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The University of Rochester's Philosophy Department places its PhD program at the heart of its academic community. With an intimate cohort size (around 10 faculty members and 20 doctoral candidates), the program fosters close collaboration between students and professors. Beyond formal seminars, students engage in numerous reading groups each term, with much of the curriculum focused on independent research under faculty guidance. Doctoral candidates gain teaching experience as teaching assistants and may lead their own courses.
Faculty specialties encompass diverse philosophical domains including epistemology, ethics, historical philosophy, logic, mathematics philosophy, metaphysics, language philosophy, mind philosophy, religion philosophy, and social-political philosophy. The ethics faculty particularly excels in normative theory, bioethics, metaethics, and AI ethics.
The doctoral program mandates 90 course credits and a philosophical dissertation, structured for completion within five years. Our department boasts philosophers with wide-ranging specializations and varied philosophical viewpoints.
We prioritize preparing students for academic research and instruction. The department collaborates with computer science, cognitive science, and linguistics departments through a joint cognitive science graduate program.