tomoo Thomas (2006) Many spheres of music : hermeneutic interpretation of musical signification. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

O'Donnell, Aislinn (2001) An ethics of the pre-individual. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

O'Reilly, John Anthony (1992) The vanishing of Jean Baudrillard. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

O'Hear, Anthony (1970) Belief. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pickernell, Jeffrey N. (2018) Temporality and ethics in early Sartre. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Polzin, Sunael (2013) Sartre's existential psychoanalysis : theory, method and case studies. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pearmain, Charles (2007) Authenticity: an ethic of capacity realisation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Prosser, Simon James (2001) The dynamics and communication of concepts. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Porter, James Ewan (2001) Alternative temporalities of revolution in the work of Walter Benjamin and Luce Irigaray. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Philpott, Matthew John Irvine (2000) Towards a phenomenology of dyslexia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Purdom, Judy (2000) Thinking in painting : Gilles Deleuze and the revolution from representation to abstraction. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rokni, Ahilleas (2021) From logic to nature : a study of objectivity and the idea in Hegel’s Science of Logic. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ryan, Thomas (2017) The affirmation of Eros : passion and eternity in Friedrich Nietzsche’s The gay science. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rowthorn, David (2015) Cultural incorporation in Nietzsche’s middle period. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Reeves, Richard (2013) Thought imitates life : the case of John Stuart Mill. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Reglitz, Merten (2011) Global egalitarianism as a practice-independent ideal. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rashbrook, Oliver William (2010) The unity of consciousness and the ontology of mind. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rae, Gavin (2010) Hegel, Sartre, & the ontological structure of consciousness. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Richardson, Louise Fiona (2009) What is distinctive about the senses? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Richardson, Janice (2002) Selves, persons, individuals : a feminist critique of the law of obligations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ray, Matthew Alun (2001) On the principles and presuppositions of atheism and agnosticism in Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ruiz, Martin (1997) Psychophysical parallelism: in the philosophy of G. Deleuze. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Robinson, Keith A. (1995) Michel Foucault : topologies of thought : thinking-otherwise between knowledge, power and self. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rehberg, Andrea (1993) Becoming-body: the repetition of Kantian critique in the physiological thinking of Nietzsche. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ramsay, William Donald (1985) Materialism and perceptual experience. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Stinchcombe, Zak (2022) What makes bad books good? The relationship between ethical and aesthetic value. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Stevenson, Shaun (2021) Positively dead : an examination of the concept of the death drive in Gilles Deleuze’s difference and repetition. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Serini, Lorenzo (2020) Senses of scepticism in Nietzsche’s middle writings : how he becomes a sceptic. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shardlow, Jack (2019) Experiencing (in) time. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Schumski, Irina (2017) Make no exceptions for yourself : – a Kantian response to the particularist challenge. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Spinelli, Nicola (2016) Husserlian essentialism revisited : a study of essence, necessity and predication. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sokolov, Dariush (2014) Nietzsche and social change. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shum, Peter (2013) Images of otherness : on the problem of empathy and its relevance to literary moral cognitivism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Simecek, Karen (2013) Experiencing lyric poetry : emotional responses, philosophical thinking and moral inquiry. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shimizu, Shogo (2011) Molyneux’s question and the phenomenology of shape. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shields, Liam (2011) The prospects for sufficientarianism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Somers-Hall, Henry (2008) Dialectics of difference and negation: the responses of Deleuze and Hegel to representation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shaw, Spencer (2002) Showtime: the phenomenology of film consciousness. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sellars, John (2001) The art of living : Stoic ideas concerning the nature and function of philosophy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Smethurst, Coryn Russell Ronald (2001) Towards a creative aesthetics: with reference to Bergson. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Speidel, Michelle (2000) An examination of the role of symbiosis and symbiotic systems in evolutionary theory. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sparks, Simon (1999) Fatalities: truth and tragedy in texts of Heidegger and Benjamin. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shorthouse, Raymond T. (1999) From 'suspicion' to 'affirmation' : a study of the role of the imagination and prose rhythm, drawing upon the hermeneutical philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, in which there may be movement from suspicion to affirmation of reasonable hope. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Stamp, Richard (1999) The work of friendship : Blanchot, Bataille, Hegel. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Stagoll, Clifford Scott (1998) Deleuze's becoming-subject : difference and the human individual. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sawhney, Deepak Narang (1996) Axiomatics : the apparatus of capitalism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sandowsky, Louis N. (1995) After Derrida before Husserl : the spacing between phenomenology and deconstruction. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Samaras, Athanasios (1995) Virtue and democracy in Plato's late dialogues. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Skilleås, Ole Martin (1992) Literature and the value of interpretation : the cases of The Tempest and Heart of Darkness. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Thorneycroft, William Stephen (2019) A dual process model of emotion. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Testa, Federico (2019) On the politics of life: Michel Foucault and Georges Canguilhem on life and norms. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tissandier, Alex (2014) Affirming divergence : Deleuze's reading of Leibniz. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tsoulou, Marina-Georgia (2003) Philosophical appproaches to classical ballet and modern dance. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Toews, David (2001) The social occupations of modernity : philosophy and social theory in Durkheim, Tarde, Bergson and Deleuze. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Thomas, Colin (1997) T.W. Adorno : the memory of utopia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Thomson, Eoin Scott (1996) The unknown tongue : postponing language and the anonymous. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tarver, Mark (1985) Metaontology. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Underwood, Alex (2021) Subject and subjection : Deleuze, Guattari, and the problems of liberalism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Upadhyaya, Kartik (2020) What’s wrong with hypocrisy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Vanello, Daniel (2016) Emotion and value : a phenomenological approach. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Vaughan, Michael (2010) Creative revolution : Bergson's social thought. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wetherall, Graham (2020) Errant thought: on philosophy and its past. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wimmer, Simon Bastian (2019) Reflections on knowledge and belief. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wigmore, Stephen R. (2015) An examination of Max Scheler’s phenomenological ethics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Walker, Barnaby (2015) Enquiry and the value of knowledge. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Werkhoven, Sander (2014) The being and value of health. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wilson, Keith A. (Researcher in philosophy) (2013) Representationalism and anti-representationalism about perceptual experience. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Watkins, Lee (2011) Hegel after Deleuze and Guattari : freedom in philosophy and the state. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wolfendale, Peter (2011) The question of being : Heidegger and beyond. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Whittington, Mark R. (2004) Identity, continuity and consciousness. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Williamson, George Earl (2001) Alterity and the limit : a heterological ontology. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wolf, Bogdan (1998) Psychographies : specularity and death in psychoanalysis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Weate, Jeremy (1998) Phenomenology and difference: the body, architecture and race. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wilding, Adrian (1996) The concept of remembrance in Walter Benjamin. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Welchman, Alistair (1995) 'Wild above rule or art' : creation and critique. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Webb, David Andrew Noel (1993) Heidegger's reading of Aristotle: praxis and the ontology of movement. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Watt, Alan Norman (1992) Nietzsche and rhetoric. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Williams, James Richard (1990) The conflict of presentations : a critique of Jean-François Lyotard's philosophy of differends. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wood, David (David C.) (1985) The deconstruction of time. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wilkinson, Robert (1974) The aesthetics of George Santayana. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Yirmibeş, Mert Can (2022) Hegel’s treatment of modality in the context of contemporary modal metaphysics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Philosophy Ph.D. Program

Approved by Graduate Council and Graduate Division, Nov. 10, 2008. These requirements apply prospectively beginning with those admitted for Fall 2009. Students who entered the program under the old requirements may choose either to continue under that regime or to adopt the requirements below.

The Ph.D. program is designed to provide students with a broad knowledge of the field of philosophy, while giving them opportunities to work intensively on the issues that interest them the most. During the first stage of their graduate education, students meet the Department's course distribution requirements and prepare to take the qualifying examination. This examination assesses the student's strengths in areas chosen by the student in consultation with supervising faculty. After passing the exam, students advance to candidacy and begin writing the Ph.D. thesis. A detailed explanation of the requirements for the Ph.D. in Philosophy follows.

Before Advancing to Candidacy

During the first stage of the program, students are expected to acquire a broad background in philosophy and develop their philosophical abilities by fulfilling the following requirements:

First Year Seminar

A one-semester seminar for first-year graduate students only, conducted by two faculty members, on some central area of philosophy.

Logic Requirement

The Logic Requirement has two components:

• Completion of Philosophy 12A or its equivalent, with a grade of B+ or better.
• Completion of 140A or 140B with a grade of B+ or better. Courses with a comparable formal component including, in most cases, courses in the 140 series may satisfy this requirement, with the approval of the Graduate Advisor.

Both parts of the requirement may be fulfilled by successful completion of equivalent logic courses before arriving at Berkeley. Whether taken at Berkeley or elsewhere, courses taken in fulfillment of the logic requirement do not count towards the eight-course distribution requirement.

Course Distribution Requirement

Before taking the Qualifying Exam the student must complete eight courses at the 100- or 200-level completed with a grade of A- or higher. At least four of the eight courses must be graduate seminars. The eight courses must satisfy the following distribution requirements:

Two of the eight courses must be in the history of philosophy: one in ancient philosophy and one in modern philosophy. The courses may be on any individual philosopher or group of philosophers drawn from the following lists:

• Ancient: Plato, Aristotle
• Modern: Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel

Four of the eight courses must be in the following areas, with at least one course from each area:

• Area 1: Philosophical logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mathematics.
• Area 2: Metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of action
• Area 3: Ethics, political, social and legal philosophy, and aesthetics

A seventh course may be any Philosophy course in the 100 or 200 series except for 100, 195-199, 200, 250, 251 and 299.

An eighth course may be either any Philosophy course as specified above or a course from another Department which has been approved by the Graduate Advisor.

In exceptional cases, students may, at the discretion of the Graduate Advisor, meet one distribution requirement by presenting work done as a graduate student elsewhere: typically a graduate thesis or work done in a graduate-level course. Meeting a distribution requirement in this way will not count as meeting any part of the four-seminar requirement.

Language Requirement

Revised requirement approved April 4, 2022 by Graduate Council, for all graduate students who have not already passed the foreign language requirement.

Before taking the Qualifying Examination, the candidate must pass a departmental examination in a foreign language requiring the translation of 300 words in 90 minutes with the use of a dictionary. The language can be any foreign language containing a significant philosophical literature, provided that a faculty member qualified to administer the examination is available. An examination in an approved language may be waived upon approval of the Graduate Division if native ability in the language can be demonstrated through secondary school or university transcripts. A course sequence of four semesters (or six quarters), whether taken at UC or elsewhere, will be accepted in lieu of the language examination if the sequence was completed within four years of admission to Berkeley and the student earned an average grade of C or better.

The Qualifying Examination

Students should aim to take the qualifying examination by the end of the fifth enrolled semester and they must take it by the end of the sixth enrolled semester.

In order to take the examination the student must have fulfilled the department's course requirements and must have passed the language requirement.

The qualifying examination is administered by a committee of three faculty members from the department and one faculty member of another department. The members of this committee are nominated to the Graduate Division by the Graduate Advisor in consultation with the candidate.

Soon after assembling an examination committee, the candidate should, in consultation with this committee, write a 300-word description and compile a list of readings for each of three proposed topics for examination. Each topic should be centered on a major philosophical problem or question. Together the topics should reflect a balance of breadth and depth, and the Graduate Advisor must approve that they meet these criteria.

A week before the qualifying examination, the candidate should submit an overview essay of 1500-3000 words for each topic, which expands on the initial description. The essay should aim to lay out the central problem or question, to explain its importance, and to evaluate critically the attempts to resolve or answer it, with an eye to forming a view within, or about, the debate.

The qualifying examination itself will be a three-hour oral exam administered by the committee. The candidate's essays are meant to serve as a springboard for discussion in the exam. The purpose of the examination is to test the student's general mastery of philosophy. Students are expected to draw on the information, skills and understanding acquired in their graduate study and to demonstrate sufficient breadth and depth of philosophical comprehension and ability to provide a basis for proceeding toward a Ph.D.

If a student fails the qualifying examination, the examining committee may or may not recommend that a second examination be administered by the same committee. The second examination must be administered no sooner than three months and no later than six months following the first attempt. Failure on the second attempt will result in the student being automatically dismissed from the graduate program. (See Section F2.7 of the Guide to Graduate Policy .)

Students should advance to candidacy as soon as possible and they must do so no later than a year after passing the qualifying examination or the end of their sixth semester in the program, whichever comes first, to maintain satisfactory progress in the program. (An exception to the above policy will be made for those students who, having failed the qualifying exam in their sixth semester, may be granted the possibility to take it a second time in their seventh semester. In the case of a successful retake, the student must advance to candidacy by the end of the seventh semester.)

