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Philosophy Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2024 2024.

On the Possibility of Secular Morality , Zachary R. Alonso

An Ecofeminist Ontological Turn: Preparing the Field for a New Ecofeminist Project , M. Laurel-Leigh Meierdiercks

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Karl Marx on Human Flourishing and Proletarian Ethics , Sam Badger

The Ontological Grounds of Reason: Psychologism, Logicism, and Hermeneutic Phenomenology , Stanford L. Howdyshell

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Interdisciplinary Communication by Plausible Analogies: the Case of Buddhism and Artificial Intelligence , Michael Cooper

Heidegger and the Origin of Authenticity , John J. Preston

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Hegel and Schelling: The Emptiness of Emptiness and the Love of the Divine , Sean B. Gleason

Nietzsche on Criminality , Laura N. McAllister

Learning to be Human: Ren 仁, Modernity, and the Philosophers of China's Hundred Days' Reform , Lucien Mathot Monson

Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence: Methods, Archives, History, and Genesis , William A. B. Parkhurst

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Orders of Normativity: Nietzsche, Science and Agency , Shane C. Callahan

Humanistic Climate Philosophy: Erich Fromm Revisited , Nicholas Dovellos

This, or Something like It: Socrates and the Problem of Authority , Simon Dutton

Climate Change and Liberation in Latin America , Ernesto O. Hernández

Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa as Expressions of Shame in a Post-Feminist , Emily Kearns

Nostalgia and (In)authentic Community: A Bataillean Answer to the Heidegger Controversy , Patrick Miller

Cultivating Virtue: A Thomistic Perspective on the Relationship Between Moral Motivation and Skill , Ashley Potts

Identity, Breakdown, and the Production of Knowledge: Intersectionality, Phenomenology, and the Project of Post-Marxist Standpoint Theory , Zachary James Purdue

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

The Efficacy of Comedy , Mark Anthony Castricone

William of Ockham's Divine Command Theory , Matthew Dee

Heidegger's Will to Power and the Problem of Nietzsche's Nihilism , Megan Flocken

Abelard's Affective Intentionalism , Lillian M. King

Anton Wilhelm Amo's Philosophy and Reception: from the Origins through the Encyclopédie , Dwight Kenneth Lewis Jr.

"The Thought that we Hate": Regulating Race-Related Speech on College Campuses , Michael McGowan

A Historical Approach to Understanding Explanatory Proofs Based on Mathematical Practices , Erika Oshiro

From Meaningful Work to Good Work: Reexamining the Moral Foundation of the Calling Orientation , Garrett W. Potts

Reasoning of the Highest Leibniz and the Moral Quality of Reason , Ryan Quandt

Fear, Death, and Being-a-problem: Understanding and Critiquing Racial Discourse with Heidegger’s Being and Time , Jesús H. Ramírez

The Role of Skepticism in Early Modern Philosophy: A Critique of Popkin's "Sceptical Crisis" and a Study of Descartes and Hume , Raman Sachdev

How the Heart Became Muscle: From René Descartes to Nicholas Steno , Alex Benjamin Shillito

Autonomy, Suffering, and the Practice of Medicine: A Relational Approach , Michael A. Stanfield

The Case for the Green Kant: A Defense and Application of a Kantian Approach to Environmental Ethics , Zachary T. Vereb

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Augustine's Confessiones : The Battle between Two Conversions , Robert Hunter Craig

The Strategic Naturalism of Sandra Harding's Feminist Standpoint Epistemology: A Path Toward Epistemic Progress , Dahlia Guzman

Hume on the Doctrine of Infinite Divisibility: A Matter of Clarity and Absurdity , Wilson H. Underkuffler

Climate Change: Aristotelian Virtue Theory, the Aidōs Response and Proper Primility , John W. Voelpel

The Fate of Kantian Freedom: the Kant-Reinhold Controversy , John Walsh

Time, Tense, and Ontology: Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Tense, the Phenomenology of Temporality, and the Ontology of Time , Justin Brandt Wisniewski

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

A Phenomenological Approach to Clinical Empathy: Rethinking Empathy Within its Intersubjective and Affective Contexts , Carter Hardy

From Object to Other: Models of Sociality after Idealism in Gadamer, Levinas, Rosenzweig, and Bonhoeffer , Christopher J. King

Humanitarian Military Intervention: A Failed Paradigm , Faruk Rahmanovic

Active Suffering: An Examination of Spinoza's Approach to Tristita , Kathleen Ketring Schenk

Cartesian Method and Experiment , Aaron Spink

An Examination of John Burton’s Method of Conflict Resolution and Its Applicability to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict , John Kenneth Steinmeyer

Speaking of the Self: Theorizing the Dialogical Dimensions of Ethical Agency , Bradley S. Warfield

Changing Changelessness: On the Genesis and Development of the Doctrine of Divine Immutability in the Ancient and Hellenic Period , Milton Wilcox

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

The Statue that Houses the Temple: A Phenomenological Investigation of Western Embodiment Towards the Making of Heidegger's Missing Connection with the Greeks , Michael Arvanitopoulos

An Exploratory Analysis of Media Reporting of Police Involved Shootings in Florida , John L. Brown

Divine Temporality: Bonhoeffer's Theological Appropriation of Heidegger's Existential Analytic of Dasein , Nicholas Byle

Stoicism in Descartes, Pascal, and Spinoza: Examining Neostoicism’s Influence in the Seventeenth Century , Daniel Collette

Phenomenology and the Crisis of Contemporary Psychiatry: Contingency, Naturalism, and Classification , Anthony Vincent Fernandez

A Critique of Charitable Consciousness , Chioke Ianson

writing/trauma , Natasha Noel Liebig

Leibniz's More Fundamental Ontology: from Overshadowed Individuals to Metaphysical Atoms , Marin Lucio Mare

Violence and Disagreement: From the Commonsense View to Political Kinds of Violence and Violent Nonviolence , Gregory Richard Mccreery

Kant's Just War Theory , Steven Charles Starke

A Feminist Contestation of Ableist Assumptions: Implications for Biomedical Ethics, Disability Theory, and Phenomenology , Christine Marie Wieseler

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Heidegger and the Problem of Modern Moral Philosophy , Megan Emily Altman

The Encultured Mind: From Cognitive Science to Social Epistemology , David Alexander Eck

Weakness of Will: An Inquiry on Value , Michael Funke

Cogs in a Cosmic Machine: A Defense of Free Will Skepticism and its Ethical Implications , Sacha Greer

Thinking Nature, "Pierre Maupertuis and the Charge of Error Against Fermat and Leibniz" , Richard Samuel Lamborn

John Duns Scotus’s Metaphysics of Goodness: Adventures in 13th-Century Metaethics , Jeffrey W. Steele

A Gadamerian Analysis of Roman Catholic Hermeneutics: A Diachronic Analysis of Interpretations of Romans 1:17-2:17 , Steven Floyd Surrency

A Natural Case for Realism: Processes, Structures, and Laws , Andrew Michael Winters

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Leibniz's Theodicies , Joseph Michael Anderson

Aeschynē in Aristotle's Conception of Human Nature , Melissa Marie Coakley

Ressentiment, Violence, and Colonialism , Jose A. Haro

It's About Time: Dynamics of Inflationary Cosmology as the Source of the Asymmetry of Time , Emre Keskin

Time Wounds All Heels: Human Nature and the Rationality of Just Behavior , Timothy Glenn Slattery

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Nietzsche and Heidegger on the Cartesian Atomism of Thought , Steven Burgess

Embodying Social Practice: Dynamically Co-Constituting Social Agency , Brian W. Dunst

Subject of Conscience: On the Relation between Freedom and Discrimination in the Thought of Heidegger, Foucault, and Butler , Aret Karademir

Climate, Neo-Spinozism, and the Ecological Worldview , Nancy M. Kettle

Eschatology in a Secular Age: An Examination of the Use of Eschatology in the Philosophies of Heidegger, Berdyaev and Blumenberg , John R. Lup, Jr.

Navigation and Immersion of the American Identity in a Foreign Culture to Emergence as a Culturally Relative Ambassador , Lee H. Rosen

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

A Philosophical Analysis of Intellectual Property: In Defense of Instrumentalism , Michael A. Kanning

A Commentary On Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's Discourse on Metaphysics #19 , Richard Lamborn Samuel Lamborn

Sellars in Context: An Analysis of Wilfrid Sellars's Early Works , Peter Jackson Olen

The New Materialism: Althusser, Badiou, and Zizek , Geoffrey Dennis Pfeifer

Structure and Agency: An Analysis of the Impact of Structure on Group Agents , Elizabeth Kaye Victor

Moral Friction, Moral Phenomenology, and the Improviser , Benjamin Scott Young

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

The Virtuoso Human: A Virtue Ethics Model Based on Care , Frederick Joseph Bennett

The Existential Compromise in the History of the Philosophy of Death , Adam Buben

Philosophical Precursors to the Radical Enlightenment: Vignettes on the Struggle Between Philosophy and Theology From the Greeks to Leibniz With Special Emphasis on Spinoza , Anthony John Desantis

The Problem of Evil in Augustine's Confessions , Edward Matusek

The Persistence of Casuistry: a Neo-premodernist Approach to Moral Reasoning , Richard Arthur Mercadante

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

Dewey's Pragmatism and the Great Community , Philip Schuyler Bishop

Unamuno's Concept of the Tragic , Ernesto O. Hernandez

Rethinking Ethical Naturalism: The Implications of Developmental Systems Theory , Jared J.. Kinggard

From Husserl and the Neo-Kantians to Art: Heidegger's Realist Historicist Answer to the Problem of the Origin of Meaning , William H. Koch

Queering Cognition: Extended Minds and Sociotechnologically Hybridized Gender , Michele Merritt

Hydric Life: A Nietzschean Reading of Postcolonial Communication , Elena F. Ruiz-Aho

Descartes' Bête Machine, the Leibnizian Correction and Religious Influence , John Voelpel

Aretē and Physics: The Lesson of Plato's Timaeus , John R. Wolfe

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

Praxis and Theōria : Heidegger’s “Violent” Interpretation , Megan E. Altman

On the Concept of Evil: An Analysis of Genocide and State Sovereignty , Jason J. Campbell

The Role of Trust in Judgment , Christophe Sage Hudspeth

Truth And Judgment , Jeremy J. Kelly

The concept of action and responsibility in Heidegger's early thought , Christian Hans Pedersen

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Dissertations.

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Hyperlinked dissertations are available through  Proquest Digital Dissertations .

