PH.D. IN APPLIED PHILOSOPHY
I: COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

A minimum of sixteen four hour courses or seminars in Philosophy (64 hours), typically to be completed in the first three academic years, of which 13 courses (52 hours) are core courses and 3 courses (12 hours) are Philosophy electives. The sixteen courses must be completed in the first four academic years. Twelve of the sixteen courses in Philosophy (48 hours) must be completed during the first two academic years. An additional 2 courses (8 credit hours) of electives or cognates are required, to bring the total to 72 credit hours in the first three academic years. An additional course, Teaching Applied Philosophy, (1 hour) is required during the first semester of teaching assistantship.

The Core Requirements are taken early in the program to prepare students to do research in Applied Philosophy; for this reason, the Core Requirements do not require work in Applied Philosophy except for the Core Pro-seminar in Applied Ethics or Applied Political Philosophy. There are two groups of Core Requirements. The Group A Core Requirements are to be completed by the end of the spring semester of the second academic year, which is the fourth semester of the program (excluding summer semesters). The M.A. Examination is also to be completed by the end of the fourth semester (excluding summer semesters). The Group B Core Requirements are typically completed by the end of the spring semester of the third academic year, or the sixth semester of the program (excluding summer semesters). In order for a student to complete all course requirements in three academic years, some Group B requirements need to be taken during the first two academic years. Some Group B requirements can be met by taking courses in Applied Philosophy. The Group B requirements must be completed by the end of the spring semester of the fourth academic year.

GROUP A CORE REQUIREMENTS (5 Courses, 20 hours):

These courses are intended to have specific content as described below.

  (1) Pro-seminar (4 hours): Taken in the first semester of the program. This course is intended to orient students to the program by introducing them to selected topics in applied ethics or applied political philosophy and by relating these topics to issues in normative theory and in the history of philosophy. May be co-taught by two faculty.

  (2) Logic and Analysis (4 hours): propositional logic, excluding completeness, soundness, and meta-theory; predicate logic; introduction to modalities and applications.

  (3) History of Ancient Philosophy (4 hours): metaphysics and epistemology in Plato and Aristotle.

  (4) History of Modern Philosophy (4 hours): metaphysics and epistemology in at least Descartes, Hume, and Kant

  (5) History of Moral and Political Philosophy: One of the following:

  * History of Moral Philosophy (4 hours)

  * History of Political Philosophy (4 hours)

GROUP B CORE REQUIREMENTS (8 Courses, 32 hours):

Eight four hour courses in philosophy at the 600-700 level from the following five areas, at least one in three of the five areas, no more than four in any one of the areas:

  (1) Moral and political philosophy, including applied ethics and applied political philosophy (if more than one course is taken in this area, at least one course must be in contemporary moral theory).

  (2) metaphysics, philosophy of mind, epistemology.

  (3) logic or philosophy of language.

  (4) philosophy of natural or social science.

  (5) philosophy of religion, aesthetics, etc.

ADDITIONAL REGULATIONS:

  (1) Courses being taken to fulfill core requirements cannot be taken for S/U grading.

  (2) Group A requirements (3) through (5) may be taught as courses open to undergraduate majors with instructor's permission.

  (3) The course requirements may be adjusted in special circumstances, but only with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Committee.

  (4) Students are required to take a minimum of sixteen courses in Philosophy, of which no more than six overall (24 hours) may be “reading” courses.

  (5) None of the following courses may be used in fulfilling the twelve-course requirement in the first two years or the sixteen course overall requirement: PHIL 650, 651, 679, 691, 697, 698, 791, 797, 798.