Before advancement to candidacy the student must constitute a dissertation committee consisting of two faculty members from the department and an outside faculty member from another department.

Prospectus Stage

In the semester after passing the qualifying examination the student must take two individual study courses of 4 units each with the two inside members of his or her dissertation committee for the purpose of preparing a dissertation prospectus.

The dissertation prospectus should be submitted both to the inside members of the committee and to the Graduate Advisor by the end of that semester. It should consist of about fifteen pages and outline plans for the dissertation. Alternatively, the prospectus may consist of parts of a possible chapter of the dissertation together with a short sketch of the dissertation project.

Following submission of the prospectus, the candidate will meet with the inside members of the committee for an informal discussion of the candidate's proposed research.

The Doctoral Completion Fellowship

The Doctoral Completion Fellowship (DCF) is a one-year fellowship available to graduate students who have advanced to candidacy and meet several additional conditions. Students are advised to review the eligibility requirements for the DCF .

Additional Requirements

Each student for the Ph.D. degree is expected to serve as a graduate student instructor for at least two semesters.

Dissertation seminar

Students in the first two years after declaring candidacy must register for the dissertation seminar (Philosophy 295) for at least one semester each year, during which they must present a piece of work in progress, and are expected to attend the seminar all year. (The seminar meets every other week.) All students working on dissertations are encouraged to attend the seminar.

Annual Meetings

At the end of each academic year, there will be a meeting of the student and both co-chairs of his or her dissertation committee to discuss the student’s progress over the year and his or her plans for the following year.

Scholars' Bank

Philosophy theses and dissertations.

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This collection contains some of the theses and dissertations produced by students in the University of Oregon Philosophy Graduate Program. Paper copies of these and other dissertations and theses are available through the UO Libraries .

Recent Submissions

• The Problem of Freedom and Universality: Marxian Philosophical Anthropology  Ralda, Oscar ( University of Oregon , 2024-03-25 ) This dissertation has two principal aims. First, it provides a critical reconsideration of Marx’s philosophical anthropology as it bears on the essential continuity of his emancipatory critique of political economy. Second, ...
• Living Legality: Law and Dussel's Philosophy of Liberation  Ospina Martinez, Juan Sebastián ( University of Oregon , 2024-01-10 ) In this dissertation I examine the theoretical underpinnings necessary for a philosophy of liberationaccount of law and suggest an alternative conceptualization of the function of law and political institutions, following ...
• Making Sense of the Practical Lesbian Past: Towards a Rethinking of Untimely Uses of History through the Temporality of Cultural Techniques  Simon, Valérie ( University of Oregon , 2024-01-10 ) This dissertation focuses on the practice of untimely uses of lesbian history, and in particular the diverse practices of engagement with lesbian activist history, all of which aim to mobilize this activist history for the ...
• An Argument for a Cartographic Approach to Technology  McLevey, Mare ( University of Oregon , 2024-01-09 ) This dissertation develops a way to study technology and politics that is an alternative to dominant approaches particular to contemporary philosophy of technology’s empirical and ethical turns. Dominant models fix ...
• Nietzsche, Reification, and Open Comportment  Currie, Luke ( University of Oregon , 2024-01-09 ) This work primarily discusses the “fallacy of reification” from the perspective of Nietzsche’s late philosophy (particularly in the chapter on ‘Reason’ in philosophy in his Twilight of the Idols). While reification is ...
• Time, Capitalism, and Political Ecology: Toward and Ecosocialist Metabolic Temporality  Gamble, Cameron ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-26 ) The ecological crises that have already marked the 21st century, and which will continue to do so on an increasingly intense and destructive scale, present theory in every discipline and field of study with a number of ...
• Demystifying Racial Monopoly  Haller, Reese ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-04 ) Through analysis of private, public, and state reactions to the Great Depression and northward black migration, this thesis demystifies four key functions of race constitutive of capitalist racial monopoly: historical ...
• Pragmatism, Genealogy, and Moral Status  Showler, Paul ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-04 ) This dissertation draws from recent work in pragmatism and philosophical genealogy to develop and defend a new approach for thinking about the concept of moral status. My project has two main aims. First, I argue that Huw ...
• Ethics for the Depressed: A Value Ethics of Engagement  Fitzpatrick, Devin ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-04 ) I argue that depressed persons suffer from “existential guilt,” which amounts to a two-part compulsion: 1) the compulsive assertion or sense of a vague and all-encompassing or absolute threat that disrupts action and ...
• Soul and Polis: On Arete in Plato's Meno  Smith III, Ansel ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-04 ) In “Soul and Polis: On Arete in Plato’s Meno,” I interpret Meno as a dialogue in which the pursuit of individual arete appears intertwined with political arete. While the differentiation of these two arete is itself ...
• Place-in-Being: A Decolonial Phenomenology of Place in Conversation with Philosophies of the Americas  Newton, Margaret ( University of Oregon , 2022-05-10 ) Our experiences of place and emplacement are so fundamental to our everyday existence that most of us rarely dedicate much time to thinking about how place and emplacement impact the various aspects of our daily lives. In ...
• Species Trouble: From Settled Species Discourse to Ethical Species Pluralism  Sinclair, Rebekah ( University of Oregon , 2021-11-23 ) In this dissertation, I develop and defend the importance of species pluralism (the recognition and use of multiple species definitions) for both environmental and humanist ethics. I begin from the concern that, since the ...
• The Hybris of Plants: Reinterpreting Philosophy through Vegetal Life  Kerr, Joshua ( University of Oregon , 2021-11-23 ) This dissertation reexamines the place of plants in the history of Western philosophy, drawing on the diverse philosophical approaches of Plato, Aristotle, Goethe, Hegel, and Nietzsche, among others. I suggest that a close ...
• Decolonizing Silences: Toward a Critical Phenomenology of Deep Silences with Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Maurice Merleau-Ponty  Ferrari, Martina ( University of Oregon , 2021-11-23 ) Motivating this dissertation is a concern for how Western philosophical, cultural, and political practices tend to privilege speech and voice as emancipatory tools and reduce silence to silencing. To locate power in silence ...
• Mere Appearance: Redressing the History of Philosophy  Zimmer, Amie ( University of Oregon , 2021-09-13 ) The principal aim of this dissertation is to seriously consider what accounts of fashion and dress can offer—have indeed already offered—to philosophy. In recounting these histories, I have two primary goals. The first is ...
• Universal History as Global Critique: From German Critical Theory to the Anti-Colonial Tradition  Portella , Elizabeth ( University of Oregon , 2021-09-13 ) This dissertation argues for a critical reconstruction of the concept of universal history. In doing so, it draws on theoretical resources offered by a materialist philosophy of history, as it is expressed in both German ...
• Synoptic Fusion and Dialectical Dissociation: The Entwinement of Linguistic and Experiential Pragmatisms à la Wilfrid Sellars  Naeb, Cheyenne ( University of Oregon , 2021-09-13 ) This work will attempt to examine the relationship between experiential and linguistic pragmatism through the lens of the twentieth-century Analytic philosopher, Wilfrid Sellars. I maintain that Sellars meta-linguistic ...
• Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Questionability of Truth  Emery, James ( University of Oregon , 2020-12-08 ) Does Nietzsche’s inquiry into the question of truth take him beyond the sense of truth as correctness found in Platonism toward a more Greek understanding of truth that brings concealment into an unsettling prominence ...
• Feminism, Secularism, and the (Im)Possibilities of an Islamic Feminism  Akbar Akhgari, Paria ( University of Oregon , 2020-02-27 ) This project considers attempts by scholars from within as well as outside Muslim countries to analyze gender and sex equality with a new approach that brings Islam and feminism into one discourse, often called “Islamic ...
• To Write the Body: Lost Time and the Work of Melancholy  Hayes, Shannon ( University of Oregon , 2019-09-18 ) In this dissertation I develop a philosophical account of melancholy as a productive, creative, and politically significant affect. Despite the longstanding association of melancholy with the creativity and productivity ...

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Acting From Thought About Action 

Belief and ameliorative epistemology , the commonwealth as agent: group action, the common good, and the general will , conceptualism and objectivity in locke's account of natural kinds , counsel and command: an address-dependent account of authority , dependence on persons and dependence on things in rousseau's social, psychological, and aesthetic theory , duties of rescue: a moderate account , essays on biological individuality , formal analyticity , global institutions and relations among non-co-citizens , intellectual property rights and institutions: a pluralist account , into question: an account of inquiry , kant's science of the moral world and moral objectivity , knowledge in action , loving, valuing, regretting, and being oneself , 'making people happy, not making happy people': a defense of the asymmetry intuition in population ethics , no metaphysics within physics , the normativity of structural rationality , objectivity and intersubjectivity in moral philosophy , on perception's role in aristotle’s epistemology .

Doctoral Program

Stanford's Ph.D. program is among the world's best. Our graduate students receive their training in a lively community of philosophers engaged in a wide range of philosophical projects. Our Ph.D. program trains students in traditional core areas of philosophy and provides them with opportunities to explore many subfields such as the philosophy of literature, nineteenth-century German philosophy, and medieval philosophy.

Among other areas, we are exceptionally strong in Kant studies, the philosophy of action, ancient philosophy, logic, and the philosophy of science. We attract some of the best students from around the world and we turn them into accomplished philosophers ready to compete for the best jobs in a very tight job market.

The most up-to-date requirements are listed in   t he Bulletin .  

CHECK PHD REQUIREMENTS

From the 2020-2021 edition of Explore Degrees:

Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy

Prospective graduate students should see the  Office of Graduate Admissions  web site for information and application materials. 

The University's basic requirements for the Ph.D. degree including candidacy, residence, dissertation, and examination are discussed in the " Graduate Degrees " section of this bulletin.

University candidacy requirements, published in the " Candidacy " section of this bulletin, apply to all Ph.D. students. Admission to a doctoral degree program is preliminary to, and distinct from, admission to candidacy. Admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree is a judgment by the faculty in the department or school of the student's potential to successfully complete the requirements of the degree program. Students are expected to complete department qualifying procedures and apply for candidacy at the beginning of the seventh academic quarter, normally the Autumn Quarter of the student's third year.

Admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree is granted by the major department following a student's successful completion of qualifying procedures as determined by the department. Departmental policy determines procedures for subsequent attempts to become advanced to candidacy in the event that the student does not successfully complete the procedures. Failure to advance to candidacy results in the dismissal of the student from the doctoral program; see the " Guidelines for Dismissal of Graduate Students for Academic Reasons " section of this bulletin.

The requirements detailed here are department requirements. These requirements are meant to balance structure and flexibility in allowing students, in consultation with their  advisors , to take a path through the program that gives them a rigorous and broad philosophical education, with room to focus on areas of particular interest, and with an eye to completing the degree with an excellent dissertation and a solid preparation for a career in academic philosophy.

Normally, all courses used to satisfy the distribution requirements for the Philosophy Ph.D. are Stanford courses taken as part of a student's graduate program.  In special circumstances, a student may petition to use a very small number of graduate-level courses taken at other institutions to satisfy a distribution requirement.  To be approved for this purpose, the student’s work in such a graduate-level course would need to involve an appropriate subject matter and would need to be judged by the department to be at the level of an 'A' in a corresponding graduate-level course at Stanford.  

Courses used to satisfy any course requirement in Philosophy (except Teaching Methods and the summer Dissertation Development Seminar) must be passed with a letter grade of 'B-' or better (no satisfactory/no credit), except in the case of a course/seminar used to satisfy the third-year course/seminar requirement and taken for only 2 units. Such a reduced-unit third-year course/seminar must be taken credit/no credit. 

At the end of each year, the department reviews the progress of each student to determine whether the student is making satisfactory progress, and on that basis to make decisions about probationary status and termination from the program where appropriate.

Any student in one of the Ph.D. programs may apply for the M.A. when all University and department requirements have been met.

Proficiency Requirements

• First-year Ph.D. Proseminar : a one quarter, topically focused seminar offered in Autumn Quarter, and required of all first-year students.
• two courses in value theory including ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, social philosophy, philosophy of law. At least one of the courses satisfying this distribution requirement must be in ethics or political philosophy.
• Two courses in language, mind, and action. One course satisfying this requirement must be drawn from the language related courses, and one from mind and action related courses.
• two courses in metaphysics and epistemology (including metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science). At least one of the courses satisfying this requirement must be drawn from either metaphysics or epistemology.
• Instructors indicate which courses may satisfy particular requirements. If a course potentially satisfies more than one requirement the student may use it for only one of those area requirements; no units may be double-counted. Students must develop broad competencies in all these areas. Those without strong backgrounds in these areas would normally satisfy these distribution requirements by taking more basic courses rather than highly specialized and focused courses. Students should consult with their advisor in making these course decisions, and be prepared to explain these decisions when reviewed for candidacy; see requirement 6 below.
• Logic requirement:  PHIL 150  Mathematical Logic or equivalent.
• History/logic requirement. One approved course each in ancient and modern philosophy, plus either another approved history of philosophy course or  PHIL 151  Metalogic.
• Students should normally take at least 64 graduate level units at Stanford during their first six quarters (in many cases students would take more units than that) and of those total units, at least 49 units of course work are to be in the Philosophy department. These courses must be numbered above 110, but not including Teaching Methods ( PHIL 239  Teaching Methods in Philosophy) or affiliated courses. Units of Individual Directed Reading are normally not to be counted toward this 49-unit requirement unless there is special permission from the student's advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies.
•  Prior to candidacy, at least 3 units of work must be taken with each of four Stanford faculty members.

