The program's core curriculum is designed to provide students with an introduction to basic tools of philosophical analysis, a shared background of philosophical issues, significant interdisciplinary competence and an introduction to research topics in the department.
The following Core Curriculum is satisfied by each of the illustrative sample curricula.
15-210, 15-211: Fundamenal structures of computer programming I and II.
80-611 Computability and incompleteness: Godel's tincompletenes theorems, computability, and their epistemological significance.
80-616 Probability and AI: An introduction to contemporary probabilistic methods in AI, including neural nets and Bayes nets.
80-610 Logic and Computability: syntax and semanics of first-order logic.
80-600 Minds, machines and knowledge: implications of the computational model of mind for epistemology, and vice-versa
80-810 Research seminar: Introduces students to research topics in the department.
80-811 Research symposium: Students present their master's thesis projects.
Two graduate level courses in Logic, Computer Science, Statistics, Game Theory, Linguistics, Economics, or Psychology.
Three other advanced philosophy courses, including at least one graduate seminar.
Nine unconstrained electives.
Teaching experience is an essential component of the Ph.D. program. It provides fundamental professional skills for those pursuing academic careers and instills breadth of basic knowledge to complement the focused expertise of those interested in pure research. Students are required to serve as an assistant or instructor in at least two courses.
Students serving as principal instructors are mentored by a faculty member. Each foreign student whose native language is not English must take a proficiency exam with the ESL Center prior to teaching.