Description

PhD in Philosophy

The PhD Philosophy at Central European University (CEU) provides top-level up-to-date training in different areas in philosophy in order to prepare students for academic life (attending conferences, participating in research projects, and publishing in professional journals), to enable them to teach philosophy at university level, and to do independent research in different fields of philosophy.

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Duration

4 years

Starting Date

September

Application Deadline

1st of February

Tuition Fee

€ 15,000 per year

Location

Vienna, Austria

Degree

Dual Austrian and the U.S. degree

Earn a valuable degree

In their first year, doctoral students have the status of Probationary Doctoral Candidates. They participate in the life of the department, attend courses offered by the department and write a first year paper. At the end of the first year of their studies, probationary doctoral candidates take the oral comprehensive examination. In the examination, they present their thesis plan and answer questions concerning their plan and first year paper.

Students in PhD Philosophy at Central European University (CEU) who successfully complete their course work and pass the comprehensive examination receive the status of Doctoral Candidates. Doctoral candidates have a supervisor with whom they regularly meet and who supervises their work. During their second and third year, students are primarily engaged in independent research under the guidance of their supervisor. Doctoral candidates participate in the academic life of the department and attend seminars, lectures and programs, including the annual in-house graduate conference and the biennial international graduate conference, which they organise. In the second and third years, students attend the Doctoral Seminar, which provides a forum to acquire professional skills and receive continuous feedback on their work. Students can submit their dissertation at the end of the third year of their studies and not later than six years after the date of their original enrolment.

Courses include:

Moral and Political Philosophy: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Political Obligation
Normative Ethics Metaphysics, Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind: Intuition and Knowledge
Substance, Ontology, Mind
Atomism

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Admissions requirements:

Candidates must have a first degree in philosophy and a background in the history of philosophy (e.g. major ancient and medieval thinkers, Cartesianism, British empiricism and classical German philosophy) and in logic (propositional and predicate). In addition to meeting the General CEU Admissions Requirements, applicants must submit a short statement of purpose (between 1–2 pages single-spaced), indicating their proposed research and an essay of 2,000–4,000 words on an appropriate philosophical topic. The essay should discuss a philosophical problem of the applicant’s own choice; it can be, but need not be related to the applicant’s studies or to the topic of the applicant’s proposed research.

Application deadlines:

February 1, 2025 for master’s and PhD studies with financial aid
March 15, 2025 for self-financing master’s candidates who will require a study visa
August 15, 2024 for self-financing master’s candidates who will not require a study visa