Writing Requirement: Second Year Paper

The second year paper should demonstrate good scholarship and argumentative rigor, and be a polished piece of writing approximately 8000 words in length. The second year paper need not bear any specific relationship to the dissertation. It may be a version of a prospective dissertation chapter, but this is not required. The final version must be turned in on the last class of the Second Year Paper Development Seminar in Summer Quarter of the second year. Extensions of this deadline require the consent of the instructor of the Second Year Paper Development Seminar and the Director of Graduate Studies and are only granted in exceptional cases (e.g., documented illness, family crisis). The final paper is read by a committee of two faculty members and it is an important consideration in the department’s decision on the student’s candidacy. 

Teaching Assistancy

A minimum of five quarters of teaching assistancy are required for the Ph.D. Normally one of these quarters is as a teaching assistant for the Philosophy Department's Writing in the Major course,  PHIL 80  Mind, Matter, and Meaning. It is expected that students not teach in their first year and that they teach no more than two quarters in their second year. Students are required to take  PHIL 239  Teaching Methods in Philosophy during Spring Quarter of their first year and during Autumn Quarter of their second year. Teaching is an important part of students’ preparation to be professional philosophers.

Review at the End of the Second Year for Advancement to Candidacy

The faculty's review of each student includes a review of the student's record, an assessment of the second year paper, and an assessment of the student's preparation for work in her/his intended area of specialization, as well as recommendations of additional preparation, if necessary.

To continue in the Ph.D. program, each student must apply for candidacy at the beginning of the sixth academic quarter, normally the Spring Quarter of the student's second year. Students may be approved for or denied candidacy by the end of that quarter by the department. In some cases, where there are only one or two outstanding deficiencies, the department may defer the candidacy decision and require the student to re-apply for candidacy in a subsequent quarter. In such cases, definite conditions for the candidacy re-application must be specified, and the student must work with the advisor and the DGS to meet those conditions in a timely fashion. A failure to maintain timely progress in satisfying the specified conditions constitutes grounds for withholding travel and discretionary funds and for a denial of advancement to candidacy.

• Writing Seminar : In the Summer Quarter after the second year, students are required to attend the Second Year Paper Development Seminar. The seminar is intended to help students complete their second year papers. 
• Upon completion of the summer writing seminar, students must sign up for independent study credit,  PHIL 240  Individual Work for Graduate Students, with their respective advisors each quarter. A plan at the beginning, and a report at the end, of each quarter must be signed by both student and advisor and submitted to the graduate administrator for inclusion in the student's file. This is the process every quarter until the completion of the departmental oral.
• In Autumn and Winter quarters of the third year, students register in and satisfactorily complete  PHIL 301  Dissertation Development Proseminar. Students meet to present their work in progress and discuss their thesis project. Participation in these seminars is required.
• During the third and fourth years in the program, a student should complete at least three graduate-level courses/seminars, at least two of them in philosophy (a course outside philosophy can be approved by the advisor), and at least two of them in the third year. The three seminars can be taken credit/no-credit for reduced (2) units. Courses required for candidacy are not counted toward satisfaction of this requirement. This light load of courses allows students to deepen their philosophical training while keeping time free for thesis research.

Dissertation Work and Defense

The third and following years are devoted to dissertation work. The few requirements in this segment of the program are milestones to encourage students and advisors to ensure that the project is on track.

• Dissertation Proposal— By Spring Quarter of the third year, students should have selected a dissertation topic and committee. A proposal sketching the topic, status, and plan for the thesis project, as well as an annotated bibliography or literature review indicating familiarity with the relevant literature, must be received by the committee one week before the meeting on graduate student progress late in Spring Quarter. The dissertation proposal and the reading committee's report on it will constitute a substantial portion of the third year review.
• Departmental Oral— During Autumn Quarter of the fourth year, students take an oral examination based on at least 30 pages of written work, in addition to the proposal. The aim of the exam is to help the student arrive at an acceptable plan for the dissertation and to make sure that student, thesis topic, and advisors make a reasonable fit. It is an important chance for the student to clarify their goals and intentions with the entire committee present.
• Fourth-Year Colloquium— No later than Spring Quarter of the fourth year, students present a research paper in a 60-minute seminar open to the entire department. This paper should be on an aspect of the student's dissertation research. This is an opportunity for the student to make their work known to the wider department, and to explain their ideas to a general philosophical audience.
• University Oral Exam— Ph.D. students must submit a completed draft of the dissertation to the reading committee at least one month before the student expects to defend the thesis in the University oral exam. If the student is given consent to go forward, the University oral can take place approximately two weeks later. A portion of the exam consists of a student presentation based on the dissertation and is open to the public. A closed question period follows. If the draft is ready by Autumn Quarter of the fourth year, the student may request that the University oral count as the department oral.

Below are yearly lists of courses which the faculty have approved to fulfill distribution requirements in these areas: value theory (including ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, social philosophy, philosophy of law); language; mind and action; metaphysics and epistemology (including metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science); logic; ancient philosophy; modern philosophy.

The most up-to-date requirements are listed in  t he Bulletin .  

Ph.D. Minor in Philosophy

To obtain a Ph.D. minor in Philosophy, students must follow these procedures:

• Consult with the Director of Graduate Study to establish eligibility, and select a suitable  advisor .
• 30 units of courses in the Department of Philosophy with a letter grade of 'B-' or better in each course. No more than 3 units of directed reading may be counted in the 30-unit requirement.
• Philosophy of science
• Ethics, value theory, and moral and political philosophy
• Metaphysics and epistemology
• Language, mind and action
• History of philosophy
• Two additional courses numbered over 199 to be taken in one of those (b) six areas.
• A faculty member from the Department of Philosophy (usually the student's advisor) serves on the student's doctoral oral examination committee and may request that up to one third of this examination be devoted to the minor subject.
• Paperwork for the minor must be submitted to the department office before beginning the program.

Interdisciplinary Study

The department supports interdisciplinary study. Courses in Stanford's other departments and programs may be counted towards the degree, and course requirements in Philosophy are designed to allow students considerable freedom in taking such courses. Dissertation committees may include members from other departments. Where special needs arise, the department is committed to making it possible for students to obtain a philosophical education and to meet their interdisciplinary goals. Students are advised to consult their advisors and the department's student services office for assistance.

Graduate Program in Cognitive Science

Philosophy participates with the departments of Computer Science, Linguistics, and Psychology in an interdisciplinary program in Cognitive Science. It is intended to provide an interdisciplinary education, as well as a deeper concentration in philosophy, and is open to doctoral students. Students who complete the requirements within Philosophy and the Cognitive Science requirements receive a special designation in Cognitive Science along with the Ph.D. in Philosophy. To receive this field designation, students must complete 30 units of approved courses, 18 of which must be taken in two disciplines outside of philosophy. The list of approved courses can be obtained from the Cognitive Science program located in the Department of Psychology.

Special Track in Philosophy and Symbolic Systems

Students interested in interdisciplinary work relating philosophy to artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, linguistics, or logic may pursue a degree in this program.

Prerequisites—Admitted students should have covered the equivalent of the core of the undergraduate Symbolic Systems Program requirements as described in the " Symbolic Systems " section of the Stanford Bulletin, including courses in artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive science, linguistics, logic, and philosophy. The graduate program is designed with this background in mind. Students missing part of this background may need additional course work. In addition to the required course work listed in the bulletin, the Ph.D. requirements are the same as for the regular program, with the exception that one course in value theory and one course in history may be omitted.

Joint Program in Ancient Philosophy

This program is jointly administered by the Departments of Classics and Philosophy and is overseen by a joint committee composed of members of both departments:

•         Christopher Bobonich , Philosophy (Ancient Greek Philosophy, Ethics)
•         Alan Code , Philosophy, Philosophy (Ancient Greek Philosophy, Metaphysics)
•         Reviel Netz , Classics (History of Greek and Pre-Modern Mathematics)
•         Andrea Nightingale , Classics, (Greek and Roman Philosophy and Literature)
•        Josh Ober , Classics and Political Science (Greek Political Thought, Democratic Theory)

It provides students with the training, specialist skills, and knowledge needed for research and teaching in ancient philosophy while producing scholars who are fully trained as either philosophers with a strong specialization in ancient languages and philology, or classicists with a concentration in philosophy.

Students are admitted to the program by either department. Graduate students admitted by the Philosophy department receive their Ph.D. from the Philosophy department; those admitted by the Classics department receive their Ph.D. from the Classics department. For Philosophy graduate students, this program provides training in classical languages, literature, culture, and history. For Classics graduate students, this program provides training in the history of philosophy and in contemporary philosophy.

Each student in the program is advised by a committee consisting of one professor in each department.

Requirements for Philosophy Graduate Students: These are the same as the proficiency requirements for the Ph.D. in Philosophy.

One year of Greek is a requirement for admission to the program. If students have had a year of Latin, they are required to take 3 courses in second- or third-year Greek or Latin, at least one of which must be in Latin. If they have not had a year of Latin, they are then required to complete a year of Latin, and take two courses in second- or third-year Greek or Latin.

Students are also required to take at least three courses in ancient philosophy at the 200 level or above, one of which must be in the Classics department and two of which must be in the Philosophy department.

Ph.D. Subplan in History and Philosophy of Science

Graduate students in the Philosophy Ph.D. program may pursue a Ph.D. subplan in History and Philosophy of Science. The subplan is declared in Axess and subplan designations appear on the official transcript, but are not printed on the diploma.

1.  Attendance at the HPS colloquium series. 2.  Philosophy of Science courses.  Select one of the following:

• PHIL 263 Significant Figures in Philosophy of Science: Einstein
• PHIL 264: Central Topics in the Philosophy of Science: Theory and Evidence
• PHIL 264A: Central Topics in Philosophy of Science: Causation
• PHIL 265: Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time
• PHIL 265C: Philosophy of Physics: Probability and Relativity
• PHIL 266: Probability: Ten Great Ideas About Chance
• PHIL 267A:  Philosophy of Biology
• PHIL 267B: Philosophy, Biology, and Behavior

3.  One elective seminar in the history of science. 4.  One elective seminar (in addition to the course satisfying requirement 2) in philosophy of science.

The PhD program provide 5 years of  financial support . We also try to provide support for our sixth year students and beyond though we cannot guarantee such support. In addition to covering tuition, providing a stipend, and covering Stanford's health insurance, we provide additional funds for books, computer equipment, and conference travel expenses. Some of the financial support is provided through requiring you to teach; however, our teaching requirement is quite low and we believe that this is a significant advantage of our program.

Stanford Support Programs

Additional support, such as advances, medical and emergency grants for Grad Students are available through the Financial Aid Office. The University has created the following programs specifically for graduate students dealing with challenging financial situations.

Graduate Financial Aid  homepage :

https://financialaid.stanford.edu/grad/funding/

Cash Advance:  https://sfs.stanford.edu/gradcashadvance

Emergency grant-in-aid :  https://financialaid.stanford.edu/pdf/emergencygrant-in-aid.pdf, family grants:  https://financialaid.stanford.edu/pdf/gradfamilygrant2021.pdf, housing loans:  https://financialaid.stanford.edu/loans/other/gradhousing.html, program characteristics.

Our program is well known for its small size, streamlined teaching requirements, and low average time to degree.

The program regulations are designed to efficiently provide students with a broad base in their first two years. In the third year students transition to working on their dissertations. During the summer prior to the third year, students are required to attend a dissertation development seminar. This seminar introduces students to what is involved in writing a dissertation. During the third year the course load drops to just under one course per quarter.

The rest of the time is spent working closely with a faculty member, or a couple of faculty members, on the student's area of research interest. The goal of the third year is that this process of intensive research and one-on-one interaction will generate a topic and proposal for the dissertation. During the fourth and fifth year the student is not required to take any courses and he or she focusses exclusively on research and writing on the dissertation.

