Skip to main content

Department of Philosophy

Admissions

The Ph.D. in Philosophy

A graduate degree in philosophy at Vanderbilt offers extensive study in all major fields and historical periods of philosophy. Our department has strengths in ethics, social and political philosophy, epistemology, feminist philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of religion. We also focus on the history of philosophy, especially Kant, nineteenth-century, early modern, and ancient. Our faculty reflects a variety of approaches and methodologies, including analytic, continental, historical, and pragmatic.

Students must complete at least 47 hours of formal coursework, in addition to satisfying other requirements as noted in our degree requirements. Those who are offered admission to our Ph.D. program receive funding in the form of an annual stipend, full tuition waiver, and health insurance for six years. The department and Graduate School also provide generous additional sources of funding, including: topping-up awards, a moving stipend, travel and conference funds, summer research funds, language study funds, funds for interdisciplinary research, an ABD stipend, and other awards and fellowships for exceptional research and teaching.

Please reach out to the director of graduate studies or our graduate program coordinator with any questions.

Application

Application to the Vanderbilt Ph.D. program in philosophy consists of five components:

  1. Completion of the online application to the Vanderbilt Graduate School
  2. Submission of unofficial transcripts
  3. Submission of at least three, but at most five, letters of recommendation
  4. Submission of a personal statement, discussing philosophy background, research interests, and departmental fit
  5. Submission of a philosophically substantive writing sample of manageable length (ordinarily no more than 7,000 words), demonstrating research potential

The application deadline for fall admission of any given year is January 3 of that same year.

 

The Vanderbilt Department of Philosophy Primary Faculty and Graduate StudentsThe Vanderbilt Department of Philosophy Primary Faculty and Graduate Students