Graduate Program

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We offer the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. We offer the M.A. degree on both a thesis and examination basis. The Ph.D. requires, of course, a dissertation as well as the successful completion of a candidacy/comprehensive examination. The requirements for each degree can be found by clicking the appropriate link in the right margin. Graduate level coursework is an essential component of each degree.

While we offer a wide range of courses across the traditional areas of philosophy (logic, history of philosophy, epistemology, etc.), our department has main strengths in moral and political philosophy, applied ethics, and in those areas of metaphysics and epistemology that bear most directly on issues in value theory (e.g., free will and the metaphysics of persons more generally, the epistemology of reasonable disagreement, etc.). For more information about current areas of faculty expertise and interest, see: Our Faculty. For information about the graduate program, contact Richard Aquila, Director of Graduate Studies. To survey recent accomplishments of current graduate students, take a look at our news and notes section (where you'll find lots of congratulatory announcements regarding grad student achievements) as well as our department Facebook page.

In addition to the usual course offerings, the Philosophy Department offers at least one and often two graduate level "super seminars" each year. These courses offer students an opportunity to discuss works they are studying with their authors. So, for example, in the Fall of 2011, students in John Nolt's seminar on value pluralism and incommensurability read works by Melinda Roberts (College of New Jersey), Larry Temkin (Rutgers) and Erik Carlson (Uppsala, Sweden), each of whom visited the seminar. In the spring of 2012, Andrew Altman (Georgia State), Carol Gould (CUNY) and Chuck Beitz (Princeton) visit David Reidy's seminar on human rights and global justice. In the Fall of 2012, EJ Coffman will convene a 'super seminar' on virtue epistemology and Ernie Sosa (Rutgers), Wayne Riggs (Oklahoma) and John Greco (St. Louis) will visit. In the Spring of 2013, David Palmer will convene a 'super seminar' on moral responsibility and the so-called principle of alternative responsibilities and Derk Pereboom (Cornell), Ish Haji (Calgary) and Dana Nelkin (UC-San Diego) will visit. These seminars provide graduate students with an exceptional opportunity to interact with those whose work they are studying carefully in a course.

The Philosophy Department also supports a faculty and advanced graduate student research seminar titled "Freedom: From All Sides." Seminar participants take up issues — moral, metaphysical, political, epistemological and so on — related to the broad theme of freedom. The research seminar meets four or five times per semester. Meetings are devoted to discussing a work in progress presented by a participant, usually a faculty member or advanced graduate student. The seminar also typically invites at least one outside visitor to participate per term. So, for example, Michael McKenna (Arizona) participated in the spring of 2011. Alex Kaufman (Georgia, Political Science) participated in the fall of 2011, and John Martin Fischer will participate in the Spring of 2012. The research seminar provides advanced graduate students and faculty to work together for a sustained period — say 3 hours — on a single manuscript.

The Philosophy Department typically hosts a two day symposium each year. These symposia focus on the current research interests of a faculty member. Four or five distinguished scholars are invited to campus to participate in paper presentations and discussions aimed at advancing and giving visibility to an area of research pursued by the faculty member convening the symposium. In 2009, David Reidy convened a symposium focused on putting John Rawls's work in historical context. Invited participants included Paul Weithman (Notre Dame), Gerry Gaus (Arizona), Dick Miller (Cornell) and Robert Talisse (Vanderbilt). In 2010, EJ Coffman convened a symposium focused on normative issues in epistemology ('the ethics of belief'). Invited participants included Tom Kelly (Princeton), Linda Zagzebski (Oklahoma), John Kvanvig (Baylor) and Robert Audi (Notre Dame). In 2012, Jon Garthoff and John Nolt will convene a symposium, with colleagues from the UT School of Law, on the moral and legal status of animals, with a distinguished list of participants. The Spring 2013 symposium will be organized by and focus on the research agenda of Adam Cureton. Symposia offer graduate students an opportunity to better understand and engage the areas of research actively pursued by UT Philosophy faculty.

In addition to all the foregoing, the graduate students administer their own "klatsch" program at which they present their own work to one another in a relaxed and friendly but serious setting free of faculty. And, of course, they attend periodic talks given by visitors to the Department and UT campus more generally.

All in all, here in UT graduate program there are many truly exceptional opportunities to be doing philosophy at the highest levels.

Our graduate offerings for Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 are as follows:

FALL 2011

• Value Pluralism, Incommensurability and Moral Justification ("Super-Seminar") - Nolt
• Locke and Hume - Aquila
• Advanced Logic - Nolt
• Evidence and Disagreement (Proseminar - required for first-year students) - Coffman
• Kant's Ethics - Cureton

SPRING 2012

• Global Justice and Human Rights ("Super-Seminar") - Reidy (course co-convenes with Political Science seminar of same name)
• Plato - Shaw
• Animals, Ethics and Law - Nolt & Heminway (Law) (course co-convenes with Law School course of same name and paired with spring Symposium)
• Free Will - Palmer
• Rawls's A Theory of Justice - Garthoff
• Ownership and Justice - Goodwin (Law) (course co-convenes with Law School course of same name)
• There are also 400 level courses sometimes available to graduate students. Graduate students interested in these courses should consult with the Director of Graduate Studies to determine whether they are appropriate.