Stanford University

Being a part of  Stanford University  means that students have access to one of the premier education institutions in the world. Stanford is replete with top departments in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. In addition, our professional schools, such as the  Stanford Law School , are among the best. The range of research in a variety of areas, many of which touch on or relate to philosophical issues, is simply astounding. Students have the freedom to take courses across the university. Graduate students also regularly earn joint degrees with other programs.

The Library wishes you a nice holiday break. Buildings will be closed from 12/23/22 to 12/31/22. For a full list of closing and opening times, please visit the library hours page.

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Brown University Library archives dissertations in accordance with the Brown Graduate School policy .

For dissertations published prior to 2008, please consult the following Dissertation LibGuide

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"Not the Boss of Me": Reviving the Relationship Between Political and Parental Authority

Addiction and Responsibility

Agent Causation and Reduction

An Incomplete Guide to Dealing with Experts

Anomaly and Coincidence

Apriority for Empiricists: Making Sense of Truth by Convention

Aristotle's Pure Forms: A Study of Some Chapters in Metaphysics Z-H

Authoring Sex: Agency, Equality, and Respect within Sexual Interaction

Can Machines Have Desires?

Concepts in Bounded Rationality: Perspectives from Reinforcement Learning

Defanging the v-Curry Paradox

Defending a Desire-­‐Centered Compatibilist Theory of Free Will

Emotion and Imagination in Action

Essays on Justice and Social Structure

ESSE PERCIPI EST CONCEPTUM?: ON CONCEPTUAL AND NONCONCEPTUAL FORMS OF PERCEPTION

Everyday Life and the Demands of Justice

Evidence and the Rationality of Belief

EXPLANATION: DISTANCE, GAPS, REGRESS, AND CIRCULARITY

Forms and Physics in Plato's Timaeus

From Reference to Content: Semantic Intuitions and the Theoretical Basis for Externalism

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Dissertations & Theses

Ph.d. dissertations + m.a. theses.

Here, to the best of our ability to reconstruct it, is a list of all Ph.D. dissertations and master's theses ever written in our department. (For a shorter list of only more recent Ph.D. dissertations, see our page of placement information .) Note that, until 1929, the Department of Philosophy was not distinct from the Department of Psychology at Indiana University. This helps to explain some of the titles below that nowadays might be thought odd to find in a Department of Philosophy. Nevertheless, even Dr. Tugman's 1912 dissertation on the English sparrow — which is as pure a piece of empirical psychology as one could require (it even contains a discussion of how to handle the sparrows) — says it is submitted for the Ph.D. in Philosophy, not Psychology. The same goes for the pre-1929 M.A. theses listed below.

Ph.D. Dissertations

Daniel Buckley, Evidence and Epistemic Normativity

Uri Eran,  Kant's Theory of Emotion: Toward a Systematic Reconstruction

Daniel Lindquist,  Hegel's Critique of Kant's Philosophy of Biology  

Elisabeth Lloyd, 2021 Advanced Study Program Postdoctoral Fellow, National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado

Monica Morrison,  A Socio-Epistemic Theory of Climate Model Development  

Levi Tenen, From Heirlooms to Nature: An Account of Extrinsic Final Value James Andrew Smith, Jr., Science as the Pursuit of Truth: On Quine’s Naturalism

Kevin Mills, Empirical Knowledge in Normative Reasoning

Wade Munroe,  Rationality and Higher-Order Evidence

Hao Hong, Truth and Reality

Dylan Black, A Philosophical Framework for the Science of Consciousness

Emmalon Davis, Testifying Across Difference: Responsibility for Interpersonal and Structural Epistemic Injustice

Noam Hoffer, Kant’s Theoretical Conception of God

Tufan Kiymaz , Phenomenal Knowledge of Physical Facts: What Mary Didn't Know about Physicalism

Tim Perrine, Accurate Representation and Epistemic Value

Sommerlatte, Curtis, The Central Role of Cognition in Kant's Transcendental Deduction

Krista Rodkey, Hume on Sympathy: Justice, Politeness, and Beauty

Mason, Sharon, Knowledge and the First-Person Perspective

Woodward, Philip, The Emergence of Mental Content: An Essay on the Metaphysics of Mind

Saxon, Michael, Drones and Contemporary Conflict: Just War Theory and the US Drone Wars

Houser, Kevin, Suffering, Acknowledgement, and the Ehtical Space of Reasons

Blake, Susan, Mental Content and Epistemic Foundations

Jankovic, Marija, Conventional Meaning

Palmer, Elizabeth, Facts as reasons: The Role of Experience in Empirical Justification

Rings, Michael, The Aesthetic Cosmopolitan Project

Carlson, Matthew, The Structure of Logical Knowledge

Gonnerman, Chad, Concepts in psychology: Towards a better hybrid theory

Han, Gwahee, Integrity as a moral virtue

Jones, Derek, Primitive Agency

Koss, Michael, Semantic and Mathematical Foundations for Intuitionism

Cheung, Kwok-Tung, Doxastic Involuntarism, Epistemic Deliberation and Agency

Gehring, Allen, Truthmaker Theory and Its Application

Harris, Steven, Artifacts and Human Cognitive Agency

McAninch, Andrew, Holding Me to My Word: The Normative Avowal View of Rational Agency

Phillips, Luke, Aestheticism from Kant to Nietzsche

Talcott, David, Metaphysics and Religion in Plato’s Euthyphro

Theurer, Kari,   Rethinking Reductionism: From 17th Century Mechanism to Contemporary Molecular Neuroscience

Buckner, Cameron, Learning from mistakes: error-correction and the nature of cognition

Lopez, Jason, The process of defining self-deception

Wang, Ellie Hua,  Toward an Empirically Grounded Theory of Virtues for Consequentialism

Churchill, John, Mental Causation and the Problem of Causal Exclusion .

Diener, David, The Supremacy and Irrelevance of Reason: Kierkegaard’s Understanding of Authority in the Second Authorship .

Kirchner, Daniel, Sittlichkeit and the Ancient View of the Self in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit .

Lee, Jaeho, Explanation and Its Place In Metaphysical and Scientific Inquiries .

Bassett, Gregory, Searching for Normativity .

Burkhart, Brian, Respect for Kinship: Toward an Indigenous Environmental Ethics .

Aumann, Antony, Kierkegaard on the Need for Indirect Communication .

Jacobs, Jonathan, Causal Powers, A Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysic .

Im, Seungpil, A Study of Kant’s Dreams of a Spirit Seer: Kant’s Ambiguous Relation to Swedenborg.

Alexander, Joshua, Philosophical Intuitions and Experimental Philosophy .

Keele, Lisa, Theories of Continuity and Infinitesimals: Four Philosophers of the Nineteenth Century .

Theiner, Georg, From Extended Minds to Group Minds: Rethinking the Boundaries of the Mental.

Ceballes, John. Hearing the Call of Reason: Kant and Publicity.

Kimble, Kevin. The Intentional Structure of Phenomenal Awareness.

Klein, Alexander M. The Rise of Empiricism: William James, Thomas Hill Green, and the Struggle over Psychology.

McDonald, Brian E. Constraint Variational Semantics.

Seymour, Melissa. Duties of Love and Kant's Doctrine of Obligatory Ends.

Abramson, Darren. Computability and Mind.

Demir, Hilmi. Error Comes with Imagination: A Probabilistic Theory of Mental Content.

Stephen James Crowley. A Complex Story About Simple Inquiries: Micro-epistemology and Animal Cognition.

Tropman, Beth. Moral Realism and the New Intuitionism.

Murakami, Yuko. Modal Logic of Partitions.

Werner, Daniel. Myth and Philosophy in Plato's Phaedrus.

Wolsing, Jennifer. Free at Last: A Libertarian Defense of Free Will.

Conolly, Brian Francis. Studies in the Metaphysics of Dietrich von Freiberg.

Jain, Pragati. Validity and Its Epistemic Roles.

Lindland, Erik. Kierkegaard on Self-Deception.

Shaw, Joshua. Putting Ethics First: Reconsidering Emmanuel Levinas's Ethical Metaphysics.

Brown, Karen Leigh. Epistemic Possibilities and the Sources of Belief.

Dalton, Eric. Analyticity, Holism and Conceptual Role Semantics.

Farin, Ingo. Studies in Early Heidegger (1919–1923).

Gottlieb, Michah. The Ambiguity of Reason: Mendelssohn's Writings on Spinoza.

Morton, Brian P. R. Ineffability and Self-Refutation: Non-Monotonic Logic in the Thought of Pseudo-Dionysius, Sextus Empiricus, and the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita.

Pamental, Matthew P. Naturalized Human Agency and the Emergence of Norms: Placing Dewey's Ethics on the Map.

Corry, Richard Lachlan. A Causal-Structural Theory of Empirical Knowledge.

Guldmann, Rony. Two Orientations towards Human Nature.

Kaniike, Yoichi. Carnap's Conception of Wissenshaftslogik.

Keele, Rondo Patten. Formal Ontology in the Fourteenth Century: The Chatton Principle and Ockham's Razor.

Janiak, Andrew. Kant's Newtonianism.

Kim, Hans Eung. The Problem of Indexicality.

Liang, Caleb. Toward an Understanding of Objectivity: A Study of the Realism/Antirealistm Debate and the Nature of Empirical Content.

Barceló Aspeita, Axel Arturo. Mathematics as Grammar: 'Grammar' in Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mathematics during the Middle Period.

DiLeo, Jeffrey R. Is There a Text in Philosophy: Writing, Style, Rhetoric and Culture.

Musselman, Jack Green. Judicial Craftmanship at the Supreme Court: A Critical Legal Studies Examination of Court Crafts Informing the Hate Speech Debate (2 vols).

Pook, David Olson. Objectivity, Skepticism, and the Realistic Spirit in Ethics.

Bolyard, Charles. Knowledge, Certainty, and Propositions Per se notae: A Study of Peter Auriol.

Chemero, Anthony P. How To Be an Anti-Representationalist.

Grueso, Delfin Ig. Justice and Monirities: An Evaluation of John Rawls' Political Liberalism.

DeLancy, Craig. Emotion, Action, and Intentionality.

Edwards, James G. Justification as Intra-Personal Argumentation.

Kennedy, Thomas V. Impartiality and the Moral Domain.

Zheng, Yiwei. Bad Faith, Authenticity, and Pure Reflection in Jean-Paul Sartre's Early Philosophy.

Hardy, James Hintze. Instantial Reasoning, Arbitrary Objects, and Holey Propositions.

Kovach, Adam. A Species of Good: An Essay on Truth as a Kind of Value.

Lee, Byeong Deok. The Paradox of Belief Instability and a Revision Theory of Belief.

Ray, Carolyn. Identity and Universals: A Conceptualist Approach to Logical, Metaphysical, and Epistemological Problems of Contemporary Identity Theory.

Hogg, Charles R., Jr. Ethics secundum stoicos: An Edition, Translation, and Critical Essay.

Mattox, John Mark. Saint Augustine and the Theory of the Just War.

Miller, Pamela. The Implications of John Dewey's Ideas for Environmental Ethics.

Rosenberg, Gregg Howard. A Place for Consciousness: Probing the Deep Structure of the Natural World.

Fry, Jeffrey P. Self-Esteem, Moral Luck, and the Meaning of Grace.

Shimojima, Atsushi. On the Efficacy of Representation.

Eberle, Ruth. Diagrams and Natural Deduction: Theory and Pedagogy of Hyperproof.

Hammer, Eric. M. Diagrams, Logic and Representation.

Luengo, Isabel. Diagrams in Geometry.

Marquez, Ivan. Rorty, Reason, and Modernity's Quest for Freedom and Equality.

Schönfield, Martin. Kant's Early Philosophy of Nature: Science and Metaphysics.

Steeves, H. Peter. Toward a Phenomenological Ethic of Community.

Morado, Raymundo. Fault-Tolerant Reasoning.

Parker, Surekha Gillian. An Aesthetic Theory for Metaphor: How to Avoid Beating a Good Metaphor to Death.

Santory Jorge, Anayra O. The Moral Force of Philosophy.

Yoon, Bosuk. The Problem of Naturalizing Intentionality.

Chalmers, David John. Toward a Theory of Consciousness.

Curtis, Gary Nelson. The Concept of Logical Form.

Chapuis, André. Circularity, Truth, and the Liar Paradox.

Syverson, Paul F. Logic, Convention, and Common Knowledge.

Vaughan, Christopher. Pure Reflection: Self-Knowledge and Moral Understanding in the Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre.

Hicks, Stephen Ronald Craig. Foundationalism and the Genesis of Justification.

Ning, Yin-Bin. A Post-Philosophical Essay on Knowledge/Power: Richard Rorty, Anti-Foundationalism, and the Possibility of an Alternative Epistemology. </p

Beavers, M. Gordon. Topics in Lukasiwicz Logics.

