MA and PhD academic requirements for our graduate program can be found at the Faculty of Graduate Studies—Program Requirements.
MA
Students must fulfill the following requirements:
- Philosophy 5800 3.0: Core Theoretical Philosophy I, Philosophy 5801 3.0: Core Theoretical Philosophy II, Philosophy 5802 3.0: Core Practical Philosophy I and Philosophy 5803 3.0: Core Practical Philosophy II.
- The equivalent of two additional full courses, at least one of which is not integrated with an undergraduate course, with no more than one half-course a reading course, and with at least one half-course that focuses in depth on a single historically significant problem or philosopher.
With the permission of the program director, students may take one half-graduate course outside the program, either at York or elsewhere, and count it towards these course requirements.
In exceptional cases, students who enter the MA program with a clearly formulated plan of study and supervision may choose, with the agreement of the director and the proposed supervisor, to do their MA by thesis. Such students must fulfill the following requirements:
- Philosophy 5800 3.0: Core Theoretical Philosophy I and 5802 3.0: Core Practical Philosophy I.
- The equivalent of one full course, with no more than one half-course a reading course, and with at least one half-course that focuses in depth on a single historically significant problem or philosopher.
- Philosophy thesis which is to be based on original research and to be successfully defended at an oral examination. The length of the thesis will normally not exceed 25,000 words. A thesis proposal should be submitted early in the fall term (mid-October). For a list of what to include in a proposal, please see Proposal Contents (.pdf).
With the permission of the program director, students may take one half-graduate course outside the program, either at York or elsewhere, and count it towards these course requirements.
Full-time Master’s candidates are expected to complete the degree requirements within twelve months, or three terms.
PhD
Complete Philosophy 6800 6.0: First-Year Seminar and either Philosophy 6850 6.0: PhD Research Seminar or Philosophy 6860 6.0: PhD Research Seminar II, plus another six half courses (or the equivalent), with no more than one full course equivalent to a reading course and no more than one full course equivalent integrated with an undergraduate course. Philosophy 6800 6.0 must be taken in Year 1. The six half courses must normally be completed by the end of Year 2, and Philosophy 6850 6.0 or Philosophy 6860 6.0 by the end of Year 3, in order to remain in good standing in the program. With the permission of the program director, students may take one half-graduate course outside the program, either at York University or elsewhere, and count it towards these course requirements.
History Requirement: Include, among their courses, at least two half courses each of which focuses in depth on a single historically significant problem or philosopher, and covers different periods in the history of philosophy. (Students who have taken such courses during their MA may, with the director’s permission, place out of all or part of this requirement.)
Area Requirement: Include, among their courses, at least two half courses in metaphysics and/or epistemology (understood as including philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science), and two half courses in moral, political, social or legal philosophy.
Normally, by the end of the second year, students must demonstrate to the logic examination committee a mastery of the semantic and syntactic elements of sentential and first-order predicate logic. This includes understanding validity, logical truth, and natural deduction derivations for both sentential and predicate logic. Mastery may be demonstrated by passing an exam in logic that is set by the logic examination committee, or by passing a graduate-level course in logic, normally Philosophy 5460 3.0: Philosophical Logic.
Submit two papers, normally by the end of the first term of Year 3, to be examined by three anonymous examiners in the program. To pass the exam, each of the papers must be passed by at least two of the examiners. As the papers are to be written with a view to the norms and expectations of professional philosophical venues, such as peer-reviewed philosophy journals, they should include a carefully reasoned defence of a philosophical position, as well as demonstrate originality. One paper will be in the student’s primary area of research, and the other paper will be in a closely related (but not identical) area. The papers will normally be no more than 30 pages long, double-spaced.
Submit a suitable dissertation proposal acceptable to the supervisory committee. Please see Proposal Contents (.pdf) for what should be included in the proposal.
Successfully defended the dissertation proposal and passed an oral examination on literature relevant to the dissertation topic. The list of literature will be compiled jointly by the supervisor and the student after the supervisory relationship is formed and before the proposal is written. The examiners will consist of the student’s supervisory committee plus one outside member from the program. This requirement must normally be met by the end of PhD 3.
Write an acceptable dissertation embodying original research and defend it at an oral examination.
The minimum time to completion is 12 terms (four years) and the maximum time is 18 terms (six years).
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The Graduate Program in Philosophy at York is an exciting environment to pursue innovative, socially engaging, career-ready education. Contact our Graduate Program Assistant to learn more.