Aims of the programs

The Department offers work leading to the M.A. and the Ph.D. degrees. The master's program emphasizes a broad range of philosophical areas, while the doctoral program prepares students for specialized work leading to the dissertation. The Department supports work in most of the traditional areas of Western philosophy. Specialization at the doctoral level is possible in most areas and is planned by each student with a guidance committee composed of four faculty members. Interdisciplinary work is encouraged, and currently there are faculty and graduate students working in such diverse areas as feminism and cognitive science. The Department is also affiliated with two interdisciplinary graduate specializations: Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Behavior and Cognitive Science.

A distinctive strength of the Department is in the area of Philosophy and Ethics of Health Care. In conjunction with the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences (based in the University's medical colleges), the Department offers students the opportunity to do concentrated doctoral work on the ethical, epistemological, and policy aspects of health care. Philosophy faculty with research and teaching interests in medical issues collaborate with philosophers and physicians in the Center in providing annual seminars and practicum courses. At the master's level, the Department also participates in the Program in Bioethics, Humanities, and Society in the College of Human Medicine, as well as the College of Arts and Letters and College of Social Science. This program awards an MA degree and provides a foundation for doctoral work in several different specific disciplines.

Several faculty in the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State are working in an area in which traditional debates over justice, freedom, and political obligation are increasingly joined in contemporary philosophy by concerns with inequality, power, identity, and the rationalization of institutions and practices. In recent years individual faculty have published books and articles on themes in feminism, African American thought, democratic theory, the politics of knowledge, and the history of liberalism. Several dissertations have been written in these areas, and ongoing discussion groups have formed around themes concerning gender, race and ecology.

Graduate Specializations

• Doctoral Concentration in Philosophy and Ethics of Health Care
• Graduate Specialization in Ethics & Development
• Social and Political Thought

Faculty interests and backgrounds

The Department has a large faculty with a wide variety of interests and backgrounds. Faculty have written in recent years on problems such as perception, feminist theory, the applications of computers in logic, justice, and problems in medical decision making; and on historical figures such as Plato, Kant, James, DuBois, and Wittgenstein. The Department emphasizes teaching, and boasts several faculty who have received University teaching awards.

Several faculty have interdisciplinary interests and affiliations with faculty and units in other parts of the University, for example, Women's Studies, Ancient Studies, Cognitive Science, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Linguistics, Sociology, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Medicine, and American Studies. A more detailed account of faculty background and research and teaching interests is given at the end of this document.

Course offerings

Graduate students may enroll for credit in 400 (senior) level courses as well as graduate level courses and seminars. Department courses cover the history of philosophy and main topics in contemporary philosophy as conceived by different theoretical approaches. All graduate students may take some courses outside the Department, and doctoral students have the option of taking an interdisciplinary Minor Field.

At the 400 level, the following courses are given: Plato, Aristotle, Continental Rationalism, British Empiricism, Kant, Hegel, 19th Century Philosophy, Topics in 20th-Century Analytical Philosophy, Topics in 20th-Century Continental Philosophy, Topics in European Philosophy, Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Language, Central Issues in Ethics, Philosophical Issues in Biomedicine, Liberal Theory and Its Critics, Philosophy and the Black Experience, Topics in Feminist Philosophy, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Introduction to Cognitive Science, Aesthetic Theory and Modernism, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biological Science, Philosophy of Social Science, Philosophy of Mathematics. The opportunity for independent study is also available.

Usually three graduate seminars are offered per term. Seminars are given either on particular philosophical topics or on particular authors. Faculty have an opportunity to teach seminars on a rotating basis, and as much as possible the seminar offerings in any one semester will cover three of the four traditional areas of philosophy. Seminars in recent years have included such topics as pragmatism, mental representation, aesthetics and modernism, evolutionary theory, and democratic theory. Among the many authors that have been studied are Plato, Spinoza, Husserl, Wittgenstein, Quine, Kripke, Rawls, Habermas, and Rorty.

Past dissertations and placement of graduates

Graduates of the doctoral program have written dissertations on a wide variety of topics. Almost all students who have received the Ph.D. in recent years have found employment teaching philosophy in a wide variety of settings. Some are working at a major research institution such as New York University or University of Colorado. Many are teaching at liberal arts and community colleges such as Albion College, Alma College, Mount St. Mary College, Seton Hall, Taylor University, and Washtenaw Community College.

For a listing, please see Completed Dissertations and Placement of Graduates.

The Graduate School at Michigan State University

For general information on the programs, policies and resources of the Graduate School, see The Graduate School Website.