Houng, Yu-Houng. Classicism, Connectionism, and the Concept of Level.

Lee, In Tak. A Critique of the Universalist Theory of Ethical Justification: Habermas vs. the Contextualist Point of View.

Soraj, Hongladarom. Imagination in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

Dixon, Bobby R. The Master-Slave Dialectic in the Writings of Ralph Ellison: Toward a Neo-Hegelian Synthesis.

Favila, José Manuel. Intersubjectivity of Indexical Thoughts.

Foulks, Frank. A Phenomenal Semantic Frame for the Semiotics of Contrapuntal Theory.

Holland, Monica. Beliefs Based on Emotional Reception: Their Formation, Justification and Truth.

Mares, Edwin David. The Logic of Fictional Discourse.

Armijos, Gonzalo. Marxism, Pragmatism, and Historical Realism: An Epistemological Appraisal.

Freund, Max A. Formal Investigations of Holistic Realist Ramified Conceptualism.

Kalumba, Kibuggo M. The Common Good as a Mandate for the Official Catholic Church's Support for, And Participation in, the Various Revolutionary Movements in Latin America.

Maróstica de Gomez, Ana. Peirce's Conceptions of Truth: A Tychist Approach.

Palma, Adriano. Indexicality.

Jetli, Priyedarshi. The Origins of a Realist Conception of Relations in Plato's Phaedo.

Katz, Sheri. Ontology and Epistemology in John Scottus Eriugena.

Day, Timothy Joseph. Infinite Regress Arguments: Some Metaphysical and Epistemological Problems.

Kill, Kathleen. A Theory of Events.

Herrera, Alejandro Ibanez. Leibniz on Existence.

Landini, Gregory. Meinong Reconstructed versus Early Russell Reconstructed: A Study in the Formal Ontology of Fiction.

Morris, Robert Allan. A Complementarity Thesis for Doxastic Truth.

Orilia, Francesco. Natural Language Semantics and Guise Theory.

Bahlul, Raja. Sameness and Similarity and the Identity of Indiscernibles.

Cohen, Daniel H. The Logic of Conditional Assertions.

Etuk, Udo A. Ethical Postulates for African Development.

Gomez, Ricardo J. Kant's Pre-Transcendental Conception of Science.

Kim, Hyo-Myung. Constant Conjunction and Necessity: A Study in Hume's Theory of Causation.

Kincaid, Harold. Hegel and Holistic Explanation.

Wahl, Russell. Propositions and Facts in the Early Philosophy of Bertrand Russell.

Laycock, Steven William. Intersubjectivity and the Divine Envisionment.

Schoenig, Richard Keith. Primary and Secondary Qualities.

Lesses, Glenn. Desire and Motivation in Plato: Issues in the Psychology of the Early Dialogues and the Republic.

Macdonald, J. Ellis. On Truth and Falsehood in the Extra-Moral Sense: A Translation and Critical Study.

Pendlebury, Michael John. Believing.

Weber, Gregory Dean. Theory of Purposive Behavior, Desire, and Belief, with Applications to the Issues of Materialism and the Objectivity of Value Judgments.

Wilt, Lawrence J. M. Franz Brentano's Epistemology for Ethics.

Fleming, Roger A. A Relativist Theory of Truth and the Problem of Skepticism.

Momoh, Campbell Shittu. An African Conception of Being and the Traditional Problem of Freedom and Determinism.

Dipert, Randall R. Development and Crisis in Late Boolean Logic: The Deductive Logics of Peirce, Jevons and Schröder.

Maloney, J. Christopher. A Philosophical Theory of Perception.

Seiferth, David M. The Grounds of Moral Rightness.

Kapitan, Tomis. Foundations for a Theory of Propositional Form, Implication, Alethic Modality and Generalization.

McKinsey, Thomas Michael. The Reference of Proper Names: A Critical Essay in the Philosophy of Language.

Rapaport, William Joseph. Intentionality and the Structure of Existence.

MacCarthy, Mark Michael. On Methodological Individualism.

Geels, Donald Eugene. False Beliefs and Possible States of Affairs.

Fletcher, James John. Generalization in Art Criticism and the Role Therin of Paradigmatic Aesthetic Objects.

Freeman, James B. Algebraic Semantics for Modal and Relevant Predicate Logics.

Hunt, Walter Murray. An Examination of Some Problems about the Nature of "Moral" Situations and Their Role in Ethics.

Nute, Donald. Identification and Demonstrative Reference.

Beversluis, John. The Connection between Duty and Happiness in Kant's Moral Philosophy.

Cadwallader, Eva Hauel. Nicolai Hartmann's Twentieth-Century Value Platonism.

Williams, Clifford. 'Now', Interchangeability without a Change of Truth Value, and Time.

Williams, Thomas Raymong. The Ideal Observer Theory in Ethics.

Dreher, John Hugo. A Study of Human Action.

Heizer, Ruth Bradfute. A Critique of Karl Popper's Solution to the Problem of Induction.

Hull, Richard T. The Role of the Principle of Acquaintance in Contemporary Disputes over the Relation of Mental, Perceptual, and Physical.

Nassar, Alan George. The Ontological Argument and the Problem of God.

Barford, Robert. The Criticisms of the Theory of Forms in the First Part of Plato's Parmenides.

Marquis, Donald Bagley. Scientific Realism and the Antinomy of External Objects.

Roberts, Lawrence D. John Duns Scotus and the Concept of Human Freedom.

Samuelson, Norbert. The Problem of God's Knowledge in Gersonides: A Translation of and Commentary to Book Three of the Milhamot Adonai.

Scott, Stephen Hamilton. Universals and Ontological Analysis.

Park, Désirée. Berkeley's Theory of Notions.

Bayles, Michael D. Rule Utilitarianism and an Enlightened Moral Consciousness.

Hanke, John W. The Ontological Status of the Work of Art in the Aesthetics of Maritain.

Perreiah, Alan R. Is There a Doctrine of Supposition in the Logica Magna?

Vollrath, John. Actions and Events.

Allen, Allan J. Moral Judgment and the Concept of a Universal Imperative with Special Reference to Kant.

Clatterbaugh, Kenneth C. The Problem of Individuation.

Cooper, William F. Francesco Romero's Theory of Value.

Gram, Moltke S. Two Theories of the A Priori.

Robinsin, William S. Perception and Reference.

Galligan, Edward Michael. Plato and the Philosophy of Language.

Howard, Vernon Alfred. The Academic Compromise on Free Will in Nineteenth Century American Philosophy: A Study of Thomas C. Upham's A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on the Will (1834).

Perkins, Robert L. Kierkegaard and Hegel: The Dialectical Structure of Kierkegaard's Ethical Thought.

Peterson, John. Logical Atomism and the Realism-Nominalism Issue: A Critique of Contemporary Atomism from the Viewpoint of Classical Realism.

Dietl, Paul Joseph. Explanation and Action: An Examination of the Controversy between Hume and Some of His Contemporary Critics.

Tovo, Jerome. The Experience of Causal Efficacy in Whitehead and Hume.

Young, Theodore A. Change in Aristotle, Descartes, Human, and Whitehead: An Essay in Philosophy of Nature.

Lineback, Richard H. The Place of the Imaginatiion in Hume's Epistemology.

Wisadavet, Wit. Sartre's and the Buddhist's Concept of Man.

Davis, Clarence George. Obligation and Aspiration in Ethics.

Anton, Peter Achilles. Empiriciam and Analysis.

Kleis, Sander J. Brightman's Idea of God.

Smyth, Richard A. Kant's Theory of Reference.

Owsley, Richard Mills. The Moral Philosophy of Karl Jaspers.

Churchill, James Spencer. Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics.

Lord, Catherine. The Cognitive Import of Art, with Reference to Kant's Theory of Aesthetic Judgment.

Rukavina, Thomas. Heidegger as Critic of Western Thinking.

Faruki, Mohamed Zuhdi Taji. The Universal Categories of Charles Sanders Peirce.

Hayes, Frank Ambrose. Platonic Elements in Spinoza's Theory of Method.

Frye, Robert Edward. Pragmatism in Recent Non-Pragmatic Systems: Santayana, Bergson, Whitehead.

Carmichael, Douglas. Order and Human Value.

Kramer, Richard Neil. The Ontological Foundations of Negatives.

Mayfield, William Hollingsworth. Platonism and Christianity in the Work of Paul Elmer More.

Al-Faruqi, Isma'il R. On Justifying the Good.

Reeves, George Cooper.  The Philosophy of Tommaso Campanella with Special Reference to His Doctrine of the Sense of Things and of Magic, with a Translation of Books 1 and 2 and a Bibliography.

Baker, Arthur Mulford.  The River of God: The Source-Stream for Morals and Religion.

Tugman, Eupha May Foley.  Light Discrimination in the English Sparrow.

Master's Theses

Gottschling, David.  Moral Philosophy's Double Vision: Toward a More Coherent Moral Philosophy.

Taliano, Lisa Toni.  The Tragic Affirmation of Life: A Critical Analysis of Nietzsche and Van Gogh.

Vári, Peter.  Wittgenstein and the Problem of Relations.

DiLeo, Jeffrey R.  Charles S. Peirce on Proper Names and Haecceitism.

Tilton, Louis.  Sartre's Theory of the Group.

Dreher, John Hugo.  A Theory of Knowledge for Empiricism.

Evans, Fred J.  Whitehead's Philosophy of Mind.

Johnson, Anita Louise.  Activity, Labor, and Human Nature in Karl Marx.

Johnston, Thomas Michael.  The Process of Transition in Whitehead's Metaphysics.

Larrabee, Mary Jeanne.  Intentionality in Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger: A Comparative Study of Ideen I and Sein und Zeit.

Hamrick, William B.  Time in the Philosophies of Whitehead and Merleau-Ponty.

Hunt, Walter Murray.  The Situationism of Joseph Fletcher: An Examination of Some of Its Philosophical Bases.

Learned, Stephen Paul.  The Austin-Strawson Debate on Truth.

Moon, Donald Le Rue.  Max Scheler's Phenomenology of Religion: The Self-Givenness of the Divine and Human Consciousness.

Gale, Kenneth E.  Descartes: The Cogito, Substance, and Individuation.

Goldenbaum, Donald M.  Ambiguities in Certain Arguments for the Existence of External Objects.

Hammond, John Elwyn.  Collingwood's Theory of Presuppositions: The Road to a New Metaphysics.

Krausz, Michael.  On Method in Metaphysics: A Modular Analysis for Criticism of Philosophical Theories.

Pil'l, Anne Kimino Uemura.  Cogito, ergo sum: A Critical Analysis of Jaakko Hintikka's Interpretation.

Mueller, Robert W. An Examination of the Meaning of the Socratic Paradoxes.

Kuo, David Dah-Chuen. Kant's Method and His Deduction of the Categories.

Williams, Thomas Raymong. A Critique of the Rationalistic Ethical Theory Presented in Marcus Singer's Generalization in Ethics.

Lineback, Richard H. An Introduction to Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments.

Leonard, Marilyn Rosenthein. Propositions and Atomic Propositions.

Stamatakos, Bess Makris. On Being Both Red and Blue All Over at the Same Time.

Galligan, Edward Michael. Towards the Understanding of Parmenides' Way of Truth.

Gavrilis, Nicholas. Non-Cognitive Ethics: An Examination of Five Contemporary Ethical Writers.

D'Abbracci, Anthony Robert. Order vs. the Arbitrary: St. Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus.

Perkins, Robert L. Aesthetics and Existence: Some Kierkegaardian Themes.

Smyth, Richard A. Intuition and Concept: A Study in Kantian Logic.

Jager, Ronald. Language, Truth and Intentional Logic.

Burkhardt, Phillip Edward. Monad and Universe: Some IMplication of Leibniz' Concept.

Davis, Clarence George. Religious Experiences.

Rukavina, Thomas. Fundamental Ontology in the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger.

Ogden, Joan Barbara. The Square of Opposition: An Evaluation of the Current Controversy.

Pietersma, Henry. Freedom and Man: An Essay on Jean-Paul Sartre's View of Existential Freedom as Found in His L'Etre et le néant.

Wasserman, Irving. Realism and Historicism: A Study of the Philosophy of R. G. Collingwood.

Crimmel, Henry H. The Copernican Revolution in Philosophy.

Young, Theodore A. Being and Analogy: The Role of Metaphysical Analogy in Classical Realism, Josiah Royce and R. G. Collingwood.

Anton, Peter. Empiricism and Solipsism.

Conger, Mary Janeway. The Erotic Bird: Platonism and Wallace Stevens.

Frye, Robert Wedard. John Locke as Rationalist.

