Master of Arts in Philosophy

Students enter the masters program in philosophy at the University of Wyoming for a variety of reasons. Some wish to enrich their understanding of the world in an advanced and intellectually challenging environment. Others find that it provides invaluable preparation for many pre-professional degree programs (such as law or medicine). Most, however, come to us with the goal of preparing for advanced study in a top flight graduate program in philosophy (or cognate discipline). A broad graduate curriculum gives our students a solid philosophical foundation as well as providing a number of courses at the cutting edge of the discipline. The program emphasizes work in the core areas of contemporary analytic philosophy as well as providing students with a strong historical foundation. We have particular strengths in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and environmental ethics, but our graduates have written successful theses in a broad range of philosophic subject areas. An extremely favorable faculty to student ratio (effectively 1:1) allows for the opportunity to work very closely with an enthusiastic, research-active faculty mentor. Our track record promoting the specific goals of our students in each of these areas compares very favorable to those of other nationally recognized M.A. programs. Our success derives from a number of specific characteristics of the department. Graduate Learning Outcomes The Philosophy Department expects their graduate students to have learned certain skills, abilities, and content through the completion of their program. These are: Develop competence in formal skills, e.g., symbolic logic Gain advanced familiarity with multiple core areas of philosophy, including metaphysics and epistemology, ethics and value theory, history of philosophy, and logic/language/science. Ability to engage philosophical discussions at an advanced level, both in terms of comprehension and contribution. Evidence of developing ability to write professional level papers on philosophical topics. Evidence of a developing capacity for philosophical instruction.