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Home > ARTSSCI > Philosophy > dissertations

Philosophy Dissertations and Theses

The Department of Philosophy Dissertations and Theses Series is comprised of dissertations and theses authored by Marquette University's Department of Philosophy doctoral and master's students.

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Place, Attachment, and Feeling: Indigenous Dispossession and Settler Belonging , Sarah Kizuk

Nepantla and Mestizaje: A Phenomenological Analysis of the Mestizx Historical Consciousness , Jorge Alfredo Montiel

The Categories Argument for the Real Distinction Between Being and Essence: Avicenna, Aquinas, and Their Greek Sources , Nathaniel Taylor

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Modeling, Describing, and Explaining Subjective Consciousness- A Guide to (and for) the Perplexed , Peter Burgess

Looking Through Whiteness: Objectivity, Racism, Method, and Responsibility , Philip Mack

Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Maritain on the Student-Teacher Relationship in Catholic Higher Education , Timothy Rothhaar

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

The Empathetic Autistic: A Phenomenological Look at the Feminine Experience , Dana Fritz

Concerning Aristotelian Animal Essences , Damon Andrew Watson

When to Trust Authoritative Testimony: Generation and Transmission of Knowledge in Saadya Gaon, Al-Ghazālī and Thomas Aquinas , Brett A. Yardley

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

The Status of Irrationality: Karl Jaspers' Response to Davidson and Searle , Daniel Adsett

Cosmic City - Cosmic Teleology: A Reading of Metaphysics Λ 10 and Politics I 2 , Brandon Henrigillis

Phenomenal Consciousness: An Husserlian Approach , John Jered Janes

Al-Fārābī Metaphysics, and the Construction of Social Knowledge: Is Deception Warranted if it Leads to Happiness? , Nicholas Andrew Oschman

The Epistemology of Disagreement: Hume, Kant, and the Current Debate , Robert Kyle Whitaker

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

'Our Feet are Mired In the Same Soil': Deepening Democracy with the Political Virtue of Sympathetic Inquiry , Jennifer Lynn Kiefer Fenton

Towards a Philosophy of the Musical Experience: Phenomenology, Culture, and Ethnomusicology in Conversation , J. Tyler Friedman

Humor, Power and Culture: A New Theory on the Experience and Ethics of Humor , Jennifer Marra

Care of the Sexual Self: Askesis As a Route to Sex Education , Shaun Douglas Miller

Re-Evaluating Augustinian Fatalism through the Eastern and Western Distinction between God's Essence and Energies , Stephen John Plecnik

The Fantastic Structure of Freedom: Sartre, Freud, and Lacan , Gregory A. Trotter

The Province of Conceptual Reason: Hegel's Post-Kantian Rationalism , William Clark Wolf

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Hume on Thick and Thin Causation , Alexander Bozzo

Evolution, Naturalism, and Theism: An Inconsistent Triad? , David H. Gordon

The Parable As Mirror: An Examination of the Use of Parables in the Works of Kierkegaard , Russell Hamer

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Contextualizing Aquinas's Ontology of Soul: An Analysis of His Arabic and Neoplatonic Sources , Nathan McLain Blackerby

The Social and Historical Subject in Sartre and Foucault and Its Implications for Healthcare Ethics , Kimberly Siobhan Engels

Investigations of Worth: Towards a Phenomenology of Values , Dale Hobbs Jr.

Hegel and the Problem of the Multiplicity of Conflicting Philosophies , Matthew M. Peters

Aquinas, Averroes, and the Human Will , Traci Ann Phillipson

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Nature, Feminism, and Flourishing: Human Nature and the Feminist Ethics of Flourishing , Celeste D. Harvey

Developing Capabilities: A Feminist Discourse Ethics Approach , Chad Kleist

Kierkegaard in Light of the East: A Critical Comparison of the Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard with Orthodox Christian Philosophy and Thought , Agust Magnusson

The Secular Transformation of Pride and Humility in the Moral Philosophy of David Hume , Kirstin April Carlson McPherson

Living within the Sacred Tension: Paradox and Its Significance for Christian Existence in the Thought of Søren Kierkegaard , Matthew Thomas Nowachek

Moral Imagination and Adorno: Before and After Auschwitz , Catlyn Origitano

Essence and Necessity, and the Aristotelian Modal Syllogistic: A Historical and Analytical Study , Daniel James Vecchio

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Subversive Humor , Chris A. Kramer

Virtue, Oppression, and Resistance Struggles , Trevor William Smith

Health As Embodied Authenticity , Margaret Steele

Recognition and Political Ontology: Fichte, Hegel, and Honneth , Velimir Stojkovski

The Conceptual Priority of the Perfect , Matthew Peter Zdon

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Dangerous Knowledge? Morality And Moral Progress After Naturalism , Daniel Diederich Farmer

Nietzsche's Revaluation of All Values , Joseph Anthony Kranak

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Re-Enchanting The World: An Examination Of Ethics, Religion, And Their Relationship In The Work Of Charles Taylor , David McPherson

Thomas Aquinas on the Apprehension of Being: The Role of Judgement in Light of Thirteenth-Century Semantics , Rosa Vargas Della Casa

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Naturalized Panpsychism: An Alternative to Fundamentalist Physicalism and Supernaturalism , Earl R. Cookson

The Concept of Personhood in the Phenomenology of Edmund Husserl , Colin J. Hahn

The Humanistic, Fideistic Philosophy of Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) , Charles William Peterson

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

Knowledge and Thought in Heidegger and Foucault: Towards an Epistemology of Ruptures , Arun Anantheeswaran Iyer

William James's Undivided Self and the Possibility of Immortality , Anthony Karlin

The Poetics of Remembrance: Communal Memory and Identity in Heidegger and Ricoeur , David Leichter

The Ontological Foundations for Natural Law Theory and Contemporary Ethical Naturalism , Bernard Mauser

Sexualized Violence, Moral Disintegration and Ethical Advocacy , Melissa Mosko

Spinoza on Individuals and Individuation: Metaphysics, Morals, and Politics , Matthew David Wion

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

The Paradox of Nature: Merleau-Ponty's Semi-Naturalistic Critique of Husserlian Phenomenology , Shazad Akhtar

Hume's Conception of Time and its Implications for his Theories of Causation and Induction , Daniel Esposito

Arabic Influences in Aquinas's Doctrine of Intelligible Species , Max Herrera

The Attestation of the Self as a Bridge Between Hermeneutics and Ontology in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur , Sebastian Kaufmann

Love's Lack: The Relationship between Poverty and Eros in Plato's Symposium , Lorelle D. Lamascus

Friendship and Fidelity: An Historical and Critical Examination , Joshua Walter Schulz

Natural Law Theory and the "Is"--"Ought" Problem: A Critique of Four Solutions , Shalina Stilley

Attending to Presence: A Study of John Duns Scotus' Account of Sense Cognition , Amy F. Whitworth

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

Friendship and Self-Identity in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur , Cristina Bucur

The Finality of Religion in Aquinas' Theory of Human Acts , Francisco José Romero Carrasquillo

The finality of religion in Aquinas' theory of human acts , Francisco J Romero

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

Self-Identity in Comparative Theology: The Functional lmportance of Charles Taylor's Concept of the Self for a Theology of Religions , Richard Joseph Hanson

Theses/Dissertations from 2007 2007

Husserl's Noema: A Critical Assessment of the Gestalt and Analytic Interpretations , Peter M. Chukwu

A Social Contract Analysis of Rawls and Rousseau: Supplanting the Original Position As Philosophically Most Favored , Paul Neiman

To Validate a Feeling: the Role of the Mood of Angst in Human Being , Gregory P. Schulz

The Conception and Attributes of God: A Comparison of Charles Sanders Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead , Scott W. Sinclair

John Rawls, Public Reason, and Natural Law: A Study of the Principles of Public Justification , Christopher Ward

Submissions from 2006 2006

Hans Jonas's ethic of responsibility applied to anti-aging technologies and the indefinite extension of the human life span , Jeffrey P Goins

David Hume and the Principle of Sufficient Reason , Ginger Lee

Virtue Theory in Plato's Republic , Griffin T. Nelson

The Principle of Alternate Possibilities: Finding Freedom after Frankfurt , Matthew F. Pierlott

Theses/Dissertations from 2005 2005

Is There a Future for Marxist Humanism? , Jacob M. Held

Self-Love and Morality: Beyond Egoism and Altruism , Li Jing

Eikos Logos and Eikos Muthos: A Study of the Nature of the Likely Story in Plato's Timaeus , Ryan Kenneth McBride

Hume's Conclusions on the Existence and Nature of God , Timothy S. Yoder

Theses/Dissertations from 2004 2004

The Foundations of the Politics of Difference , Peter Nathaniel Bwanali

The foundations of the politics of difference , Peter Nathaniel Bwanali

The Place of Justice in the Thinking of Emmanuel Levinas , Michael H. Gillick

New Waves in Metaethics: Naturalist Realism, Naturalist Antirealism and Divine Commands , Daniel R. Kern

Reason in Hume's Moral System , John Muenzberg

Conceiving Mind: A Critique of Descartes' Dualism and Contemporary Immaterialist Views of Consciousness , Kristin P. Schaupp

Respecting Plurality in Times of Change: Hannah Arendt's Conceptions of Political, Personal, and Ethical Responsibility , Stephen Schulman

Francis Suárez on the Ontological Status of Individual Unity vis-à-vis the Aristotelian Doctrine of Primary Substance , John W. Simmons

Through a Glass Darkly: Bernard Lonergan and Richard Rorty on the Possibility of Knowing Without a God's-Eye-View , Russell Snell

Theses/Dissertations from 2003 2003

Building a Heideggerian Ethic , Kelly A. Burns

St. Thomas Aquinas and the Self-Evident Proposition: A Study of the Manifold Senses of a Medieval Concept , Michael V. Dougherty

Ricoeur's Narrative Development of Gadamer's Hermeneutics: Continuity and Discontinuity , Keith D'Souza

Beauty's Resting Place: Unity in St. Augustine's Sensible Aesthetic , Matthew J. Hayes

Empathy and Knowledge: Husserl's Introductions to Phenomenology , Kevin Hermberg

The Transactional Model: A Critical Examination of John Dewey's Philosophy of Freedom , Mark N. Lenker III

Reflection on the "good" As a Source of Freedom in Virtue Theory , John D. Morse

Theses/Dissertations from 2002 2002

An Evaluation of Alvin Plantinga's Religious Epistemology Does It Function Properly? , James Beilby

Merleau-Ponty: Embodied Subjectivity and the Foundation of Ethics , Sarah A. Fischer

Kant on Love for Oneself: Why Respect for the Moral Law, But not the Desire for Happiness, is a moral incentive , Lawrence Masek

Essence, Individuation, and Artifact: An Aristotelian Model for Familiar Concrete Particulars , Chad V. Meister

Normative Strategies for Resolving Human Rights Conflicts , Eugene T. Rice

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Scholars' Bank

Philosophy theses and dissertations.