Allen, Jerome Lawson. Justice and Necessity in Plato.

Sikma, Barney. God and Man: A Comparative Study of Epictetus the Stoic and St. Paul the Apostle.

Achamma, John. An Interpretation of Gandhi's Religious Philosophy in the Light of Bergson's Two Sources of Morality and Religion.

Kramer, Richard Neil. The Nature of Causation.

Owsley, Richard Mills. The Concept of Evolutionary Progress and the Philosophies of Two Biologists.

Bullock, Robert Lee. Latent Pragmatism in the Philosophy of Schopenhauer.

Burkhart, Reginald Keith. The Aristotelian Syllogism and Causation.

Kellermann, Frederick D. Socrates and Christianity.

Al-Faruqi, Isma'il R. The Ethics of Reason and the Ethics of Life (Kantian and Nietzschean Ethics).

Barber, Richard Leslie. A Reinterpretation of the Significance of the Calculus of Classes for Aristotelian Logic.

Parker, Francis Howard. A critical examination of Professor Kantor's interbehavioral description of thinking.

Jeanes, Charlotte Ann. The Ontological Status of Ought, Based on a Study of the Ought Concepts of Hartmann and Urban.

Pitz, Sally A. The Intentional Fallacy Issue.

Van Liere, Donald Wilbur. The Relation of Virtue to Knowledge with Special Reference to Plato's Protagoras.

Harshman, Hardwick W. Immortality in Plato.

Reagan, Gordon Lober. An Analysis and Redefinition of the Concept of Organic Unisty as an Essential Property of Aesthetic Objects.

Muedeking, George Herbert. The Basis for Ethics: The Contribution of Christianity to a Theory of Ethics.

Mason, Robert E. A Semantic Alphabet for Philosophy.

Meloy, John Wilson. The Nature and Function of Religious Experience: A Study in the Philosophy of Religion.

Keller, Samuel E. Business ethics and the N.R.A. codes; an ethical analysis of business with special references to the codes prepared to comply with the requirements of the National industrial recovery act of 1933.

Horth, Dudley Shirley. An Examination of Nicolai Hartmann's Ethical Theory.

Knight, Everett Estes. The Constructive Value of Doubt with a Bibliography Appended.

Knight, Homer Guy. Psychology of Initiative.

Llewelyn, Edgar Julius. The Forms of Stimulus which Favor the Radical and Permanent Expansion of Human Energy.

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Home > Dissertations, Theses & Capstones Projects by Program > Philosophy Dissertations

Philosophy Dissertations

Dissertations from 2024 2024.

Fragmentation and Some Applications , Joseph Bendana

Law's Legitimacy: Lon Fuller in a Consequentialist Frame , Daniel L. Feldman

Language, Legitimacy, and the Law: The Social Roots of Legal Obligation , Joshua Keton

Demarcating Psychopathologies: Nosology, Validity, and the Taxonomic Problem in Psychiatric Medicine , Julia Zentz Kolak

Equality, Solidarity, and Exploitation: An Essay on the Philosophical Foundations of Socialism , Callum Zavos MacRae

Extractivism and the Defense of Life and Territories: An Account of Latin American Environmental Thought , Pedro Monque

Dissertations from 2023 2023

Theorizing Racial Democracy , Teófilo de Souza Carmo Reis

Etiology of Injustice , Susan Erck

Speakers and Addressees as Creative Interpreters , Svitlana Novikova

Three Essays on Substructural Approaches to Semantic Paradoxes , Brian C. Porter

Dissertations from 2022 2022

Decolonizing Genderqueer: An Inquiry into the Gender Binary, Resistance, and Imperialistic Social Categories , Lauren E. Abruzzo

Recovering Authenticity: Care, Conversation and Value , Shannon M. Brick

Epistemic Priors, Social Justice, and the Ethics of Humor , Paul Butterfield

Tell Me A Story: The Normative Power of Storytelling , Zoe Cunliffe

Facing the Fringe , Laura Gradowski

Necessity, Essence and Analyticity: Toward an Analytic Essentialist Account of Necessity , Dongwoo Kim

Actual Causation: Apt Causal Models and Causal Relativism , Jennifer R. McDonald

Pervasive Nonarbitrariness: Meaning from Form in Natural Language , David J. Neely

Marx, Race, Black Radicalism, and Racial Justice , Gregory Slack

Dissertations from 2021 2021

Rethinking Thinking About Thinking: Against a Pedagogical Imperative to Cultivate Metacognitive Skills , Lauren R. Alpert

Collective Intention and Class Consciousness , Aaron T. Bentley

Climbing The Mountain When There Is No Mountain To Climb: Pragmatism and the Reconstruction of Moral Philosophy , Ryan Marshall Felder

Pictorial Communication , Nada Gatalo

Legal Purgatory: Why Some Animals are Neither Persons nor Property , Sharisse Kanet

Desire, Culture, and the Body , Zoey Lavallee

Cooperation: The Ethics of Shared Agency , Jules F. Salomone-Sehr

Perceiving the Body: On the Bodily Senses and the Nature of Perception , Fiona C. Schick

Essays on Communication , Shawn M. Simpson

Informed Consent: Foundations and Applications , Joanna Smolenski

Fighting Words: Slurs, Semantics, and the Law , Richard Stillman

What We Owe to Our Audience: The Hermeneutical Responsibility of Fiction Creators , Kathryn Wojtkiewicz

The Emotional Illusion of Music: Contemporary Western Musical Aesthetics in Dialogue with Ancient Eastern Philosophy , Yin Zhang

Dissertations from 2020 2020

Production, not Dependence: The Metaphysics of Causation and its Role in Explanation, Responsibility, and the Law , Yuval Abrams

Identity and Counterparthood in a Many Worlds Universe , Sophia A.M. Bishop

Logical Pluralism and Vicious Regresses , Daniel Boyd

The Police and the State , Brandon del Pozo

In and Out of Character: Socratic Mimēsis , Mateo Duque

Metaethical Intentionalism and the Intersubjectivity of Morals , Kyle Ferguson

An Eco-Political Theory of Territory , Jonathan Kwan

Ethical Validity: An Ethical Validity Claim for Discourse Ethics , Jamie B. Lindsay

Emotion in Mind , Kathryn E. Pendoley

Environmental Transformative Justice: Responding to Ecocide , Manuel Rodeiro

Continuity as Crisis: Two Traditions of Theorizing about Animal Minds , Adam See

A Modelist Proposal , Jian Shen

The Coherence of Left-Libertarianism: A New Approach to Reconciling Libertarianism and Socialism , Jesse E. Spafford

Epistemic Injustice and Sexual Violence Intervention Advocacy , Jennifer Ware

Freedom, Markets, and Equality in Eighteenth Century Philosophy , Nicole Whalen

Dissertations from 2019 2019

How Racial Injustice Causes Ignorance , Eric Bayruns

Mentality and Fundamentality , Christopher D. Brown

A Volitional Theory of Aesthetic Value , John Dyck

Who Needs Blame?: Answerability Without Expressed Blame , Sarah Gokhale

A Defense of Pure Connectionism , Alex B. Kiefer

The Origin of Power in the Need to Cooperate: Parallels Between Political and Economic Power , David Nagy

Quantum Uncertainty Reduction (QUR) Theory of Attended Access and Phenomenal Consciousness , Anatoly V. Nichvoloda

Some Non-Human Languages of Thought , Nicolas J. Porot

How We Act Together , Matthew Rachar

Intention and Interpretation in Law , Cosim J. Sayid

Frontiers of Conditional Logic , Yale Weiss

Basic-Acceptance Teleosemantics , Esteban Withrington

Dissertations from 2018 2018

Toward a Science of Morals , Ross Taylor Colebrook

A Philosophical Defense of Judicial Minimalism , Cory A. Evans

On A and B Theories of Time , Edward Freeman

Demystifying the Placebo Effect , Phoebe Friesen

The Fragmented Mind: Working Memory Cannot Implement Consciousness , Javier Gomez-Lavin

Experimental Philosophy and Feminist Epistemology: Conflicts and Complements , Amanda Huminski

The Philosophical Foundations of PLEN: A Protocol-theoretic Logic of Epistemic Norms , Ralph E. Jenkins

Morality as Social Software , Jongjin Kim

The Psychology of Plato's Republic: Taking Book 10 into Account , Daniel Mailick

Essence, Explanation, and Modal Knowledge , Antonella Mallozzi

The Syndrome of Romantic Love , Arina Pismenny

Unarticulated Constituents and Theories of Meaning , Jesse Rappaport

The Two Inexical Uses Theory of Proper Names and Frege's Puzzle , Daniel S. Shabasson

Infodynamics: A Naturalistic Psychosemantics , Daniel E. Weissglass

Scanlon's Contractualism and Its Critics , Kenneth R. Weisshaar

Theories of Perception and Recent Empirical Work , Philip Zigman

Dissertations from 2017 2017

W.E.B. Du Bois: Freedom, Race, and American Modernity , Elvira Basevich

Evil and the Ontological Disproof , Carl J. Brownson III

Scientifically Responsible Metaphysics: A Program for the Naturalization of Metaphysics , Amanda Bryant

A Normative Account of Political Representation , Kenneth R. Courtney

The Proscriptive Principle and Logics of Analytic Implication , Thomas M. Ferguson

Meaning Through Things , Marilynn Johnson

Toward a Social Ontology of the Family , Laura W. Kane

Grounding, Causation and the Unity of Ontological Structure , Thomas Kivatinos

Syntax and Semantics of Perceptual Representation , James K. Quilty-Dunn

The Nature of Introspection , Adriana Renero

Aspects of Biological Explanation , Derek J. Skillings

For Narrativity: How Creating Narratives Structures Experience and Self , Natallia Stelmak Schabner

Dissertations from 2016 2016

Art as Display , Frank M. Boardman

Virtue’s Web: The Virtue of Empathic Attunement and the Need for a Relational Foundation , Georgina D. Campelia

Darwinian Debunking Reconsidered , Amanda J. Favia

Toward a Kripkean Concept of Number , Oliver R. Marshall

Seeing and Perceptual Content , Ben S. Phillips

Actions, Reasons and Self-Expression: A Defense of Subjectivist-Internalism about Reasons , Carolyn P. Plunkett

Three Essays in Intuitionistic Epistemology , Tudor Protopopescu

Consciousness, Perception, and Short-Term Memory , Henry F. Shevlin

Construing Character: Virtue as a Cognitive-Affective Processing System , Denise Vigani

The C3 Conditional: A Variably Strict Ordinary-Language Conditional , Monique L. Whitaker

Semantic Holism Revisited , Chun-Ping Yen

Moral Dilemmas and Moral Theories , Jihwan Yu

Dissertations from 2015 2015

Persons as Self-consciously Concerned Beings , Benjamin Abelson

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Doctor of Philosophy Program in Philosophy

The Department of Philosophy also offers a program leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The degree requires 72 points. The department requires that 44 points (the "basic points") be as specified below. A minimum of 36 of the 44 basic points must be taken in the NYU Department of Philosophy. Twenty-eight of the total 72 points may be in dissertation research, although the student may include other courses toward that total as well. Transfer credit is apportioned on a case-by-case basis and is normally restricted to courses taken in philosophy Ph.D. programs. Normally, credit for a maximum of 12 basic points is allowed for work done elsewhere. Except in unusual circumstances, transfer credit may not be used to satisfy the area distribution requirements described below under "Basic course work."

Coursework: The required 44 basic points consist of the following:

• Proseminar, PHIL-GA 1000, (8 points). It includes frequent short writing assignments, and the mode of instruction emphasizes discussion rather than lecture. The topics are determined by the instructors but include basic texts and ideas in analytic philosophy.
• Basic course work (28 points; typically seven 4-point courses) These seven courses are drawn from advanced introduction courses, intermediate-level courses, topics or advanced seminar courses, and research seminar courses. These must include at least one course in value theory (ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of law, or political philosophy); at least one course in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, or philosophy of mind; and at least one course in the history of philosophy (ancient, medieval, modern, or 19th century). At least three of the courses must be outside value theory.
• Two Associated Writing courses (8 points). There are two main forms that an Associated Writing course may take. In the first, most common form, the student works with a faculty member to develop and refine an already existing paper. (The paper is often, but not always, a paper written for a previous graduate seminar.) During the semester, the student submits drafts of the developing paper, discussing each draft with the instructor before moving on to the next draft. The aim is for students to receive individual mentoring in the craft of writing a professional-level philosophy paper; to have a chance to develop a paper more deeply and thoroughly than is typically possible in the more rushed context of a one-semester seminar; and to be provided with a formally structured opportunity to prepare papers for the third-year review. Although this is the paradigmatic form of an Associated Writing course, the student needn't always start with a preexisting paper. In some cases, an Associated Writing may take a form more akin to an "Independent Study," in which the student (with faculty guidance) reads up on an area of interest and writes a new paper from scratch. While this is sometimes a good option, students should be aware that to go this route is potentially to saddle themselves with extra work in a way that could slow their progress through the program. To go this route is also to forgo a formally structured opportunity to work on polishing an existing paper for the third-year review. It is expected that the student and faculty member will meet roughly every two weeks during the semester. Students needn't have prior acquaintance with a faculty member to ask him or her to supervise an Associated Writing. Under no circumstances may a student submit one and the same paper for credit in both a graduate seminar and an Associated Writing course. If an Associated Writing paper develops out of an existing seminar paper, as will often be the case, the expectation is that it will constitute a substantial development of that paper. An Associated Writing course may in some cases be used to fulfill a distribution requirement, but only if the course is done on the "Independent Study" model and permission is obtained in advance from the Director of Graduate Studies and the course instructor.

