Research Master of Arts in Philosophy

Our graduates are capable of developing a philosophical research project and draw up a funding application that can be filed with local, national or international funding institutions. They are able, within their areas of specialisation, to formulate original and innovative research problems based on a duly founded insight into the internationally recognised state-of-the-art in that domain. Our graduates are able to work out original solutions to the selected research problems, and argue their cases clearly and convincingly. They are trained in academic writing, which enables them to act as lead authors of academic articles.

The research seminars that constitute the core of the programme cover a wide range of philosophical domains. Some relate to socially relevant topics (i.e. more applied philosophy) while others relate to more fundamental, purely philosophical domains. We offer research seminars on: Moral Psychology and Meta-Ethics; Empirical Ethics; Political Philosophy after Rawls: Equality, Justice and Diversity; Bioethics; Media Philosophy and Media Theory; Philosophy and Ethics of Gender, Sexuality and Diversity; Logic; Philosophy of Biomedical and Social Sciences; Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Sciences; History and Philosophy of Science; Philosophy of Mind and Cognition; Philosophical Anthropology; Contemporary Continental Philosophy; Religion and Secularisation; History and Reception of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and Religion; History of Early Modern Philosophy; Kant and Post-Kantian Philosophy; and Aesthetics/Philosophy of Art. All research seminars are taught in English.

In principle students take on a 120 credits programme:

• the compulsory Developing and Writing Research Proposals in Philosophy course unit (6 credits; taught in English);
• five research seminars (10 credits each) from the above list; • a Master’s dissertation (24 credits) written in English;
• forty credits of advanced elective course units.

These advanced elective course units are taken from the regular Master’s programmes in Philosophy of the participating universities. Some of them are taught in English, some in Dutch. Students with a regular (i.e. not research-oriented) Master’s degree in Philosophy or Moral Sciences can obtain the research Master’s degree by means of a sixty-credit curriculum:

• the course unit on research proposals,
• three research seminars, and
• the Master’s dissertation.

The programme is structured in such a way that, while students with sufficient command of Dutch have a wider choice of advanced elective course units, the degree can be obtained by taking only English-taught course units as well. As indicated above, the language of instruction in the core activities (the compulsory course unit, the research seminars and the dissertation) is English. www.researchmasterinphilosophy.be/home/programme/.

The programme prepares students for a research career in philosophy. Students are encouraged to apply for pre-doctoral fellowships - e.g. with the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) or the research councils of the participating universities - with their own research proposal. Students should also apply for doctoral positions with a predetermined research project that falls within their area of expertise. Such positions are regularly advertised in academic newsletters and mailing-lists.