The Philosophy Department at CMU is distinguished by its precise approach to philosophical issues in:
The Ph.D. program seeks students interested in any of the above areas or combinations thereof and provides full tuition along with generous stipends for teaching assistance.
The department's interdisciplinary research thrust affords an unusually broad range of career possibilities. Graduates of the program have been offered posts in Philosophy, Psychology, Computer Science, Statistics, and Industrial Research. Recent doctoral students supervised by CMU Philosophy faculty have taken jobs at the University of Alberta (tenure track, philosophy); the University of Washington (tenure track, statistics and tenure track, philosophy); the University of Texas (tenured, philosophy) and at Microsoft (Decision Systems Research Group). This wide range of interesting career opportunties reflects the department's unique dedication to serious, interdisciplinary research ties.
The favorable institutional setting of the department, combined with its interdisciplinary ties, provides students with the opportunity to work on a broad range of applied projects unmatched in any philosophy department in the nation. The Ph.D. program is strengthened by coordination with the university's nationally preeminent school of Computer Science and the department of Mathematics. Faculty members hold joint appointments in such departments as Psychology, Social and Decision Sciences, Statistics, Mathematics, and Computer Science, and are active participants in such university research groups as the Center for Automated Learning and Discovery. Related resources in the Pittsbugh community include the departments of Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science, Medicine, and Intelligent Systems at the University of Pittsburgh, and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and the Center for Philosophy of Science.
The core program is designed to be flexible, allowing students the freedom to develop programs emphasizing the various research strengths in the department. The following sample curricula illustrate how the core program may be extended in diverse directions reflecting the research strengths of the department.