Departmental Degree Requirements

Master of Arts   Candidates must pass 24 credits of courses at the 500-, 700-, or 800-levels and must submit and orally defend a thesis on a topic approved by the staff. Thesis proposals should be submitted at least by the semester preceding that in which the degree is to be awarded.

Doctor of Philosophy   Candidates must:

1. Pass 36 credits of courses at the 500-, 700-, or 800-levels. Students who enter the Ph.D. program with an M.A. in Philosophy from another institution may count up to 24 credits of graduate courses taken at the other institution toward this requirement.
2. Pass a departmental examination in either Greek, Latin, French, or German. The examination will, at the student’s option, consist either of short passages to be translated or of longer passages of which a detailed summary is to be given. A student who wishes to offer a language other than the four listed must show how it is relevant to his or her research. This examination should be taken no later than the fall of the candidate’s third year of graduate study.
3. Qualify in four areas: logic, metaphysics and epistemology, ethics, and history of philosophy. Candidates qualify by passing an examination in each of the four areas; the logic requirement may, alternatively, be passed by satisfactory course work in two courses approved by the department, one in formal logic, the other in philosophical logic. The examinations must be taken by February of the student’s third year in the program. Candidates may retake once examinations which they fail, in the September following their first attempt.
4. Propose and have approved, at least a year before the degree is to be awarded, a topic and plan of work for the dissertation.
5. Defend the dissertation in an oral examination.

J.D.-M.A. Program   This department, in cooperation with the School of Law, offers a combined program leading to the degrees of J.D. and M.A. in Philosophy. In order to enter the program a student is required (a) to secure admission separately to the School of Law and to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences through normal admissions procedures; and (b) subsequently to secure admission to the joint program by application to the program committee.

The program normally takes 3½-4 years to complete, and ordinarily consists of the complete first-year program at the School of Law, followed by three years of courses from the curricula of the two schools, and where appropriate, from other graduate offerings at the University. The student has to meet all the requirements set by the respective departments for the award of the J.D. degree and for that of the M.A. degree. This involves, in the School of Law, a minimum of 86 credits as well as completion of the school’s curricula; and, in the Department of Philosophy 24 credits and completion of a thesis written under the supervision of a faculty advisor. With the approval of the members of the program committee concerned, a student may count up to 12 credits earned at the graduate level in the Department of Philosophy or other graduate offerings in the University, toward the 86 credits required for the J.D. degree; and up to six credits earned in the School of Law toward the 24 credits required for the M.A. degree.

Further regulations concerning change of status, financial aid, tuition and fees, extracurricular activities, and grading standards may be obtained on application to the Department of Philosophy.

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