Philosophy

Overview

The mission of the M.A. program in Philosophy program of Duquesne University is to prepare students with strong backgrounds in philosophy and allied fields to successfully obtain admission to more advanced degree programs (especially Ph.D. programs in philosophy and related areas) or to launch careers in other fields.

What you'll study

The department hosts an active and vibrant philosophical community, including an extensive visiting speakers series and graduate research colloquium, student and faculty organized reading groups, and a strong graduate student organization. Information on recent events, visiting speakers, and the Graduate Students in Philosophy organization may be found below.

The graduate program is built around small seminars that engage primary texts and conceptual problems. We strongly encourage reading philosophical works in their original languages, when possible, and place a premium on our students developing a high level of competence in the languages related to their doctoral research. To that end, we offer substantial support for our graduate students to pursue language study at Duquesne and through intensive summer language programs abroad.

Courses offered

In the last few years, the university has offered graduate courses on the pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Hellenistic and Roman philosophy, Plotinus, Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Aquinas, classical Islamic philosophy, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger, Freud, Benjamin, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Adorno, Levinas, Derrida, Habermas, Foucault, Deleuze, and Badiou. Recent thematic courses have included Aesthetics, Contemporary Social and Political Philosophy, Critical Race Theory, Feminist Phenomenology, German Idealism, History and Philosophy of Science, Early Modern Political Philosophy, Hermeneutics, Psychoanalysis, Idealism and Materialism, Moral Philosophy, Phenomenological Epistemology, Philosophy of the Body, Philosophy of Music, Philosophy of Time, and the Phenomenology of Space and Place.