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This collection contains some of the theses and dissertations produced by students in the University of Oregon Philosophy Graduate Program. Paper copies of these and other dissertations and theses are available through the UO Libraries .

Recent Submissions

• Making and Unmaking Worlds: Towards Liberation Beyond Subjectivity  Friaz, Ricardo ( University of Oregon , 2024-08-07 ) This dissertation develops the concept of liberation by questioning what it means to destroy, abolish, and create worlds. I develop a critical position towards agential or subject-based accounts of liberation in order to ...
• A Critical Feminist Semiology: De-naturalizing and Re-Politicizing Patriarchal, White Supremacist, and Settler-Colonial Systems of Meaning  Ring, Annalee ( University of Oregon , 2024-08-07 ) This dissertation de-naturalizes and re-politicizes patriarchal, white supremacist and settler-colonial systems of meaning through creating a methodology of critical feminist semiology. This methodology is built from the ...
• Critical Phenomenology of Illness: Towards a Politics of Care  McLay , Sarah ( University of Oregon , 2024-08-07 ) Working at the intersection of phenomenology and critical disability studies, this dissertation develops a critical phenomenology of illness and health. Moving beyond classical phenomenologies of illness—which center on ...
• The Problem of Freedom and Universality: Marxian Philosophical Anthropology  Ralda, Oscar ( University of Oregon , 2024-03-25 ) This dissertation has two principal aims. First, it provides a critical reconsideration of Marx’s philosophical anthropology as it bears on the essential continuity of his emancipatory critique of political economy. Second, ...
• Living Legality: Law and Dussel's Philosophy of Liberation  Ospina Martinez, Juan Sebastián ( University of Oregon , 2024-01-10 ) In this dissertation I examine the theoretical underpinnings necessary for a philosophy of liberationaccount of law and suggest an alternative conceptualization of the function of law and political institutions, following ...
• Making Sense of the Practical Lesbian Past: Towards a Rethinking of Untimely Uses of History through the Temporality of Cultural Techniques  Simon, Valérie ( University of Oregon , 2024-01-10 ) This dissertation focuses on the practice of untimely uses of lesbian history, and in particular the diverse practices of engagement with lesbian activist history, all of which aim to mobilize this activist history for the ...
• An Argument for a Cartographic Approach to Technology  McLevey, Mare ( University of Oregon , 2024-01-09 ) This dissertation develops a way to study technology and politics that is an alternative to dominant approaches particular to contemporary philosophy of technology’s empirical and ethical turns. Dominant models fix ...
• Nietzsche, Reification, and Open Comportment  Currie, Luke ( University of Oregon , 2024-01-09 ) This work primarily discusses the “fallacy of reification” from the perspective of Nietzsche’s late philosophy (particularly in the chapter on ‘Reason’ in philosophy in his Twilight of the Idols). While reification is ...
• Time, Capitalism, and Political Ecology: Toward and Ecosocialist Metabolic Temporality  Gamble, Cameron ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-26 ) The ecological crises that have already marked the 21st century, and which will continue to do so on an increasingly intense and destructive scale, present theory in every discipline and field of study with a number of ...
• Demystifying Racial Monopoly  Haller, Reese ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-04 ) Through analysis of private, public, and state reactions to the Great Depression and northward black migration, this thesis demystifies four key functions of race constitutive of capitalist racial monopoly: historical ...
• Pragmatism, Genealogy, and Moral Status  Showler, Paul ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-04 ) This dissertation draws from recent work in pragmatism and philosophical genealogy to develop and defend a new approach for thinking about the concept of moral status. My project has two main aims. First, I argue that Huw ...
• Ethics for the Depressed: A Value Ethics of Engagement  Fitzpatrick, Devin ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-04 ) I argue that depressed persons suffer from “existential guilt,” which amounts to a two-part compulsion: 1) the compulsive assertion or sense of a vague and all-encompassing or absolute threat that disrupts action and ...
• Soul and Polis: On Arete in Plato's Meno  Smith III, Ansel ( University of Oregon , 2022-10-04 ) In “Soul and Polis: On Arete in Plato’s Meno,” I interpret Meno as a dialogue in which the pursuit of individual arete appears intertwined with political arete. While the differentiation of these two arete is itself ...
• Place-in-Being: A Decolonial Phenomenology of Place in Conversation with Philosophies of the Americas  Newton, Margaret ( University of Oregon , 2022-05-10 ) Our experiences of place and emplacement are so fundamental to our everyday existence that most of us rarely dedicate much time to thinking about how place and emplacement impact the various aspects of our daily lives. In ...
• Species Trouble: From Settled Species Discourse to Ethical Species Pluralism  Sinclair, Rebekah ( University of Oregon , 2021-11-23 ) In this dissertation, I develop and defend the importance of species pluralism (the recognition and use of multiple species definitions) for both environmental and humanist ethics. I begin from the concern that, since the ...
• The Hybris of Plants: Reinterpreting Philosophy through Vegetal Life  Kerr, Joshua ( University of Oregon , 2021-11-23 ) This dissertation reexamines the place of plants in the history of Western philosophy, drawing on the diverse philosophical approaches of Plato, Aristotle, Goethe, Hegel, and Nietzsche, among others. I suggest that a close ...
• Decolonizing Silences: Toward a Critical Phenomenology of Deep Silences with Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Maurice Merleau-Ponty  Ferrari, Martina ( University of Oregon , 2021-11-23 ) Motivating this dissertation is a concern for how Western philosophical, cultural, and political practices tend to privilege speech and voice as emancipatory tools and reduce silence to silencing. To locate power in silence ...
• Mere Appearance: Redressing the History of Philosophy  Zimmer, Amie ( University of Oregon , 2021-09-13 ) The principal aim of this dissertation is to seriously consider what accounts of fashion and dress can offer—have indeed already offered—to philosophy. In recounting these histories, I have two primary goals. The first is ...
• Universal History as Global Critique: From German Critical Theory to the Anti-Colonial Tradition  Portella , Elizabeth ( University of Oregon , 2021-09-13 ) This dissertation argues for a critical reconstruction of the concept of universal history. In doing so, it draws on theoretical resources offered by a materialist philosophy of history, as it is expressed in both German ...
• Synoptic Fusion and Dialectical Dissociation: The Entwinement of Linguistic and Experiential Pragmatisms à la Wilfrid Sellars  Naeb, Cheyenne ( University of Oregon , 2021-09-13 ) This work will attempt to examine the relationship between experiential and linguistic pragmatism through the lens of the twentieth-century Analytic philosopher, Wilfrid Sellars. I maintain that Sellars meta-linguistic ...

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Home > FACULTIES > Philosophy > PHILOSOPHY-ETD

Philosophy Theses and Dissertations

This collection contains theses and dissertations from the Department of Philosophy, collected from the Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Theses/Dissertations from 2024 2024

Solidarity Building in a Structurally Unjust World , Emily T. Cichocki

A Defense of Virtual Veridicalism , Yen-Tung Lee

The 17th Century Legacy of Neo-Stoic Ethics , James Mackey

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

The Phenomenology and Intentionality of Normative-Evaluative Experience , Shawn K. Bartlett

Causal Variable Choice, Interventions, and Pragmatism , Zili Dong

What Do We Owe The Other Animals In Health-Related Research? , Jessica A. du Toit

Using Formal Epistemology to Model Epistemic Injustice Against Neurodivergent People , Mackenzie Marcotte

Conceptual Engineering & Contextualism , Madhavi Mohan

Human Extinction in the Pessimist Tradition , Ignacio L. Moya

The Exclusion of Religious Reasons , Jaclyn Rekis

Kant's Concept of Freedom in the Metaphysics Lectures , Alin Paul Varciu

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Effective Field Theories: A Philosophical Appraisal , Dimitrios Athanasiou

Essays on Privilege and its Implications for Relational Autonomy and Vaccine Hesitancy , Nicole Fice

A Critical Examination of Informed Consent Approaches in Pragmatic Cluster-Randomized Trials , Cory E. Goldstein

Craft and Virtue in Plato's Early Dialogues , Cecilia Z. Li

On Powerful Qualities , Dean J. Morales

Dissolving Nature/Nurture: Development as Coupled Interaction , Derek E. Oswick

Imagination as Thought in Aristotle's De Anima , Matthew Small

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Thomas Reid on Language and Mind , Alastair L.V. Crosby

Back to the Beginning: An Empiricist Defense of Scientific Stories About the Past , Craig William Fox

Autonomy, Paternalism, and the Moral Foundations of the Fiduciary Relationship , Austin Horn

Vindicating Evans: A Defence Of Evans' Theory Of Singular Thought , Dylan A. Hurry

Theories: Reconsidering Ramsey in the Philosophy of Science , John D. Lehmann

The Moral and Political Status of Microaggressions , Heather Stewart

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Aristotle's Account of Time: A Moderate Realism , Pierre-Luc Boudreault

On Polysemy: A Philosophical, Psycholinguistic, and Computational Study , Jiangtian Li

Apology and Reconciliation in Settler States , Nicholas B. Murphy

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

On Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: Surplus Structure and Artifacts in Scientific Theories , Marie Gueguen

Theory construction in high-energy particle physics , Adam Koberinski

Understanding Interdisciplinary Corroboration: Lessons from a Review Paper in the Mind-Brain Sciences , Jaclyn Lanthier

Derogatory Words and Speech Acts: An Illocutionary Force Indicator Theory of Slurs , Chang Liu

Rethinking Individuality in Quantum Mechanics , Nathan Moore

Methodological Challenges for Empirical Approaches to Ethics , Christopher Shirreff

In Search of Psychiatric Kinds: Natural Kinds and Natural Classification in Psychiatry , Nicholas Slothouber

A Groundwork for A Logic of Objects , David Winters

Modes of Argumentation in Aristotle's Natural Science , Adam W. Woodcox

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

A Duty to Adopt? On the Ethics and Politics of Adoption , Veromi Arsiradam

A Practical and Practice-Sensitive Account of Science as Problem-Solving , Frédéric-Ismaël Banville

