Philosophy

Overview

There is also a smaller master’s degree program for students who wish to pursue philosophy as a secondary degree in addition to their primary study at the University.

We offer a master degree in Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. Other areas of ongoing interest include social and political philosophy, feminism, and Marxism. Although many figures in the history of philosophy are actively studied and taught in the department, a few may be singled out as the focus of especially wide attention, including Plato, Aristotle, the Hellenistic philosophers, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Frege, and Wittgenstein.

The department’s courses, topical offerings, and coverage are unusually broad, not merely because the faculty is relatively large, but also because nearly every member of the department has more than one area of specialization—often several. 

Particular strengths:

• History of philosophy—especially ancient, modern, and 19th-century philosophy

• Metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of language

• History and philosophy of science, including (but not limited to) the foundations of modern physics

• Ethics, value theory, and moral psychology

• Formal philosophy and philosophical logic

• Mathematics (both foundationally and historically motivated)

• Philosophy of mind