Ph.D. in Philosophy
Syracuse University offers programs leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy. Studies in the Ph.D. Program are designed to prepare students to make original contributions in philosophy and to teach at the college or university level. Studies in the M.A. program are designed to enhance a student's understanding and expertise in some aspects of philosophy.
The curriculum of the department provides opportunities for concentrations in metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, ethics, political philosophy, and the history of philosophy. Curricular resources, both within the philosophy department and in related departments, also provide for concentrations in which religion, psychology, law, and language and linguistics are a focus of interest. The degree programs reflect the view that proper graduate education in philosophy includes both the study of the history of philosophy and the examination of current philosophical issues.
For more information about Graduate Admissions, go to: https://www.syracuse.edu/admissions-aid/application-process/graduate/
To go directly to the application: https://graduate.admissions.go.syr.edu/apply/
Application deadline: January 1 to be considered for funding; late applications considered until March 1.
Do not send application materials to the department, send all materials to the Graduate School (Admissions) directly.
The application fee is $75.
In addition to completing the application, the following are also required:
- Transcripts from previous institutions
- Three (3) letters of recommendation
- Personal Statement
- Scores from English Proficiency tests (TOEFL, IELTS, Duolingo) for applicants whose first language is not English
- Writing Sample (Please see instructions below)
***We will no longer accept GRE scores as part of the application, and will not consider them even if you submit them.
Instructions for Preparing Writing Samples
Writing samples must be prepared in a way that facilitates anonymous review. Please ensure that your writing sample satisfies the following criteria:
- The first page of the writing sample should include the title of the paper, the name of the author of the paper, and the institutional affiliation of the author.
- The second page of the writing sample should include only the title of the paper.
- No other page in the writing sample should include the name of the author, the institution of the author, or any acknowledgments or thanks to named individuals. (If the author of the paper feels it is important to include acknowledgments, these can be included on the first page of the paper.)
Students admitted to the PhD program are normally funded as Teaching Assistants or University Fellows and receive grants for their full tuition. Currently the department does not offer any financial assistance for MA students
The Department strongly encourages graduate student participation in professional conferences, and some travel funds are provided to graduate students to make such activity possible. The Department is usually able to provide small summer research grants to a few graduate students. Special funds normally make it possible to offer a colloquium featuring a speaker selected by the graduate students.
A total of 63 credits of graduate work are required for the Ph.D. in Philosophy. Of these, 18 credits must be devoted to a doctoral dissertation which is a book-length work of scholarly research and 45 credits (15 3-credit courses) must be devoted to coursework, as specified below. Students receiving continued funding from the department in the form of an assistantship or fellowship are expected to complete their coursework within 3 years. For students entering with prior graduate work, up to 6 credits of coursework may be transferred at the discretion of the Director of Graduate Studies.
Required proseminars
The following three writing-intensive proseminars must be taken in the first three semesters. One proseminar may be waived at the discretion of the Director of Graduate Studies based on prior graduate work.
- PHI 617: Proseminar: History of Philosophy
- PHI 693: Proseminar: Ethics and Political Philosophy
- PHI 687: Proseminar: Language, Epistemology, Mind, and Metaphysics
PHI 651: Logic and Language (must be taken in the first year)
Selected additional courses
Eleven additional 3-credit courses or seminars. At least 6 must be numbered 700 or higher. No more than two independent study courses may be included. These must include at least one course in each of the following three area: (1) history of philosophy, (2) ethics and political philosophy, (3) language, epistemology, mind, and metaphysics. Prior graduate work may count toward this distributional requirement at the discretion of the Director of Graduate Studies.
Special paper
Each student will write one "special paper" that needs to be completed by August 15 of the summer before the third year. This paper will be developed in consultation with a member of the faculty (chosen by the student) and approved by a committee of three faculty members chosen by the Director of Graduate Studies. Students may rewrite and resubmit papers that are not approved. Approval of a special paper before August 15 of the summer before the fourth year is required to maintain good standing in the program.
Full-Time Certification
When you have completed your course requirements, and you are in ABD status, you need to register for GRD 998 every semester. Also, you need to complete a Full-Time Certification form as well to keep your status as a full-time graduate student in the Department.
Dissertation
Supervisor
Just before completion of pre-dissertation requirements (the course requirements and the special paper), typically near the end of the third year, the student should meet with the Director of Graduate Studies to discuss dissertation plans. The Director, in consultation with the student, will appoint a dissertation supervisor. In some cases, two faculty may jointly supervise a dissertation.
At that time, the student and the supervisor should identify the topic of the dissertation and compile a reading list of the most important literature in that topic. At this time the supervisor can also suggest that the student begin work developing any additional "tools" that may be required for research in that topic.
Clarification
When the supervisor feels that the student's proposal is adequately developed and that the student has done adequate background reading, the Director of Graduate Studies will appoint a committee of at least three faculty members for the Dissertation Clarification. The student will provide the members of the clarification committee with a proposal for a dissertation, including a bibliography of the major works that the student expects to cite in the dissertation. The committee will meet with the student to discuss the proposal, perhaps suggesting amendments and additional relevant literature. The committee may then accept the proposal, as amended by this discussion, or the committee may request a new written proposal and another clarification meeting.
Supervisory committee
This committee is comprised of three faculty members who supervise your dissertation after you have clarified. You are expected to regularly share your work with each member. At the end of each semester, each member of the supervisory committee must write a report on your progress. The Director of Graduate Studies will collect these and review them with your principal supervisor.
Tools requirement
There is no general program-wide foreign language requirement. However, a student's clarification committee has the authority to require some degree of competence to use one or more tools of research: perhaps one or more relevant foreign languages (e.g., if the student is writing a historical dissertation), some mathematics (e.g., statistics, if the student is writing about inductive logic), and so on. The dissertation supervisor will decide whether any requirements the clarification committee imposes have been satisfied.
Defense
When the supervisor judges that the dissertation is complete, he or she will approve it for defense. A defense committee consists of six people: (1) an external chair from another department at Syracuse University; (2) the dissertation advisor; (3) three additional philosophy faculty. One of the additional faculty members may be a philosopher at another institution, but this is not required. It is the responsibility of the DGS (in consultation with the student and the advisor) to ensure that the committee is populated.
Graduate School regulations and deadlines govern the preparation of the dissertation and the scheduling of the defense. It is important to work closely with the Director of Graduate Studies and appropriate representatives of the Graduate School in preparing the dissertation and scheduling the defense. These consultations need to begin several months before the expected graduation date.