Department of Philosophy
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Graduate Program
The graduate program in philosophy at Purdue offers its students the opportunity to pursue an unusually diversified and well-balanced plan of study. The department maintains a long pluralistic tradition with strengths in the history of philosophy and both analytic and Continental European philosophy. Students acquire a solid grounding in four traditional areas of philosophy, the history of philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology, value theory, and logic, language and science, before developing their own specialized research programs. Students with a special interest in philosophy and literature may wish to consider the Philosophy and Literature Ph.D. program.
The department has twenty-two faculty members, two of whom are officially designated as Distinguished or Named Professors by Purdue University. Research pursuits of individual faculty, listed on the faculty page, have been supported in recent years by grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Humboldt Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, and the Pew Charitable Trust. Overlapping interests among our faculty reflect departmental research strengths that provide a wide opportunity for student research areas here at Purdue.
An excellent faculty-student ratio and a commitment to sound graduate education allow for close and informal relations among faculty and students, particularly in graduate seminars, and permit many opportunities for independent research. We average between forty and fifty graduate students in degree programs, about thirty-five of whom are typically in residence at any one time. Purdue doctoral programs include two special interdisciplinary ones in English and Philosophy, and Communication and Philosophy. Most graduate students are funded through departmental teaching assistantships, and most eventually have the opportunity to design and teach their own sections of courses. Graduate students also benefit from our colloquium series, which brings prominent philosophers to campus for lectures and informal gatherings, and from various other speaker programs supported (most recently) by the Franklin J. Matchette Foundation, the Lilly Foundation, and the Templeton Trust. Most of our students earning the Ph.D. who seek academic appointments obtain them; our outstanding record of success can be found in the placement information page.
Please use the links on the left to find detailed information about our faculty, our programs, and our application process. You will also find links to various Purdue University sites that will offer plenty of information about the university and the West Lafayette area. If you are looking for a friendly and unusually helpful environment in which to pursue serious graduate training in philosophy, we invite you to consider joining us here at Purdue.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Jeffrey Brower, the Director of Graduate Recruiting, Admissions and Funding at brower@purdue.edu