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The University of Rochester's Philosophy Department places its PhD program at the heart of its academic community. With a compact size (around 10 faculty members and 20 doctoral candidates), the program fosters close mentorship between students and professors. Beyond formal seminars, students engage in numerous reading groups each term, with much of the curriculum centered on independent research under faculty guidance. Doctoral candidates gain teaching experience as teaching assistants and may lead their own courses.
Faculty specialties cover a broad spectrum including epistemology, ethics, philosophical history, logic, mathematics philosophy, metaphysics, language philosophy, mind philosophy, religion philosophy, and social-political philosophy. The ethics faculty includes specialists 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 features philosophers with wide-ranging expertise and diverse 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.