Empirical Evidence and the Multiple Realization of Mental Kinds , Danny Booth

Kant and Tetens on Transcendental Philosophy , Richard D. Creek

Computing, Modelling, and Scientific Practice: Foundational Analyses and Limitations , Filippos A. Papagiannopoulos

A Pluralism Worth Having: Feyerabend's Well-Ordered Science , Jamie Shaw

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

A Complete Special Goods Theory of Filial Obligations , Cameron Fenton

The Goal of Habituation in Aristotle: A Neo-Mechanical Account , Dioné Harley

Foreknowledge, Free Will, and the Divine Power Distinction in Thomas Bradwardine's De futuris contingentibus , Sarah Hogarth Rossiter

A New Framework for Enactivism: Understanding the enactive body through structural flexibility and Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of flesh , John Jenkinson

The Foundations of Revealed Religion 100 Years before David Hume: The Contribution of Anthony Collins , Nicholas Bryant Nash

Virtue Ethics for Relational Beings , Mathieu Roy

Fiduciary Duties and Commercial Surrogacy , Emma A. Ryman

Evidence in Neuroimaging: Towards a Philosophy of Data Analysis , Jessey Wright

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

On the Role of Mathematics in Scientific Representation , Saad Anis

Species Pluralism: Conceptual, Ontological, and Practical Dimensions , Justin Bzovy

Tesitmony as Significance Negotiation , Jennifer F. Epp

The Moral Status and Welfare of Patients Diagnosed as Vegetative With Covert Awareness , Mackenzie S. Graham

Similarity, Adequacy, and Purpose: Understanding the Success of Scientific Models , Melissa Jacquart

Varieties of Objectivity: What's Worth Keeping? , Lori Kantymir

Evaluating the Quantum Postulate in the Context of Pursuit , Molly M. Kao

A Pure Representationalist Account of Belief and Desire , Stephen Pearce

The Constellations of Empiricism, New Science, and Mind in Hobbes, Locke, and Hume , Lisa Pelot

Assessing Decision-Making Capacity After Severe Brain Injury , Andrew Peterson

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Probabilistic Reasoning in Cosmology , Yann Benétreau-Dupin

Civil Interests, The Social Contract, and The Conditions of Political Legitimacy , Michael S. Borgida

Gamete Provision and Moral Responsibility , Reuven A. Brandt

Rethinking Empathy: Value and Context in Motivation and Adaptation , O'Neal Buchanan

Representationalism About Sensory Phenomenology , Matthew Ivanowich

Contesting Gender Concepts, Language and Norms: Three Critical Articles on Ethical and Political Aspects of Gender Non-conformity , Stephanie Julia Kapusta

A Biopsychological Foundation for Linguistics , Jonathan J. Life

On Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics , Joshua M. Luczak

The Debate about Time: Examining the Evidence from our Ordinary Experience of Time , Melissa MacAulay

On Philosophical Intuitions , Nicholas D. McGinnis

Weaving the Statesman: the Unity of Plato's Politicus , Ryan Middleton

Trusting to a Fault: Criminal Negligence and Faith Healing Deaths , Ken Nickel

The Modern Secularization of Just War Theory and its Lessons for Contemporary Thought , Aviva Shiller

Aggregating Evidence in Climate Science: Consilience, Robustness and the Wisdom of Multiple Models , Martin A. Vezér

Moral Sense Theory and the Development of Kant's Ethics , Michael H. Walschots

Philipp Frank: Philosophy of Science, Pragmatism, and Social Engagement , Amy N. Wuest

Phenomenal Intentionality and the Problem of Cognitive Contact , Christopher A. Young

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Language, Mind, and Cognitive Science: Remarks on Theories of the Language-Cognition Relationships in Human Minds , Guillaume Beaulac

Love and Ethics in the Works of J. M. E. McTaggart , Trevor J. Bieber

A Feminist Defense of Moderate Moral Intuitionism , Bill JC Cameron

Hypothetical Necessity and the Laws of Nature: John Locke on God's Legislative Power , Elliot Rossiter

William James' Theory of Emotion , James Southworth

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

A Defence of Anti-Psychologism About Reasons , Alex Beldan

Aristotle on the Good of Friendship: Why the Beneficiary is Not What Matters , Kristina L. Biniek

An Ethical Justification for Research with Children , Ariella Binik

Method and Metaphor in Aristotle's Science of Nature , Sean Michael Pead Coughlin

On the Physical Explanation for Quantum Computational Speedup , Michael Cuffaro

The Methodological Roles of Tolerance and Conventionalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics: Reconsidering Carnap's Logic of Science , Emerson P. Doyle

Well-Being, Authority, and Worth , Michel Hebert

Structures in Real Theory Application: A Study in Feasible Epistemology , Robert H. C. Moir

Husserl's Transcendental Idealism and the Problem of Solipsism , Rodney Parker

Fertility Preservation Technologies for Women: A Feminist Ethical Analysis , Angel Petropanagos

Some disputed aspects of inertia, with particular reference to the equivalence principle , Ryan S. Samaroo

The Resilience of a Refined Higher-Order Thought Theory of Consciousness , Lee-Anna T. Sangster

Justice, Rights, and Capabilities , Jeffrey E. Spring

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Does Empirical Moral Psychology Rest on a Mistake? Understanding Theories About the Nature of Moral Judgment as Moral Propositions , Patrick Clipsham

The Reasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences , Nicolas Fillion

Hannah Arendt and Feminist Agency , Katherine N. Fulfer

From Mirror to Mirage: The Idea of Logical Space in Kant, Wittgenstein, and van Fraassen , Lucien R. Lamoureux

Creating and Raising Humans: Essays on the Morality of Procreation and Parenting , Jason T. Marsh

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Philosophy dissertations

undergraduate Y4

I supervise at least one undergraduate a year. Many of the same questions come up each year. I have prepared below a set of guidelines to help when starting out on a dissertation.

Please note that this is personal advice and not to be taken as a substitute for the undergraduate handbook and marking scheme.

Do’s and Don’t’s for a dissertation

• Have a claim. You should be able to state your claim clearly in 1–2 sentences.
• Have claim of the right size – viz. a size you can defend (be careful not to be too ambitious here)
• Have a rigorous argument for your claim. Your argument should be able to convince a rational person who does not already believe your claim
• Make your dissertation clearly understandable to a philosopher who is not an expert in this area
• Explain why your claim is important
• Be honest if you do not conclusively establish your claim – e.g. clarify that your claim follows conditional on certain stated assumptions, list unresolved objections
• Make clear your original contribution
• Make use of your supervisor for feedback on drafts

Don’t:

• Aim for this to be your magnum opus or last word on the topic
• Try to solve a major problem (e.g. the mind-body problem, external world scepticism)
• Cover every possible view in the field
• Include extra material unless it advances your argument
• Have one massive 6,000 word chapter
• Leave it until Semester 2 to start work

How to write a dissertation

The points above give you an idea of what to aim for but they don’t provide a method for how to get there. There are many ways to write a dissertation. It may be reassuring to know that there are simple methods that can reliably produce an excellent dissertation. The algorithm below is one method:

• Find the general area you like (e.g. phenomenal consciousness)
• Select one article/book chapter in that area that you find fascinating (e.g. Smith (2009))
• Summarise Smith (2009) carefully in your own words, paying attention to whether each step in the argument follows from the previous
• Look for weaknesses in Smith (2009)’s argument
• Which new resources do you need to draw on?
• Which alternative conclusions follow?
• Which objections can be raised to your proposal?
• Draw on relevant bits of surrounding literature to support (5)

You have a first class dissertation!

Filling the dissertation with enough words

A common worry among students is whether they are able to write enough words. The longest piece of philosophical writing they may have done so far is 3,000 words. How can you write a sustained argument that lasts for 8,000 words? This turns out to be easier than you might think. Indeed, the difficulty often turns out to be not going over the word limit.

For the sake of argument, let us see how following the algorithm above might work out in terms of word count.

• Introduction (500 words): What is your claim, the outline of your argument?
• Chapter 1 (1,000 words): Why is your claim important? What are the pay-offs?
• Chapter 2 (2,000 words): Careful and charitable summary of X in your own words
• Chapter 3 (2,000 words): Your rigorous criticism of X
• Chapter 4 (2,000 words): How X should be corrected, associated costs, consequences for views that use X, possible objections
• Conclusion (500 words): Summary and next steps for future work

And we are done!

Milestones to aim for

Milestones depend on the specific project and you should talk to your supervisor about your workload and what would be a reasonable plan for finishing the dissertation in the year. Below is a rough plan that one might aim for.

• End Y3: meet supervisor & agree on general topic
• Summer vacation: background reading on topic
• Start Y4: find 1 article/chapter to focus

Year 4, Semester 1:

• Start: meet with supervisor & agree plan for year
• Middle: first draft of 2 chapters
• End: polished draft of 2 chapters

Year 4, Semester 2:

• Start: first draft of entire dissertation
• Middle: polished draft of entire dissertation
• End: revisit, revise, and submit dissertation

Background reading

A dissertation in philosophy is a story … like all good stories, it only includes what is essential to the story — Robert Paul Wolff’s astute advice that applies just as well to UG dissertations as well as PhD theses

Be concise, but explain yourself fully — Jim Pryor with an excellent 3-stage plan for writing philosophy

Style is the feather in the arrow, not the feather in the cap — Peter Lipton has some wonderful and concise writing advice

Read your work aloud. … Be firm: take your prose to the gym, and keep working at it until the bones and sinews show through! — Peter Smith, previously editor of Analysis , with some fantastic advice

What is an argument? — Jim Pryor’s guide is essential reading for anyone writing philosophy; it contains a lexicon of philosophical terms and a taxonomy of good and bad arguments, which is useful for classifying the arguments you consider

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Department of Philosophy

General exam and dissertation, on this page.

• For Students in the Standard Program and Special Tracks

For Students in the Classical Philosophy Program

The qualifying exam.

• Choose a Reasonably Sized Project

Dissertations Consisting of Several Essays

General exam format, for students in the standard program, the logic & philosophy of science track, or the interdepartmental program in political philosophy.

