Doctorate in Philosophy
The Department of Philosophy at Duquesne University was one of the first graduate programs in the United States to specialize in phenomenology and, more broadly, nineteenth and twentieth century continental philosophy. Our program remains committed to this tradition and focuses on post-Kantian European philosophy. We also integrate a broader emphasis on research in the history of philosophy, both as the necessary background for work in later continental thought and as a program focus in its own right.
The graduate program is central to the mission of the Department and to the philosophy faculty’s vision of its future. The mission of the doctoral program is to provide advanced philosophical training to students of demonstrated scholarly excellence so that they may pursue high-quality independent research under the mentorship of faculty, enter the academic profession as scholars and teachers, find tenure-track employment as professors of philosophy, and become members of the international philosophical community.
Our department hosts an active and vibrant philosophical community, including an extensive visiting speakers series and graduate research colloquium, student and faculty organized reading groups, and a strong graduate student organization. Information on recent events, visiting speakers, and the Graduate Students in Philosophy organization may be found below.
Our graduate program is built around small seminars that engage primary texts and conceptual problems. We strongly encourage reading philosophical works in their original languages, when possible, and place a premium on our students developing a high level of competence in the languages related to their doctoral research. To that end, we offer substantial support for our students to pursue language study at Duquesne and through intensive summer language programs abroad.
In the last few years, we have offered graduate courses on the pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Hellenistic and Roman philosophy, Plotinus, Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Aquinas, classical Islamic philosophy, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger, Freud, Benjamin, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Adorno, Levinas, Derrida, Habermas, Foucault, Deleuze, and Badiou. Recent thematic courses have included Aesthetics, Contemporary Social and Political Philosophy, Critical Race Theory, Feminist Phenomenology, German Idealism, History and Philosophy of Science, Early Modern Political Philosophy, Hermeneutics, Psychoanalysis, Idealism and Materialism, Moral Philosophy, Phenomenological Epistemology, Philosophy of the Body, Philosophy of Music, Philosophy of Time, and the Phenomenology of Space and Place.