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• Department of Philosophy
• Leacock Building, 9th floor
• 855 Sherbrooke Street West
• Montreal QC H3A 2T7
• Canada

• Telephone: 514-398-6060
• Fax: 514-398-7148
• Email: info.philosophy [at] mcgill.ca
• Website: www.mcgill.ca/philosophy

The Department of Philosophy has particular strength in the following areas: Ancient Philosophy; Early Modern Philosophy; Kant and post-Kantian German Philosophy; Philosophy of Language and Philosophy of Mind; Aesthetics; Moral and Political Philosophy; Feminist Philosophy; History and Philosophy of Science and Mathematics; Contemporary European Philosophy.

The Department offers assistance to students in every aspect of placement. Our Placement Officer counsels students about coursework and areas of competence, helps to establish evidence of teaching ability, administers the dossier for job applications, and provides advice and follow-up in the interview process. Many of our graduates have gone on to do postdoctoral research and over 80% are now in tenure track or sessional appointments.

The Department offers courses of study leading to the Ph.D. in Philosophy. It also offers, in conjunction with the Biomedical Ethics Unit, a course of study leading to the M.A. degree in Bioethics.

Students with an adequate undergraduate training in philosophy should apply for admission to the Ph.D. program at the Ph.D. 1 level. Students who hold an M.A. degree in Philosophy, or equivalent, from another institution should apply for admission to the Ph.D. program at the Ph.D. 2 level. Students entering the Ph.D. program (at Ph.D. 1 or Ph.D. 2) will be required to complete two years of coursework. (N.B. At present, we do not normally consider applicants for an M.A. in Philosophy, with the exception of the specialty M.A. in Biomedical Ethics.) The Department considers an adequate undergraduate training in philosophy to be one that furnishes a student with:

1. A general knowledge of the history of Western Philosophy: Greek, Medieval, and Modern.
2. A systematic knowledge of the main philosophical disciplines in their contemporary as well as historical contexts: logic, ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics.
3. An ability to present, in written form, clear and substantial reconstructions and analyses of the materials normally studied in the areas mentioned in 1 and 2.

Ph.D. Program

By December 15 of their third year in the program (Ph.D. 3) for students admitted at Ph.D. 1 and August 15 in their second year in the program (Ph.D. 3) for students admitted at Ph.D. 2, students must submit a research paper (the 鈥渃andidacy paper鈥� [3 credits]), which may be worked up from a paper written to fulfil the requirements of a graduate course, to a Thesis Advancement Committee consisting of a least two members of the staff of the Department. The membership of this committee will be determined by the Graduate Director in consultation with the student; it is anticipated that members of this committee would, in principle, direct the student's thesis. This committee assigns a grade to the student's paper and reviews her or his graduate performance; on the basis of its assessment and review, it recommends to the Department as a whole either to permit the student to continue with the Ph.D. program and undertake a thesis or to decline to permit the student to continue. Two necessary conditions for a positive recommendation are that the student (a) receive a grade of at least B+ on the candidacy paper, and (b) have at least a 3.5 GPA (on the undergraduate Grade Point scale) in the coursework required for the program. The Department as a whole, taking into account the Thesis Advancement Committee's recommendation and the student's overall academic record in the program, decides whether to permit the student to continue. Students who do not receive a positive recommendation but who satisfy Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies requirements (no courses below a B- and completion of 45 credits) will be recommended to Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies by the Department to transfer from the Ph.D. program to the M.A. program.

Graduate students are expected to continue to contribute to the intellectual life of the Department after being promoted to candidacy. They can do so by participating in reading and discussion groups and, most of all, by auditing seminars both within and outside their areas of specialty.