October General Exam Schedule ( General Exam in October of the Third Year) :

• Provide the name of your General Exam adviser to the DGS  by March 15 th  of your second year of regular enrollment.  Once your General Exam adviser is approved, the DGS will set up your General Exam committee.
• Submit all papers, take all exams, complete all distribution requirements and units  by May 31 st  of your second year   of regular enrollment*. This includes your first and second oral units.
• At the latest, two weeks before the oral exam, students will have received the approval of two examiners for an examination proposal, which must include a description of the unit’s field of study, six to ten sample questions, and a bibliography. This document, after approval by the examiners, must be forwarded to the DGS. The written part of the unit can be a paper or a 48-hour take-home exam on questions formulated by the examiners. Both written and oral parts of the exam must combine a survey of the field with creative philosophical work.
• Your undergraduate lecture, observed and confirmed in writing by a Princeton PHI faculty member, must be completed  by May 31 st  of your second year of regular enrollment.
• Part 2 of the General Exam is the qualifying exam (the oral portion; preceded a few days before by submission of a draft chapter of your dissertation). This due date is based on the University academic calendar for October General Exams. (See below for a complete description of the qualifying exam.)
• Teaching in your second year at Princeton is optional.

January General Exam Schedule  (General Exam in January of the Third Year):

• Provide the name of your General Exam adviser to the DGS  by March 15 th  of your second year   of regular enrollment. Once your General Exam adviser is approved, the DGS will set up your General Exam committee.
• Submit all papers, take all exams, complete all distribution requirements and units (including your first oral unit)  by May 31 st  of your second year of regular enrollment*.
• Your undergraduate lecture, observed and confirmed in writing by a Princeton PHI faculty member, must be completed  by December 15 th  of your third year of regular enrollment.
• Part 2 of your General Exam is the qualifying exam (the oral portion; preceded a few days before by submission of a draft chapter of your dissertation). This due date is based on the University academic calendar for January General Exams. (See below for a complete description of the qualifying exam.)

*Failure to meet this deadline results in loss of entitlement to staying enrolled in the program and in the deferral of the department’s re-enrollment recommendation. In that case, a new timeline for completion of the ten units is agreed upon with the student by June 15, and continued enrollment is conditional on implementation of the new timeline.

If any of the above dates occur on a weekend or during recess, the due date will be on the following Monday.

• Provide the name of your General Exam adviser to the DGS  by March 15 th  of your second year of regular enrollment. Once your General Exam adviser is approved, the DGS will set up your General Exam committee.
• At the latest, two weeks before the oral exam, students will have received the approval of two examiners for an examination proposal, which must include a description of the unit’s field of study, six to ten sample questions, and a bibliography. The written part of the unit can be a paper or a 48-hour take-home exam on questions formulated by the examiners. Both written and oral parts of the exam must combine a survey of the field with creative philosophical work.
• Your undergraduate lecture, observed and confirmed in writing by a Princeton PHI faculty member, must be completed  anytime prior to your General Exam.
• Part 2 of your General Exam is the qualifying exam (the oral portion; preceded a few days before by submission of a draft chapter of your dissertation). This can be completed in October, January, or as late as May of your third year of regular enrollment,  following the schedule based on the University academic calendar. (See below for a complete description of the qualifying exam.)

Part 2 of the General Exam is the qualifying exam.  The written part of this exam is constituted by (1) a draft dissertation chapter of between 7500 – 8500 words, and (2) a dissertation prospectus of 2 – 4 pages. If you feel the need to exceed these limits (with quotations, for example), consult with the DGS. The oral part of the exam is conducted by the student’s General Exam committee, which is composed of four faculty members, under the direction of the exam committee chair. It is preferred that students enrolled in the regular program take this oral exam in the General Exam period in October of their third year of enrollment. However, students may also take the exam in the January exam period of their third year of enrollment. 

All students who are allowed to retake their General Examination after a failed attempt are required to do so by following the format of the qualifying exam (Part 2 of the new General Exam format).

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Qualifications to Write A Dissertation In A Given Area

If you can complete pre-Generals requirements and pass Generals, then we take it that you are able to write some dissertation or other, but not necessarily the dissertation of your choice. To do justice to some topics, you may need preparation and qualifications that go beyond those required of everyone as part of our pre-Generals requirements, and beyond what you could reasonably expect to pick up while working on the dissertation. You might need to know a considerable amount of logic, or linguistics, or physics, or history, or econometrics, or something else. In par­ticular, you might need a level of proficiency in some foreign language which is substantially higher than that needed to pass the language requirement. That might be because there are impor­tant untranslated scholarly works relevant to your topic. Or it might be because your topic requires you to figure out what someone meant by something written in a foreign language. Note the department's requirement that "if a student's dissertation is devoted to any considerable extent to an author, the student must be able to read the author's works in the original language." (But note also the delicate, yet real, distinction between writing about an author and writing about philo­sophical ideas that come from that author.) Don't take chances. The standards that apply are the generally accepted standards of sound scholarship, not the standards of doing the best you can with what preparation you have. If you can't do sound scholarship on a topic because you aren't good enough at a language (or something) that doesn't excuse or justify bad scholarship – it means that you should have chosen a different topic.

If in doubt about what qualifications are needed for a topic, and whether you have them, seek advice! Your adviser cannot determine by an exercise of authority what standards of scholarship will suffice – the adviser is only an adviser, there is no such authority – but the adviser can give you good advice on what will be needed to meet generally accepted standards of scholarship, and the adviser (with your help) can try to measure your level of proficiency. If you can't do a topic justice, you'd rather find out now than after you've submitted a dissertation.

Choose a Reasonably-Sized Project

In choosing a dissertation topic and General Examination field, beware of overambition. Students sometimes attempt enormous projects which later have to be abandoned, others are completed many years later. Either way is a disaster for the student's academic career. It is hard to write a dis­sertation while starting to teach, hard to remain employed without the Ph.D., hard to publish arti­cles that would support promotion to tenure while still struggling with the dissertation. It is extremely advantageous to finish the Ph.D. before leaving Princeton. Your dissertation does not need to be a magnum opus; it does not need to contain every thought you have about the topic; the end of the dissertation need not be the end of your research and writing on the topic. Choose a project you can soon finish!

Some dissertations consist of several significant philosophical essays on different topics. Each essay in such a dissertation must be a substantial full-length philosophical article, not just a dis­cussion note.

Your dissertation should have a useful title that gives some indication of the philosophical content of the dissertation. Specifically ruled out are titles like "Philosophical Essays" or "Three Philo­sophical Essays."

Although a good dissertation might be significantly shorter or longer, the department recom­mends a target length of 30,000-50,000 words. Besides this recommendation, we also have established a length limit. Dissertations will normally be limited to 100,000 words (about 400 standard pages); exceptions must be approved by the Graduate Committee.

The following links will provide information on preparing your dissertation for submission:

FPO Checklist

Mudd Library

Graduate School – Dissertation and FPO

Graduate School - Advanced Degree Application Process

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227 Philosophy Thesis Topics To Use Right Now

A philosophy dissertation everyone’s favorite. The long list of philosophers and their allegories or theories is not a subject most students would want to listen to comfortably. However, students still have to write a philosophical thesis in their undergraduate or post-graduate to graduate.

Let us narrow down this elephant in the room for you.

What Is A Philosophical Thesis?

A philosophical paper is not a report of what various scholars have had to say on a particular issue. It is a reasoned defense of a particular thesis. Unlike other papers that present the latest findings of tests or experiments, this paper tries to persuade the reader to give in to a particular point of view together with grounds or justification for its acceptance.

The introduction of a philosophy paper states what the writer is trying to show the reader. When writing a dissertation in philosophy, follow the following simple guidelines for efficiency:

• Very carefully and think about your topic
• Have a rough idea of what you intend to establish
• Determine how you’ll go about convincing the reader that your thesis is correct.

For an outstanding philosophy thesis, ensure that you say what you mean and in a way that minimizes the chances of being misunderstood. It is the general rule thumb for this paper that every student should have at his/her finger-tips.

What To Avoid in a Philosophy Dissertation

Understanding the do’s and don’ts of any paper is essential in ensuring that you stick within the scope of what is required of you. Here are some of the things to avoid in philosophical thesis papers for college:

• Lengthy quotations: It is essential to understand that quotations are an essential part of philosophy papers. However, stating long quotes that run into paragraphs or more does not make your paper sound original. One will only see this as a duplication of another person’s work.
• Circular reasoning: If you presuppose the truth of whatever it is that you are trying to bring out in the course of arguing for it, then you are guilty of begging the question.
• Lengthy introductions: An intro should only serve the purpose of giving the context of your philosophy topic and creating interest in the reader. You can do it in less than four short and precise questions. Overloading your introduction only serves to drain your readers’ energy before they get into the real deal – the body.
• Fence sitting: Most students are guilty of presenting several positions in their papers and then saying they are not qualified to settle the matter. Do not close by saying that philosophers have been divided over a particular issue. That only shows how shallow and scanty you were in your research process.

Always organize your work carefully, using the right words to present your stance without any disputes. The stance should also come out naturally without making the reader feel that you are forcing him/her to ascribe to your particular point of view.

It is also essential to support your arguments with undisputed evidence. Do not assume that your reader may not be skeptical of your arguments. Every reader is skeptical of whatever they read, and if sufficient evidence is not provided, then you might not convince anyone at the end of your 20-page long thesis.

Now, for you to have a strong thesis, ensure that it is:

• Answering a specific question;
• Engaging; one that can be challenged or opposed, thus also defended;
• Passes the “so what? Or why should I care?” test;
• Supported by your paper; and
• Not too broad nor too vague.

To have a strong argument in your philosophical paper, demonstrate these sorts of things that make your opponent’s views false in a fashion that does not presuppose that your position is correct. Your philosophy research topics will play a significant role in supporting this claim.

You can find philosophy research paper topics from:

Early American Imprints of 1639 to 1819 Early English Books Online of 1475 to 1700 Internet archives The War Diaries of Jean-Paul Sartre The Metaphysics of Morals by Emmanuel Kant

And many more sources that are readily available in your college library or online catalogs.