Third-Year Review: By the date one week prior to the first day of the fifth semester in the program, students must submit two papers (normally the product of courses in the first two years). To satisfy the requirement, papers should be substantial pieces of work of 15-30 pages in length and should demonstrate that the student is able to take his or her philosophical research and writing to the high level appropriate for writing a dissertation. Students should also be in good standing at the time of the review.

Thesis Prospectus: By the fifth week of their fifth term in the program, students must designate a prospectus advisor and report that designation to the Director of Graduate Studies. (The designation of a prospectus advisor takes place by this time regardless of whether the student has successfully completed the third-year review.) It is understood that the designation of "prospectus advisor" is provisional and subject to change depending on the evolving nature of the thesis project. The prospectus advisor's role is to guide the student through the prospectus-writing process; the prospectus advisor may or may not ultimately serve on the dissertation committee, though of course often he or she will.

By the tenth week of their sixth term in the program, students must submit a draft prospectus document to their prospectus advisor, copying the Director of Graduate Studies. It is hoped that this draft can serve as the final, or near-final, version of the prospectus and be defended by the end of the sixth term, but it is understood that this will not always be possible; to remain in good standing, however, the student must submit a draft, which may then serve as the basis for ongoing work and discussion. The prospectus document should be between five and a strict maximum of fifteen pages long. It should not be a philosophy paper, but rather a thesis plan that (1) clearly articulates an interesting philosophical problem in a way that (2) displays the student's knowledge of the problem's place in the space of philosophical ideas and, in particular, of the leading attempts to resolve the problem, and (3) gives as clear an indication as the student can give at this early stage of how he or she intends to organize the thesis, and of what he or she expects his or her contribution to be, that is, of what the thesis will add to the existing literature. (Students writing a thesis consisting of three linked papers should apply these guidelines to each of their topics. The prospectus document should still not exceed fifteen pages, however.)

No later than the fourteenth week of the sixth term in the program, each student must notify the Director of Graduate Studies of the composition of his or her full prospectus committee. The prospectus committee ordinarily consists of three, and no more than three, faculty members. The prospectus committee often becomes the dissertation committee, but this needn't always be the case and uncertainty about the ultimate composition of the dissertation committee should not stand in the way of the designation of the prospectus committee by the end of the sixth term. Dissertation committees also ordinarily consist of three, and no more than three, faculty members. Exceptions to this rule require special justification and must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

To remain in good standing, students must complete the prospectus and pass the prospectus defense no later than the fourteenth week of their seventh term in the program. While the prospectus defense takes the form of an oral examination, its principal purpose is to reach an agreement with prospective future members of the student's thesis committee as to the shape and substance of the project. The thesis prospectus examination should satisfy the committee that the candidate can write a passing thesis meeting the description in the candidate's submitted prospectus.

Logic Requirement: Students should satisfy the department of their competence in the following: formalization of English sentences; derivations within a system of predicate logic; formal definition of truth and validity for a first-order language; basic metalogical tools, including the use-mention distinction, the concept of rigor, and proof and definition by mathematical induction; statement and proof of basic metalogical results, including the deduction theorem, soundness and completeness for sentential and predicate logic, and completeness for predicate logic. The Director of Graduate Studies will count the student as having passed the requirement when presented with appropriate evidence (e.g., of a pass in a relevant course at NYU or elsewhere).

Thesis and Oral Examination: The dissertation can consist of a monograph or, alternatively, of three outstanding papers. The department envisions that, in most cases, the dissertation will grow out of work done for the topics or advanced seminar and Associated Writing courses and that there will be no sharp distinction between years of course work and years of dissertation writing. Students who entered in the year 2010 or later are expected to complete all degree requirements, including the dissertation, within six years (or five if the student elects not to participate in the teaching program).

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Registration

Monitoring progress, intermission, working away, preparation of thesis, questionnaires.

Research students are expected to be in residence in Cambridge pursuing their research between terms, except during periods of holiday agreed with their supervisor, normally up to 8 weeks in a 12 month period. Students who make time to take some holidays, or a break away from their studies, tend to do better.

PhD candidates may submit their theses after nine terms (three years) of research, and MLitt candidates after six terms (two years).  The Student Registry and the Degree Committee expect a thesis to be a piece of work which can be produced by a capable, well-qualified and diligent research student, properly supervised and supported, within those times.  It is very important that you design your project with these time-limits firmly in view. It is good both for morale and for your CV to submit your thesis within the stated times – and most PhD funding runs out after three years. 

If your PhD research is suitably related to your MPhil work, you will usually be allowed to count some or all of your three MPhil terms towards the residency requirements of the PhD, if you are ready to submit your thesis before the minimum terms of study have elapsed. This means that you may submit a PhD thesis after only six more terms, if you wish. Please see the following webpage for further information:

https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/postgraduate-study/your-student-status/allowanceexemption-research-terms

The Student Registry and the Degree Committee recognise, however, that original research is liable to unforeseen difficulties and delays, so all PhD students are allowed 4 years in which to complete and submit their thesis (3 years for the MLitt). Unless there are extenuating circumstances, which would permit a student to apply for an extension to their submission date, candidates who do not submit by these final deadlines would be asked to withdraw from the University, until such time as they are ready to submit, and apply for reinstatement .

All students accepted for the PhD are on probation for their first year. In your third term of research, the Degree Committee will decide whether to register you as a candidate for the PhD (the registration then being backdated to your date of admission). You will have a registration interview with two Faculty assessors, other than your Supervisor. Central University information on the requirements of a registration review is here:

https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/self-evaluation

In some (rare) cases, your assessors may decide that you should be registered for the MLitt degree, instead of the PhD, at this stage. This registration interview cannot be delayed without good cause (e.g., illness). With your supervisors’ help, you start working out your plan of research, and the topic or topics of your written work, as soon as possible after you arrive.

Before registering you as a PhD candidate the Degree Committee must be satisfied (i) that you have a suitable plan of work and (ii) that you have begun to write about some part of it, in a sustained way, at a standard likely to get you the degree in a reasonable time. You are therefore required to email the following documents to your two assessors and the Postgraduate Administrator by the last day of Lent full term*:

• a statement (1,000 words) of your plan of research.
• a piece of recent written work (6,000-10,000 words) on some topic within this plan; and
• an account of research already completed (1,000 words)

These submissions must be properly written up: rough drafts are not acceptable. The registration interview will take place shortly after the end of Lent Term, with your two assessors who will have read the submitted documents. The exact date of the review will be agreed on by the two assessors and the student. The requirements for registration are as outlined above. Students will be sent a copy of their review report once it has been approved by Degree Committee at their May meeting.

Prospective PhD candidates whose work does not show sufficient progress will be given the opportunity to submit an improved set of work by the last day of Easter full term*. A further interview will then take place with the two Faculty members writing independent reports for the Degree Committee in late June/early July*.

The Degree Committee will recommend that prospective PhD candidates whose resubmitted work is still deemed to be unsatisfactory either withdraw from the University or, less severely, be registered only as MLitt candidates. In the latter case they may later be re-registered as PhD candidates (with registration again backdated to the date of admission) if they submit sufficiently improved work at the same time in their second year (i.e. at their fifth term review).

The Degree Committee will recommend that prospective MLitt candidates whose resubmitted work is still deemed to be unsatisfactory withdraw from the University.

Monitoring progress

Your supervisor is required to report termly to the Student Registry and the Degree Committee on your progress. You will also be invited to submit self-evaluation reports on your progress on CamSIS. More information on the Feedback and progress reporting systems for postgraduate students is here:

In addition, there are the following reviews:

Fifth Term Review

This review takes place in the fifth term for a student who is registered for the PhD or MLitt.  For this review you need to email the following documents to your supervisor, advisor, and Postgraduate Secretary by the last day of Lent full term*:

• an account of research you have already completed (1,000 words)

These submissions must be properly written up: rough drafts are not acceptable.  The review will take place shortly after the end of Lent Term, normally with the supervisor and advisor, who will report in writing to the first meeting of the Degree Committee in the Easter Term. The exact date of the review will be agreed on by the two assessors and the student. Students will then be sent a copy of their review report once it has been approved by Degree Committee at their May meeting.

In the unlikely event that your work does not show sufficient progress you will be given the opportunity to submit an improved set of work by last day of Easter full term*. A further interview will then take place with the supervisor and advisor writing independent reports for the Degree Committee in late June/early July*.

Seventh Term Review

This review takes place in the seventh term for a student who is registered for the PhD. For this review you are required to email the same three documents as are described above, again demonstrating ongoing progress, to your supervisor and advisor by the last day of Michaelmas full term*.

The review will take place shortly after the end of Michaelmas Term, normally with the supervisor and adrvisor, who will report in writing to the first meeting of the Degree Committee in the Lent Term. The exact date of the review will be agreed on by the two assessors and the student. Students will then be sent a copy of their review report once it has been approved by Degree Committee at their January meeting.

If the supervisor and advisor are not happy with a student's progress they may recommend to the Degree Committee that a student's registration be changed from PhD to MLitt. They may also recommend that candidates who are not making satisfactory progress towards completing their theses withdraw from the University. The student will be fully consulted before any such recommendation is made. Note also that students withdraw from the University for this reason (or because they have failed to submit on time), but who manage to complete their theses on their own, may apply to be reinstated in order to submit their theses for examination. Please see:

https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/postgraduate-study/your-student-status/reinstatement

Although this monitoring may sound onerous, experience shows that most often the reviews function as useful markers of progress, and as good opportunities to take stock and to talk about useful ways forward, in a forum slightly different from that of a normal supervision.

If your work is hindered or interrupted by medical, financial or other problems you may apply for leave to intermit your research for a period of time from 2 weeks, to up to 3 terms (for full time students). Terms intermitted do not count towards the above deadlines. Consult your Supervisor and the Postgraduate Secretary if you would like to discuss this option at any point in your studies. You can also find further information here:

https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/postgraduate-study/your-student-status/medical-intermission

Working away from Cambridge

It is possible to apply for leave to work away from Cambridge for a maximum of 3 terms at a time Some PhD students find this is useful if they wish to work with a supervisor who is external to the University of Cambridge for some of their PhD study. More information on the process of how to apply for leave to work away can be found here:

https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/postgraduate-study/your-student-status/work-away

To support students working away from Cambridge, it is recommended that students apply to the University for free travel insurance: https://www.insurance.admin.cam.ac.uk/travel-insurance/travel-insurance-students

The Faculty has a small allocation of funding for fieldwork, that students can apply for via the Postgraduate Office. As part of this application process, students will also be required to complete a risk assessment: https://www.safety.admin.cam.ac.uk/risk-assessment

The Faculty can provide a template risk assessment – please ask the Postgraduate Secretary for further information.

Preparation of theses

PhD (MLitt) theses in philosophy must not be more than 80,000 (60,000) words long. The word count includes appendices and footnotes but excludes bibliography. See here for further information:

https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/examinations/graduate-exam-information/submitting-and-examination/phd-msc-mlitt/word#philos

The University’s regulations require that to qualify for the award of the PhD degree, a thesis has to be in English (apart from quotations and technical formulae), to be clearly written, to take due account of previously published work on the subject, and to represent a significant contribution to learning (for example through the discovery of new knowledge, the connection of previously unrelated facts, the development of new theory, or the revision of older views). The Degree Committee of Philosophy, in its advice to examiners, adds as an informal gloss on this that an acceptable thesis should contain some material of sufficient originality to merit publication and this material should be adequate to form the basis of, for example, at least two articles (together amounting to 15,000 - 20,000 words) or of a short monograph.

To qualify for the award of the MLitt degree, a thesis must be clearly written, take due account of previously published work on the subject, and represent a useful contribution to learning.

Candidates may get an idea of the standards expected of PhD and MLitt theses in philosophy by reading the copies of successful theses deposited in the University Library.

