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Graduate Program

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Within the context of a variety of course offerings in the traditional areas of history of philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of science, our department maintains a focus in the areas of in the areas of ethics, social/political philosophy, philosophy of law, and applied sub-areas within these larger areas. Currently, the latter includes regular course offerings in bioethics and environmental ethics, research ethics, and science and public policy. Our tentative schedule of courses for ’09-’10:

FALL 2009

  • Environmental Ethics  - Nolt
  • Health Care Policy - Graber
  • Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason - Aquila
  • Proseminar (required for first-year students): Philosophy of Action - Coffman
  • Topics in Ethics or Value Theory  - Shepski

SPRING 2010

  • Hellenistic Philosophy - Shaw
  • Logic - Nolt
  • Nietzsche - Nolt
  • Orientation to Medical Ethics - Hardwig
  • Philosophy of Science 1900-1960 - Douglas
  • (One of our faculty - David Reidy - will be on leave next year as the recipient of an NEH Fellowship.)

There are opportunities for our graduate students to teach bioethics, business ethics, engineering ethics, environmental ethics, and professional responsibility. Semester-long clinical practica are frequently conducted in the area of health care; practicum experience may also be arranged in other areas, with particular opportunities possible at the moment in environmental ethics. An M.A.-level practicum in bioethics is scheduled for Summer of 2010.

Students graduating from our program will thus be well-equipped to pursue a variety of career paths:  teaching in a philosophy department, teaching in a professional school, or pursuing a career outside of the academy in businesses, hospitals, governmental agencies or non-governmental organizations.

Our graduates over the past decade have moved on to tenure-track positions in philosophy in various philosophy departments, including those of Marquette and Washington State University, as well as to continuing lectureships at several universities and colleges. Over the same period, those pursuing careers in “applied” settings have assumed positions at St. Johns Medical Center in St. Louis (Director of Ethics), the Centre for Addiction and Mental Heath in Toronto, the University of Nebraska-Omaha Medical Center Department of Humanities and Law, and the Biomedical Ethics Unit of McGill University’s Department Of Medicine. (Those who decided to move on for the Ph.D. at another university have moved on to Penn, Edinburgh, and Bern.)