We now advance to our professional philosophy topics list:

Sample Thesis Topics For Philosophy of the Human Sciences

• Critique of mainstream assumptions and practices of human behavior globally
• How are constructions of human nature affect our associations and lineation
• Adopting a human science framework to the problem of racial discrimination in the US
• How to adopt positivism in a world bombarded by negative news all the time
• A rigorous and systematic approach to man’s natural behavior
• The role of the Greek philosophers in shaping human sciences around the 18th century
• How existential phenomenology found its way from Europe
• Cultural and biological dimensions of human science research programs
• The role of qualitative research methods across the discipline of the human sciences
• How humanistic psychology offers more substantive findings in human science tradition
• An evaluation of the colleges and universities dedicated to humanistic/human science philosophy
• Discuss the impact of the American infusionism into the cultures and systems of the world
• Fundamental tenets of Western civilization in developing countries
• An assessment of the ancient nature of human interactions
• Political and cultural standards acceptable to all human interactions

Philosophy Potential Senior Thesis Topics

• A philosophical perspective of evil actions and evil persons
• How the ideology of Darwinism has affected the aspect of natural selection
• Distinguishing the underlying differences between intervention and information
• Psychoanalysis of melancholia in teenagers
• Investigating the use of biology in dealing with human philosophical issues
• The evolution of philosophical writings from the 15th century to the 21st century
• Examine the connection between shame and an immoral piece of art
• How depression relates to natural and interactive children
• What is the logic behind nightmares and madness in dreams?
• An investigation of how man is adapting to the invasion of privacy by new technologies
• The ethical and practical arguments against voluntary euthanasia
• Discuss the relationship between value, dignity, and human virtue in the Modern Virtue Theory
• The evolution of personal and corporate responsibility in the 21st century
• Trends in sex and sexuality as seen in the 21st century
• Why arousal of an emotion in the listener is essential in the delivery of any speech

Undergraduate Philosophy Thesis Topics

• Modern science: Should we employ a monistic or pluralistic model?
• How moral philosophy can help improve our understanding of folk psychology
• Why is it close to impossible to escape mental externalism?
• The emergence of technology and resulting bioethics as seen in the 21st century
• Investigate the willingness to accept punishment after committing a civil crime
• Why artificial intelligence may not be a genuinely creative entity
• Discuss empathy, fiction, and morality in the development of fiction stories and folklores
• The role of sporting activities in developing virtues and morals in the society
• Is voluntary suicide justified for any reason whatsoever?
• Why postmodern philosophical theories and market anarchism are enemies
• Discuss the ultimate goal of humanity in the backdrop of the changing roles
• Give a detailed analysis of the relationship between fate, destiny, and free will
• What is the essence of dreams and visions to man?
• Evaluate the sources of your self-worth in the light of personal attributes
• What is the impact of a person’s name on who they become in the future?

Best-Rated Political Philosophy Thesis Topics

• Consider the dividing line between distributive justice and the family
• Investigate the gendered basis for care and caregiving
• What are the underlying differences between multiculturalism and feminism
• Discuss the liberal versus radical feminist positions on pornography
• How social beings should live together considering the underlying differences
• Following the example of Plato, discuss what it means to have an ideal society
• Given the knowledge and resources available, discuss the best form of society using the US as a case study
• The evolution of democracy in the US presidential election
• How the history of the past several centuries has impacted the role of citizens in participation in democracy
• What is the essence of having a conservative free-market economy in the 21st century?
• The role of the government in regulating the economy
• Should the economy incorporate both capitalist and socialist structures?
• Do we have an economically viable socialist alternative to capitalism?
• Is it worth fighting for an economically viable alternative to capitalism?
• The conservative view of the post-World-War-Two period

Thesis Topics on the Renaissance and Philosophy

• The impact of the renaissance period o man’s view of the world
• Compare and contrast the High Renaissance in Rome as compared to the of Northern Europe
• The impact of the scientific revolution on the renaissance period
• The early renaissance period in Florence and the existence of the Flemish art
• Discuss the contributions of some of the godfathers of the Renaissance
• The perfect interplay between music and painting during the renaissance period
• The humanist intellectual, cultural, and artistic revolution of the Renaissance
• Religious symbolism and naturalistic beauty as exemplified in the renaissance period
• The role of sexuality and eroticism in the works of the 16th-century renaissance art
• How the discoveries of the renaissance period helped shape people’s attitudes towards life
• Identify and explain the role of the Carolingian Renaissance on the Bible
• The impact of the Great migration and economic changes on literature and art
• Discuss how art patronage was conducted in Italy during the Renaissance
• How science has made advancements in renaissance culture and art
• Impacts of the early Renaissance on the medical innovations

Master Thesis Topics in Philosophy

• Discuss the benefits and impacts of the renaissance period on the man
• How the renaissance period played a part in the reformation of the world
• A comparative analysis of philosophy, art, and culture during the Renaissance
• How much influence did the renaissance period have on dressing?
• Conduct a critical analysis of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance
• The contribution of sculptors of the Italian Renaissance
• Discuss artistic renaissance humanism during 1400 and 1650
• The Renaissance and religion: A case study of the Catholic church
• Artistic revolution as a significant element of the Renaissance
• The role of William Shakespeare in the renaissance period
• Discuss the classical and Renaissance humanities art of the Greco-Roman artists
• The cultural, economic, and political influence of the Renaissance
• The age of revolutionary, Renaissance, and enlightenment period
• The representation of nature in the European renaissance artistic works
• How Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Rafael contributed to the new era of the Renaissance

Introduction to Philosophy Thesis Topics

• Discuss whether people are good or evil by nature
• What are the limitations to free will in making personal decisions?
• What is the impact of the belief in God on a person’s way of life?
• Discuss the compatibility issues between science with religion
• Give a detailed argument for or against utilitarianism
• What is the logic behind psychological and ethical egoism?
• Ascertain the relevance of morals to culture or society
• The role of Aesop’s fables in contributing to human philosophy
• Discuss the history and development of African philosophy
• What are the central tenets of African Sage Philosophy?
• The critical role played by altruism and group selection
• Conduct a detailed analysis of the American Enlightenment Thought
• How does the American Wilderness Philosophy vary from that of today?
• A case study of Anselm’s Ontological Argument for the Existence of God
• Critically evaluate motion and its place in nature
• Discuss association in the philosophy of the mind
• How Bolzano’s mathematical knowledge played a crucial role in human philosophy

Thesis Papers Topics on Buddhist Philosophy

• The view of sin and punishment between the Buddhist and Hindu religions
• Buddhist believe in rebirth, which is determined by the actions one does in daily life.
• Misconceptions about sexuality in the Buddhist religion
• Discuss the relationship between Shinto with China and Buddhism
• Analyze the four noble truths of Buddhism
• The concept of salvation according to the Zen Buddhism religion
• A detailed study of the confluence of Buddhism and Hinduism in India
• An analysis of the faith and practices of Buddhism as a religion in India
• The role of Mahatma Gandhi in advancing the ideologies and practices of Buddhism
• Evaluate the vase of treasure hidden in the Buddhist iconography
• Compare and contrast the various variations between Buddhism and Christianity
• Elements of the Buddhism religion that make it sacred
• Discuss the concept of anger and how to manage it in the Buddhism religion
• Cultural histories and the expansion of the Buddhism religion in China
• Differences in the Japanese versus Chinese Buddhism practices

Types of Philosophy Thesis Topics

• Discuss the role of aesthetics in the study of philosophy
• How epistemology has contributed to the growth in philosophical literature
• Elaborate the role of ethics on the survivability of a society
• How logic has been crucial in making rational decisions in a man
• What are the limitations of metaphysics as a branch of philosophy?
• Analyze the philosophy of mind given the fundamental tenets
• Discuss the major revolutions of the African philosophy
• Why does Eastern philosophy have a lower absorption rate?
• Reasons why Western philosophy has a greater acceptance in the world as compared to others
• Give the unique characteristics of the ancient and classical philosophy
• Why the medieval and post-classical philosophies have a place in the modern world
• The modern and contemporary philosophy in terms of improvements
• Discuss the philosophy of language theories and stances in Europe
• What is the impact of the philosophy of science theories and stances?
• Discuss the epistemological stances of different philosophical schools of thought

Epistemology Paper Topics

• The concept of skepticism among different readers
• Analyze the internalist vs. externalist accounts of knowledge and justification
• Discuss the structure of knowledge and justification
• What contributes to contextualism in epistemology?
• Impacts of the relevant alternative accounts of knowledge
• Discuss the pros and cons of the epistemology of lotteries
• A case study of foundationalism and coherentism
• The impacts of facts and beliefs on people
• Is skepticism doomed to an inevitable defeat?
• Arguments and positions in epistemology in the 21st century
• The pros and cons of different positions in epistemology
• Relevant arguments and principles in epistemology: A case of The Closure Principle
• Critically discuss Shoemaker’s ‘self-blindness’ concept
• How the epistemology of attitudes like the belief is very different from the epistemology of other mental states
• Fundamental flaws in various epistemological theories

High-Quality Philosophy Project Topics

• Discuss the concept of happiness
• Why egoism is a negative trait
• Discuss the motive behind acts of charity
• Is love merely an illusion of the mind?
• Are criminals evil by nature?
• Is the current generation less affectionate?
• Discuss the concept of true friendship
• Is there happiness in achieving nothing?
• Does a perfect life exist?
• Why do people struggle to attain perfectionism?
• The impact of technology of taking away emotions
• Analyze time management among high school versus campus students
• Is obsession replacing true love?
• Is the concept of ‘You Only Live Once’ viable?
• Why are most geniuses’ introverts?

Easy Philosophy Paper Topics

• Discuss the existence of fate in the modern world
• Can we achieve an ideal society?
• Is life meaningful after all?
• Why should people work, yet they will die in the end?
• Is the concept of feminism overhyped?
• Is every human action predetermined?
• Discuss the components of the human consciousness
• Why do people tend to do the bad instead of the good?
• Are atheists deceiving themselves?
• Why is the world changing so fast?
• Is there life after death?
• Why must everyone go to school?
• Who determines what clothes each gender should don?
• The impact of religious beliefs on science
• Does death usher in the new life?

Top Philosophical Topics To Write About

• Will the world ever come to an end?
• Why do people have different religions?
• Does stealing originate from the person’s mind?
• Who is responsible for the rot in the society
• The role of parents in instilling morals
• Why do people believe in revenge?
• What makes man different from animals?
• Why should we care about our neighbors?
• Is humility a virtue for ladies?
• Why are most men aggressive
• Discuss the role of sleeping at night
• Should people eat food after all?
• Is man the biggest threat to himself?
• Is the judicial system serving justice?
• Will robots make the world better?

Good Philosophy Topics

• Do beliefs and superstitions match?
• Is sex necessary?
• Why should people love each other?
• Should a woman head the house also?
• Are other planets mere superstitions?
• Are the stars in the sky fantasies?
• Why bother about planning?
• Do aliens exist?
• Why is man rational?
• What is the effect of finding a purpose in life
• Do shooting stars fall on earth?
• Why do fiction movies move people?
• Does the moon exist?
• Are we living reality or a fantasy?
• Can one love more than two people?