The detailed procedure for submitting PhD and MLitt theses for examination, which candidates should follow carefully, is at:

https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/examinations/graduate-exam-information/submitting-and-examination/phd-msc-mlitt/prepare

In what follows only a few salient points are picked out.

Candidates should apply for the appointment of examiners, through the Philosophy Postgraduate Secretary, when—but only when—their theses are nearly complete. (In particular, if they are going to submit their theses during the Long Vacation they should apply in good time for the late June/early July meeting of the Degree Committee*.) Together with the candidate, the supervisor should compete the form found here:

https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/curr-students/postgraduates/Graduate-Forms

and submit this by e-mail to the Postgraduate Secretary. The candidate will also need to email the Postgraduate Secretary a one page summary of the thesis, to guide the Degree Committee in appointing suitable examiners. This abstract should be around 300 words in length – a candidate’s supervisor can provide further guidance on the expected content of the abstract.         

Theses are examined independently by two examiners, one of whom will normally be from outside Cambridge. Candidates are required to submit their thesis initially via Moodle, the University’s Online Teaching Platform. The Postgraduate Secretary will provide further information on the process for softbound submission. As of 1 st October 2017, once their PhD has been approved, students are also required to submit an electronic copy of their PhD thesis to the University’s repository, Apollo. At the point of upload, students are given the choice of different access options, including the choice to make their thesis available Open Access immediately or to embargo access for an initial 12 months . The upload of the thesis can be done via the upload form in Symplectic Elements .

Once the award of the degree is approved, students should submit one hard bound copy to be deposited in the University Library.  More information on the submission of electronic theses can be found on the Office of Scholarly Communication website:

http://osc.cam.ac.uk/theses

It is important that thesis examiners actually receive theses when they expect to do so; otherwise their other commitments may seriously delay the examination. In giving submission dates, candidates should therefore take care to be realistic, and not underestimate the time it takes to complete writing up, make final corrections, check references and proofs, and get their theses printed and bound.

What to expect from the viva

The examination is undertaken with two examiners, and may include an independent chair if the Degree Committee has deemed it appropriate.  There are no rules for its duration, but as an approximate guide, the examination will normally take at least 90 minutes and is likely to conclude within three hours at a maximum.

The oral examination should allow:

• The defence of your dissertation and the clarification of any matters raised by the examiners
• the examiners to probe your knowledge in the field
• the examiners to assure themselves that the work presented is your own and to clarify matters of any collaboration
• the examiners to come to a definite conclusion about the outcome of the examination

What to bring with you to the viva

• You can take a (marked up) copy of the thesis in with you.  You may want to take a tablet or notepad and pen to make notes.
• Water will be available in the room where you will be examined but you may like to take your own with you.

The default  viva  format is an in-person examination held in Cambridge, but students will have the option to choose an online  viva  if they wish.  The University has provided additional information about the online viva process, which can be found here:

https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/files/guide_to_conducting_vivas_online.pdf

Examiners write independent reports on theses for the Degree Committee, making recommendations, which may or may not be conditional on the results of the oral examination. Because it often takes a considerable time for examiners to get round to, and to complete, this assessment, candidates must expect to wait (or return) for their oral examination up to two months (but no more than four months) after submitting their theses. Examiners may allow candidates who have had to return, e.g., to America or Australasia, the option of conducting the oral examination by video conference; but they are under no obligation to do so, and candidates must not assume that they will. If a candidate would like to request adjustments to their viva on the grounds of disability, they should complete a ‘voluntary disclosure form’ and return this to the Postgraduate secretary. The form can be found here: https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/files/voluntary_disclosure_form.pdf

An examiner who thinks that a PhD or MLitt thesis fails to reach the required standard, but could do so with suitable revision, may recommend allowing the candidate to submit a revised thesis. This can only happen once; a thesis which has already been resubmitted once cannot be submitted again.

An examiner who thinks that a PhD thesis fails to reach the standard required for that degree, but does reach the standard required for the MLitt, may recommend approving the candidate for that degree. A PhD examiner who thinks both of the above may recommend giving the candidate the alternative of submitting a revised thesis or of taking the MLitt (but not both).

If the examiners’ recommendations agree, the Degree Committee will normally accept them, unless the examination has been improperly conducted in some way, in which case new examiners may have to be appointed. If the original examiners’ recommendations disagree, the Degree Committee may resolve the disagreement by appointing a third examiner.

The University’s statement on academic misconduct, including plagiarism can be found at:

http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/students/statement.html

We ask PhD & MLitt students to provide their feedback at regular intervals throughout their course, in the form of a questionnaire sent from the Postgraduate Office. Usually there is one questionnaire sent at the time of each review. Feedback from students is important in helping us to improve the course, and we ask that all students complete all questionnaires.

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Doctor of Philosophy in Education

Additional Information

• Download the Doctoral Viewbook
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The Harvard Ph.D. in Education trains cutting-edge researchers who work across disciplines to generate knowledge and translate discoveries into transformative policy and practice.

Offered jointly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Ph.D. in Education provides you with full access to the extraordinary resources of Harvard University and prepares you to assume meaningful roles as university faculty, researchers, senior-level education leaders, and policymakers.

As a Ph.D. candidate, you will collaborate with scholars across all Harvard graduate schools on original interdisciplinary research. In the process, you will help forge new fields of inquiry that will impact the way we teach and learn. The program’s required coursework will develop your knowledge of education and your expertise in a range of quantitative and qualitative methods needed to conduct high-quality research. Guided by the goal of making a transformative impact on education research, policy, and practice, you will focus on independent research in various domains, including human development, learning and teaching, policy analysis and evaluation, institutions and society, and instructional practice.   

Curriculum Information

The Ph.D. in Education requires five years of full-time study to complete. You will choose your individual coursework and design your original research in close consultation with your HGSE faculty adviser and dissertation committee. The requirements listed below include the three Ph.D. concentrations: Culture, Institutions, and Society; Education Policy and Program Evaluation; and Human Development, Learning and Teaching . 

We invite you to review an example course list, which is provided in two formats — one as the full list by course number and one by broad course category . These lists are subject to modification. 

Ph.D. Concentrations and Examples

Summary of Ph.D. Program

Doctoral Colloquia  In year one and two you are required to attend. The colloquia convenes weekly and features presentations of work-in-progress and completed work by Harvard faculty, faculty and researchers from outside Harvard, and Harvard doctoral students. Ph.D. students present once in the colloquia over the course of their career.

Research Apprenticeship The Research Apprenticeship is designed to provide ongoing training and mentoring to develop your research skills throughout the entire program.

Teaching Fellowships The Teaching Fellowship is an opportunity to enhance students' teaching skills, promote learning consolidation, and provide opportunities to collaborate with faculty on pedagogical development.

Comprehensive Exams  The Written Exam (year 2, spring) tests you on both general and concentration-specific knowledge. The Oral Exam (year 3, fall/winter) tests your command of your chosen field of study and your ability to design, develop, and implement an original research project.

Dissertation  Based on your original research, the dissertation process consists of three parts: the Dissertation Proposal, the writing, and an oral defense before the members of your dissertation committee.

Culture, Institutions, and Society (CIS) Concentration

In CIS, you will examine the broader cultural, institutional, organizational, and social contexts relevant to education across the lifespan. What is the value and purpose of education? How do cultural, institutional, and social factors shape educational processes and outcomes? How effective are social movements and community action in education reform? How do we measure stratification and institutional inequality? In CIS, your work will be informed by theories and methods from sociology, history, political science, organizational behavior and management, philosophy, and anthropology. You can examine contexts as diverse as classrooms, families, neighborhoods, schools, colleges and universities, religious institutions, nonprofits, government agencies, and more.

Education Policy and Program Evaluation (EPPE) Concentration

In EPPE, you will research the design, implementation, and evaluation of education policy affecting early childhood, K–12, and postsecondary education in the U.S. and internationally. You will evaluate and assess individual programs and policies related to critical issues like access to education, teacher effectiveness, school finance, testing and accountability systems, school choice, financial aid, college enrollment and persistence, and more. Your work will be informed by theories and methods from economics, political science, public policy, and sociology, history, philosophy, and statistics. This concentration shares some themes with CIS, but your work with EPPE will focus on public policy and large-scale reforms.

Human Development, Learning and Teaching (HDLT) Concentration

In HDLT, you will work to advance the role of scientific research in education policy, reform, and practice. New discoveries in the science of learning and development — the integration of biological, cognitive, and social processes; the relationships between technology and learning; or the factors that influence individual variations in learning — are transforming the practice of teaching and learning in both formal and informal settings. Whether studying behavioral, cognitive, or social-emotional development in children or the design of learning technologies to maximize understanding, you will gain a strong background in human development, the science of learning, and sociocultural factors that explain variation in learning and developmental pathways. Your research will be informed by theories and methods from psychology, cognitive science, sociology and linguistics, philosophy, the biological sciences and mathematics, and organizational behavior.

Program Faculty

The most remarkable thing about the Ph.D. in Education is open access to faculty from all Harvard graduate and professional schools, including the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Learn about the full Ph.D. Faculty.

Jarvis R. Givens

Jarvis Givens studies the history of American education, African American history, and the relationship between race and power in schools.

Paul L. Harris

Paul Harris is interested in the early development of cognition, emotion, and imagination in children.

Meira Levinson

Meira Levinson is a normative political philosopher who works at the intersection of civic education, youth empowerment, racial justice, and educational ethics. 

Luke W. Miratrix

Luke Miratrix is a statistician who explores how to best use modern statistical methods in applied social science contexts.

Eric Taylor

Eric Taylor studies the economics of education, with a particular interest in employer-employee interactions between schools and teachers — hiring and firing decisions, job design, training, and performance evaluation.

Paola Uccelli

Paola Ucelli studies socio-cultural and individual differences in the language development of multilingual and monolingual students.

View Ph.D. Faculty

Dissertations.

The following is a complete listing of successful Ph.D. in Education dissertations to-date. Dissertations from November 2014 onward are publicly available in the Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) , the online repository for Harvard scholarship.

• 2022 Graduate Dissertations (265 KB pdf)
• 2021 Graduate Dissertations (177 KB pdf)
• 2020 Graduate Dissertations (121 KB pdf)
• 2019 Graduate Dissertations (68.3 KB pdf)

Student Directory

An opt-in listing of current Ph.D. students with information about their interests, research, personal web pages, and contact information:

Doctor of Philosophy in Education Student Directory

Introduce Yourself

Tell us about yourself so that we can tailor our communication to best fit your interests and provide you with relevant information about our programs, events, and other opportunities to connect with us.

Program Highlights

Explore examples of the Doctor of Philosophy in Education experience and the impact its community is making on the field:

Reshaping Teacher Licensure: Lessons from the Pandemic

Olivia Chi, Ed.M.'17, Ph.D.'20, discusses the ongoing efforts to ensure the quality and stability of the teaching workforce

Lost in Translation

New comparative study from Ph.D. candidate Maya Alkateb-Chami finds strong correlation between low literacy outcomes for children and schools teaching in different language from home

UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this community https://hdl.handle.net/2152/4

This collection contains University of Texas at Austin electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). The collection includes ETDs primarily from 2001 to the present. Some pre-2001 theses and dissertations have been digitized and added to this collection, but those are uncommon. The library catalog is the most comprehensive list of UT Austin theses and dissertations.

Since 2010, the Office of Graduate Studies at UT Austin has required all theses and dissertations to be made publicly available in Texas ScholarWorks; however, authors are able to request an embargo of up to seven years. Embargoed ETDs will not show up in this collection. Most of the ETDs in this collection are freely accessible to all users, but some pre-2010 works require a current UT EID at point of use. Please see the FAQs for more information. If you have a question about the availability of a specific ETD, please contact [email protected].

Some items in this collection may contain offensive images or text. The University of Texas Libraries is committed to maintaining an accurate and authentic scholarly and historic record. An authentic record is essential for understanding our past and informing the present. In order to preserve the authenticity of the historical record we will not honor requests to redact content, correct errors, or otherwise remove content, except in cases where there are legal concerns (e.g. potential copyright infringement, inclusion of HIPAA/FERPA protected information or Social Security Numbers) or evidence of a clear and imminent threat to personal safety or well-being.

This policy is in keeping with the  American Library Association code of ethics  to resist efforts to censor library resources, and the  Society of American Archivists code of ethics  that states "archivists may not willfully alter, manipulate, or destroy data or records to conceal facts or distort evidence." Please see UT Libraries'  Statement on Harmful Language and Content  for more information.

Authors of these ETDs have retained their copyright while granting the University of Texas Libraries the non-exclusive right to reproduce and distribute their works.

Collections in this Community

• UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations   30995