Interesting Philosophy Topics

• Was man made out of clay?
• Do guns protect?
• Does true love exist among teenagers?
• Beauty and morality
• Religion and power
• Memories and love
• Peace and war
• Religion and own belief system
• Angels and demons
• Heaven and earth
• Plastic surgery and ethics
• Character and upbringing
• Dreams and the future
• The rich and the poor
• Is death inevitable

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Information on Writing Philosophy Papers

Please familiarize yourself with the university’s academic honest policies if you have not already done so. They are available here: http://www.rochester.edu/college/honesty/docs/Academic_Honesty.pdf . Note in particular that it is a violation of these policies to use material from any source (other than yourself) in your papers without attribution and, where relevant, use of quotation marks. This applies especially to copying and pasting material from websites, which should always be avoided. You may, of course, make limited use of academically respectable web resources where relevant, as long as they are properly cited (I'm not picky about the exact format of your citations, as long as they contain the relevant information) and any quoted material is clearly placed in quotation marks (though this should still be a very limited portion of your paper). However, you should never make any use at all of student 'essay mills'--websites that offer students canned student essays for 'research' purposes: these essays are not research and do not meet the standards for scholarly sources; they have no place in the writing of your papers.

General Guidelines for Writing Philosophy Papers

• Clarity and straightforwardness of thought and language are crucial: avoid flowery styles and long, superfluous introductions and conclusions. (No paper should ever start with a sentence like: "Since the dawn of time, mankind has pondered the question of...") The bulk of your paper should consist of philosophical exposition and analysis, in plain but precise language.
• If you are writing an essay in response to an assigned essay topic, the most important thing is simply to make sure you answer the question that was asked , carefully and thoroughly. Avoid getting off on tangents that are not crucial to your topic, and avoid sweeping generalizations you can't support in the paper . In addition to the quality of exposition, one of the central things we look for in a philosophy paper is how well the thesis in question is supported. Even if the reader thinks some of your claims are false, your paper can be excellent if you do a solid job of defending your claims.
• If you are asked to explain something, do not merely summarize what an author or lecturer has said. Explain and illuminate the relevant ideas or arguments in your own words, as if you were trying to help a fellow student gain a deeper understanding of them.
• Avoid excessive quotation! Stringing together quotes is not explaining a position or an argument, and does not display your understanding of the material. Even paraphrasing in your own words is not enough. Again, explanation involves clarifying the claims, bringing out hidden assumptions behind arguments, noticing ambiguities as they arise and nailing them down, and so on.
• In addition to careful explanation of positions or arguments, some paper topics ask for critical evaluation of those positions and arguments. An example of critical evaluation of an argument would be my lecture criticizing Thomson's argument for the conclusion that abortions wouldn't violate a fetus' right to life even if it were granted to have a full right to life. (I developed and used a distinction between positive and negative rights, and argued that the central parallel she appeals to in her argument fails to go through, since it involves a conflation of positive and negative rights.) Some paper topics ask you to do the same sort of thing, and if you're writing on such a topic, be sure that this component of your paper is strong and well developed.
• Proofreading of papers is a necessity. So is decent grammar: incoherent grammar makes the effective communication of ideas impossible.
• As for which topic you choose: You should choose something you're most interested in and have the most to say about. Beware of any topic that seems too easy: If it seems simple--like something you can dash off in a few paragraphs--then that's a good sign that you're not thinking deeply enough about it, and you should probably write on another topic. So choose your topic carefully.
• This is important : If you use someone else's words, you have to use quotation marks and cite the source in a footnote. If you don't, it's plagiarism, which constitutes cheating and is a violation of the honor code. See note at top.

Sample Short Paper and Commentary

For Illustrative purposes only

Sample Essay Question : Is Socrates' position in the Crito , concerning the moral authority of the state, consistent with his view that one should never do anything that is wrong? Is it consistent with what he says, in the Apology , about what he would do if commanded by the state to cease practicing philosophy, or about what he did when commanded by the Thirty to capture Leon of Salamis for execution? Explain.

(Note: page references are to a different edition than the one you have ; paragraphs should be indented, but are not here due to limitations of html formatting; I have not here included footnotes for the same reason; and your papers should be double-spaced, rather than single-spaced.)

Socrates on the Moral Authority of the State

In the Crito , Socrates makes some surprisingly strong claims about the moral authority of the state, which might even seem to be inconsistent both with another fundamental claim he makes in the Crito and with certain claims he makes in the Apology . I shall argue that although these claims seem to be in some tension with each other, the crucial claims about the authority of the state in the Crito can plausibly be interpreted in such a way as to remove any real inconsistency with the other claims.

The first, rather striking claim about the moral authority of the state occurs at 51b of the Crito . Socrates argues that, because of the state's role as a provider of security, education, and various important social institutions (such as marriage), the citizens of the state are its "offspring and servants"; and from this he concludes that citizens are subordinate to the state and its laws to such an extent that if a citizen ever disagrees with the state's laws or orders, he "must either persuade it or obey its orders," even if the latter amounts to suffering death. The implication for his own case is clear: Socrates had tried to persuade the court of his innocence and of the injustice of his execution (as detailed in the Apology ), but he had failed; therefore, he argues, he must now obey the court and accept his death sentence--even though he still thinks that he is in the right on this matter.

The second, closely related claim, comes only a few paragraphs later, in 51e and 52. Socrates there argues that by virtue of remaining in the state, a citizen enters into an implied contract with it to obey its commands. More precisely, the claim is again that a citizen who has a disagreement with the state must either persuade it that it is wrong, or else obey it. In the voice of the personified laws: "either persuade us or do what we say" (52a). The implication, again, is that if one fails to persuade the state to change its mind, for whatever reason, then one must obey its orders. A citizen has no moral right to continue to resist the state, even if he is convinced that he is in the right and the state is in the wrong.

Now as mentioned above, these claims seem directly opposed to certain other claims Socrates makes. Most importantly, earlier in the Crito itself, Socrates had stressed that "one must never do wrong" (49b). Indeed, this serves as the driving principle behind the rest of his argument in the Crito . But is this really consistent with maintaining that one must always obey the state, if one fails to persuade it that something it orders is wrong? The obvious objection is that the state might well order one to do something wrong--e.g. because one of its laws is an unjust one, as Jim Crow laws were. In that case, Socrates' claim that one should never do anything wrong would entail refusing to do what the state orders-- even if one is unsuccessful in persuading the state that it is wrong. Thus, Socrates' claim that one should never do wrong seems inconsistent with his claim that one must always obey the final orders of the state. 

Secondly, it might be objected that Socrates' view of the moral authority of the state is inconsistent both with what he did when ordered by the Thirty to capture Leon of Salamis for execution, and with what he says he'd do if ordered by the state to cease practicing philosophy (both from the Apology ). When the Thirty ordered him to capture Leon, he refused, on the grounds that this would have been wrong (unjust and impious). ( Apology , 32c-d) This seems to be a recognition that one is morally obligated or at least permitted to disobey the state when what it commands is wrong--even if one fails to persuade it of its wrongness. And similarly, Socrates makes clear that he would disobey the state and continue philosophizing if it were to order him to stop--again, on the grounds that it would be wrong for him to stop philosophizing (recall that he saw philosophy as his life's mission, given him by the god). ( Apology , 29c-d) Again, this seems to contradict what he says in the Crito about the supreme moral authority of the state and its laws and orders.

I believe, however, that it is possible to read the crucial passages about the authority of the state in the Crito in such a way as to render them consistent with Socrates' exhortation never to do wrong, and with his remarks about disobedience in the Apology . To see this, it is necessary to distinguish first of all between two issues: (a) what the law might require you to do , and (b) what the law might require you to endure . With this distinction in mind, consider the following possible interpretations of Socrates' claim about the moral authority of the state in the Crito :

( i ) Citizens must obey any law or order of the state, whatever it asks them to do or to endure ;

(ii) Citizens must endure whatever any law or order of the state says they must--including the law that verdicts arrived at through proper procedures shall be carried out--but citizens need not and morally should not do what is prescribed by an unjust law.

Now which of these positions is it most plausible to attribute to Socrates in the Crito ?

There are passages that might seem to suggest i (e.g. 51e, 52a), but again, the obvious problem is that it seems inconsistent with his fundamental principle that one should never do wrong (49a)--at least on the assumption, which Socrates clearly accepts in the Apology , that the state is not infallible as regards judgments of right and wrong. Thus, a more charitable reading would interpret the passages about the moral authority of the state as referring implicitly to cases where the state does not require one to do anything unjust, but merely to endure something (or perhaps to do something that is not itself unjust, such as rendering some political service).

If the passages are read in this way, we can interpret Socrates' claim as ii above. When he says that one must obey the state's final laws and orders, what he means is that one must do anything it tells one to do within the bounds of justice , and that one must endure anything it tells one to endure. Thus, Socrates was not obligated to capture Leon of Salamis, and would not be obligated to cease philosophizing if ordered to, since that would be doing something wrong (i.e. something that is not within the bounds of justice); but he is obligated to accept and endure his punishment, as long as it was arrived at through proper judicial procedures. The latter is true, according to Socrates, even though the punishment is wrong; for by suffering it, he is not himself doing anything wrong, but only enduring something wrong. This is perfectly consistent with Socrates' exhortation never to do anything wrong.

Thus, what at first appears to be a blatant contradiction among Socrates' various claims is fairly easily remedied if we interpret the relevant passages in the Crito as making the claim in ii rather than the claim in i above. This interpretation is supported not only by the fact that it helps to reconcile Socrates' seemingly contradictory claims, but also by the fact that Socrates' examples of obedience to the state over one's own objections all involve having to endure something, rather than having to do something. He speaks in Crito 51b, for example, of having to "endure in silence whatever it instructs you to endure, whether blows or bonds, and if it leads you into war to be wounded or killed, you must obey." Though he does not explicitly formulate his claim as in ii above, his focus is clearly on the issue of having to endure something prescribed by the state, over one's own objections. Therefore, it is consistent with the text to interpret him as making only the claim in ii, which is fully compatible with his claim that one must never do wrong, and with his claim that under certain conditions one should refuse to do something the state orders (such as refusing to capture someone for an unjust execution, or refusing to cease carrying out your divine mission as long as you live).

As for the plausibility of Socrates' view, I believe that it is still overly demanding, even when qualified as in ii above. It's unclear why any of the factors Socrates mentioned should give the state such overriding moral authority that one should be morally obliged to endure execution without resistance even in cases where the state is genuinely in the wrong. It seems more plausible to hold that if one stands to be unjustly executed, one can rightly resist this punishment ( even if it would equally be permissible not to resist). One could do this, I think, without showing any contempt for the laws, or challenging their authority, since one still grants the state's authority to do its best to carry out the punishment, and simply asserts a moral right to do one's best in turn to avoid such wrongful punishment. But that's a topic for another paper.

COMMENTARY :

Note, first of all, the concise, crisp introduction. The problem is plainly stated, and then I explain clearly what I'm going to do in the paper--all in just a few sentences. There's no rambling introduction with sentences starting with "Since the beginning of time, mankind has pondered the mysteries of etc."

The style is straightforward, striving for clarity rather than literary flair. Jargon is avoided as far as possible.

After the introduction, the problem is stated in more depth and detail, with textual references. Notice the spare use of quotes. I quote only a few words here and there, where necessary to illustrate the points. This might be extended to a few sentences, if necessary, but beware of over-quoting and letting someone else's words do your work for you. (The worst mistake is just stringing together quotes, which accomplishes nothing.) Notice also that textual references are given for the quotes, as well as for paraphrased passages. (Normally, I'd use footnotes and have complete citations, but I'm limited by html format here.)

Notice how, in describing the problem, I try to elucidate it, rather than just summarizing it. Summary is not explanation . Instead, I try to make clear where exactly the tensions among the various claims seem to arise and why, and how they apply to Socrates' own case. I've tried to go well beyond the superficial statement of the problem in the essay question, to illuminate and develop it.

Now having done that, one might just stop and claim to have answered the question: "No, the various positions are not consistent, and Socrates is just contradicting himself." But that would be a very superficial paper. Instead, I tried to dig beneath the surface a little bit, and to notice that the central claim can be interpreted in more than one way. So I first of all made a distinction between two possible interpretations, which in turn depended on a distinction between what you might be commanded to do and what you might be commanded to endure . That distinction enabled me to argue for an interpretation of what Socrates is claiming about the moral authority of the state that renders this claim consistent with his other claims. (Noticing and exploiting distinctions is a large part of what doing philosophy is all about.)

Whether or not you agree with that particular argument, you can see the difference between bringing the discussion to that level of detail and merely staying on the surface. So even if you would have taken a different position, the point is that a good paper would still be engaging with the issues at that level of depth, rather than remaining on the surface. If you think Socrates really is contradicting himself, for example, you might then also discuss the distinctions I pointed out, but then argue for an interpretation along the lines of the first interpretation instead, despite the inconsistencies with other things he says. (Of course, you'd have to be able to give an argument for why the text should be understood in that way, despite the fact that Socrates winds up with rather glaringly conflicting claims on that reading.)

Again, notice that I am striving for clarity , precision and thoroughness , along with a straightforward organization for the paper.

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Philosophy Dissertation Topics

Published by Grace Graffin at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On January 9, 2023

Introduction

The choice of dissertation topic is crucial for research as it will facilitate the process and makes it an exciting and manageable process. Several dissertation ideas exist in philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, logic, aesthetics, deontology, absurdum, and existentialism. Philosophy dissertations can be based on either primary research or secondary research.

Primary data dissertations incorporate the collection and analysis of data obtained through questionnaires and surveys. On the other hand, secondary data dissertations make use of existing literature to test the research hypothesis . To help you get started with philosophy topic selection for your dissertation, a list is developed by our experts.

These philosophy dissertation topics have been developed by PhD qualified writers of our team , so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting  a brief research proposal  from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an  introduction  to the topic,  research question ,  aim and objectives ,  literature review  along with the proposed  methodology  of research to be conducted.  Let us know  if you need any help in getting started.

Check our  dissertation examples  to get an idea of  how to structure your dissertation .

Review the full list of  dissertation topics for 2022 here.

Philosophy Dissertation Topics of Research

Topic 1: an examination of women's perspective on feminist philosophy..

Research Aim: This study aims to look into the importance of feminism in a philosophical context. It will also identify the factors that lead to postmodernism and liberal feminism from women’s perspectives and will also focus on the impact of feminist philosophy on the development of modern society.

Topic 2: Sociological Functionalism- Investigating the Development and Beliefs

Research Aim: This research study will focus on new types of functionalism and get a deeper understanding of inner and outer circumstances in which different approaches take place. This study will also investigate how the researchers use social theory to acquire a better understanding of the environment in which these concepts are used. It will also promote sociology through informing and inspiring practices and research.

Topic 3: Assessing the History and Development of Philosophical Work from the 15th to 21st Century.

Research Aim: This study aims to find the history and development of philosophical work from the 15th and 21st Centuries. It will examine the theoretical foundations of the practice, applications, and social consequences. This study will also focus on different factors of how philosophy has evolved in these centuries and what changes have occurred.

Topic 4: A Comprehensive View of Social Development of Loneliness.

Research Aim: This study will comprehend how various theoretical points of view are connected or linked r to loneliness. This study will also present an argument for an interpretative social point of view by dissembling the sense of loneliness into key components. It will also focus on the problems and different behaviours of people.

Topic 5: What does it mean to live in an Ideal Society- Discuss using Plato's Philosophies.

Research Aim: Plato is well known for his monologue known as the Republic; he was also the classical political philosopher whose views influenced future political thoughts. Plato’s ideal society was created during a time when Plato was exceedingly optimistic about human nature and its ability to absorb knowledge. This study will conduct a deep analysis of Plato’s ideologies and his views and their impact on the western political world.

More Philosophy Dissertation Research Topics

Topic 1: why we should stop capital punishment and adopt permanent solutions to help solve crimes..

Research Aim: This research aims to analyse the importance of rehabilitation and counseling of criminals to bring them back to their usual walks of life. The whole idea is to eliminate crime, and capital punishment does not provide solutions where a clean society can be developed.

Topic 2: Should people always obey the rules? A closer look at the line between breaking rules and rebellion.

Research Aim: Rules are developed to maintain a balance in society and ensure discipline, which helps an individual in every sphere of their lives. But specific rules are created only for serving a group and not for the whole society’s best interest. This research aims at finding pieces of evidence where rule-breaking is a rebellion and for the upliftment of humanity and not in personal interest.

Topic 3: Loneliness: Reconstructing its meaning

Research Aim: This research aims at finding the meaning of loneliness, what it is to feel lonely, why some people are reclusive, isolate themselves. Loneliness is not always related to sadness, and some people feel better in isolation due to their bitter experiences of life.

Topic 4: Understanding why religion is paramount above anything else for many people around the globe.

Research Aim: Religion forms the basis of life and way of living for many people around the globe. People often get confused with religion and spiritualism, and the grandeur associated with religion becomes more important. The lack of knowledge and education forces blind faith. This research aims to find the reason for dependency on religion and how it negatively affects human lives.

Topic 5: What is the best way to boost a person’s creativity?

Research Aim: This research aims at finding the best possible way to boost a person’s creativity. The most important way is to motivate, inspire, and support them in their process of exploring innovative ideas. Recognition of talent can be the most effective method, which the research will investigate.

Topic 6: Morality and religion: Why are they different, yet they talk about the same thing?

Research Aim: The fundamental essence of religion is compassion and empathy for humans and ensures morality and ethics as a way of life. This research emphasises the primary aim of a religion and how people are getting disoriented and making rituals of religion the prime concern.

Topic 7: Wealth: Is it possible to be rich without having a lot of money?

Research Aim: Wealth and money are co-related as lots of money gives the power to buy anything. But a wealth of human life lies in their moral values, love, affection, proper health and wellbeing, and money cannot accept them. This research topic will speak about becoming wealthy, even with limited monetary wealth.

Topic 8: How can the custom of dowry be eliminated from people’s minds?

Research Aim: Dowry is a social parasite, and it is now a punishable offence by the law. But rules alone cannot change society. The research aims at eradicating the practice of dowry from people’s minds in the light of education.

Topic 9: To love or to be loved: Which is more important?

Research Aim: Love is the feeling of intense desire or deep affection. The most beautiful feeling gives a sense of satisfaction and grows through exchange between two individuals. To love and be loved are two co-related aspects as human expects love in return. The research focuses on the more critical dilemma, being on the giving or receiving side of love.

Topic 10: Why social behaviour and ethics cannot be separated?

Research Aim: The research aims to evaluate the importance of ethics in social behaviour and why they cannot be separated. An ethical society is a proper place to thrive for every individual.

Topic 11: A more in-depth look at things that make human life meaningful.

Research Aim: Money, power does not always buy happiness. The research lays the foundation for the importance of care, compassion, empathy. Love and affection as the more essential aspects that make human life meaningful.

Topic 12: Is it possible to create an ideal society?

Research Aim: An ideal society is free from any crime and economic disparities where everyone is treated equally. This research will discuss whether a perfect community is attainable; it is practically possible or not.

Topic 13: A closer look at modern life values.

Research Aim: The research aims to focus on the change in values in modern times. The research’s primary purpose is to provide a comparative study of how modern people’s mindset has changed over time.

Topic 14: Euthanasia: Is it ethical?

Research Aim: A long time debate exists regarding the ethical side of euthanasia. Ending someone’s life can be considered unlawful as we do not have the right to end something we did not create. This research aims at providing evidence in favour of euthanasia and also the negative aspects.

Topic 15: What is the value of truth? Are there instances when lying is good?

Research Aim: The research aims to provide evidence where lying is not unethical. The study will give an example from Bhagwat Gita, where Lord Krishna lied to safeguard humanity.

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Counselling psychology is one of the various subfields of psychology. It addresses a variety of situational issues that affect people from different social groups. In order to receive a psychology degree, students must present a dissertation.

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Two examples of good work - two dissertations that were marked as firsts:

Resolutions and Strength of Will

Do we need to be essentialists about biological species to show that they are  explanatorily useful?

• Extending your Submission Date

You are expected to manage your time so that you are able to submit your assessed work on the advertised deadline. 

Extensions to submission dates for coursework and/or dissertations may be possible, although consider that any extension may overlap with revision or preparation time for other modules. Only in exceptional circumstances will an extension be granted for more than seven days. If you require an extension, then your College should  submit an application to the EAMC . Please speak to your DoS who will support you with any decision related to this matter.

Please discuss this fully with your DoS who will assist and advise. 

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Dissertation examples

Listed below are some of the best examples of research projects and dissertations from undergraduate and taught postgraduate students at the University of Leeds We have not been able to gather examples from all schools. The module requirements for research projects may have changed since these examples were written. Refer to your module guidelines to make sure that you address all of the current assessment criteria. Some of the examples below are only available to access on campus.

• Undergraduate examples
• Taught Masters examples

Dissertation Prospectus Template

A Microsoft Word template is provided: