Students may follow either a Major Research Paper (MRP) stream or a Thesis stream.

In Term 1, students complete the Professional Seminar, a course designed to introduce students to the professional skills needed to succeed in the program and in the general workplace.

In Term 3, students complete Area Readings consisting of independent but guided research in a core area of philosophy.

In Terms 3 and 4, students conduct independent philosophical research towards the completion, in Term 5, of a Thesis or Major Research Paper.

Students pursuing the Major Research Paper stream take 7 electives, while those in the Thesis stream take 5.

Epistemology

This course is a study of what canonical and contemporary philosophers have said about several central problems in the theory of knowledge. Topics may include: theories of justification; scepticism; the limits of belief and knowledge; perception, intuition and other sources of evidence; the social construction of knowledge; science and pseudo-science; a priori and a posteriori knowledge; knowledge of mathematical truths.

Metaphysics

This course is a study of what canonical and contemporary philosophers have said about several central metaphysical problems. Topics may include: being and existence; the existence and nature of abstract objects; modality and possible worlds; the nature of time; personal identity; and metaphysical realism and anti-realism.

Philosophy of Science

This course is a study of philosophical issues relating to the natural sciences. The course may examine themes such as the relation between science and its social context, the nature of scientific reasoning, and the scope of scientific descriptions of reality. Specific topics may include: causation, philosophical problems of quantum mechanics, natural laws, the objectivity of science, and the existence of theoretical entities.

Philosophy of Religion

This course is a study of what canonical and contemporary philosophers have said about religion. Topics may include: concepts of God and ultimate reality; arguments for and against the existence of God; the relationship between faith and reason; religious diversity; miracles; religion and science; religion and ethics.

Philosophy of Language

This course will examine philosophical issues regarding both the nature of language and the relation of language to other matters. The first group of issues includes topics such as: what distinguishes linguistic communication from other types of communication; how metaphors work; the ways in which language is rule-governed; the distinction between semantics and pragmatics. The second group of issues includes topics such as: the relation between language and thought, between language and truth, language and rationality, and language and gender.

Philosophy of Mind

This course will examine a selection of views and issues that have arisen out of philosophical attempts to make sense of "the mind". Some of these views may be historical, while others will be contemporary. Issues taken up may include: mind-body dualism and its critics; materialism and its critics; behaviourism and its critics; the nature of sensory experience and its relation to thought; mind/brain identity theories; the relation(s) between thought and language; functionalism and its critics; the nature of consciousness; the possibility of "naturalizing" the mind; whether non-human animals have thoughts; whether computers do, or could in principle, think; emotions and their expression; innatist accounts of learning; cognition as information processing.

Human Rights and Justice

This course will explore a core theme in the general cluster of Philosophy of Human Rights, Law and Punishment. Examples include: transformations in philosophical theories of human rights, from Lockean Natural Rights theory to contemporary Egalitarianism (including Capability Theory and Feminist Theories); transformations in philosophical theories of punishment, revisioning deterrence, retributivism and restorative justice; transformations in philosophical theories of distributive justice (including Libertarianism, Rawls’ Theory, and other Egalitarian theories)

Problems of the Self

This course is a study of what canonical and contemporary philosophers have said about several central problems concerning the self. Topics may include: free will and moral responsibility; personal identity and survival; the nature of action; moral motivation; rationality and irrationality.

Moral Philosophy

This course focuses on selected issues or figures in historical and/or contemporary moral philosophy. Typical topics to be dealt with might include: the sources of normativity; the metaphysical and epistemological underpinnings of moral experience; moral psychology and the nature of practical reason; the relation between morality and politics and/or religion; particular moral theories such as utilitarianism, Kantianism, virtue ethics, and contractarianism.

Aesthetics

This course will involve a close study of some central issues in philosophical aesthetics. Topics may be drawn from one or more of the main fields within the discipline: the study of beauty (or the aesthetic), the philosophy of art, and the philosophy of criticism. Potential topics include: the nature of art; the relation between morality and art, the character of aesthetic experience, and the appropriate criteria for art criticism.

Social and Political Philosophy

This course focuses on selected issues or figures in historical and/or contemporary social and political philosophy. Typical topics to be dealt with might include: the scope and justification of the state; the right vs. the good; multiculturalism and group rights; the relation between economics, ideology and politics; particular political theories such as libertarianism, liberalism, political realism, communitarianism, critical theory.

Feminist Philosophy

This course involves a close study of one or more philosophical topics in historical and/or contemporary feminist thought. Examples include: the nature and origins of gendered identity; feminist approaches to ethics; feminist epistemology; feminist perspectives on motherhood, sexuality, the body, and reproductive technology; critical approaches to gender-based oppression.

Philosophy of Education

This course involves the study of the nature, means and goals of education, by way of an engagement with major historical and/or more contemporary philosophical theories of education. Issues to be discussed may include: metaphysical and epistemological underpinnings of education; the relation of education to rational autonomy, liberty, and authority; differences between educating character, practical wisdom, and the theoretical intellect; social and political dimensions of the institutionalization of education, particularly in a multicultural context; the importance of aesthetic education. Some of the typical authors to be studied may include Plato, Aristotle, Comenius, Rousseau, Kant, Schiller, Croce, Dewey, Friere.

Philosophical Education

This course involves the study of the nature of philosophical education itself. Through an examination of classic and contemporary texts, students will grapple with perennial questions about what a philosophical education is, and what it is for. This course will include an innovative experiential learning module: students will investigate these issues in an applied way, by providing individual and small-group tutoring in a high school philosophy course. Students will be required to submit a final paper which integrates their academic study of philosophical pedagogy with an analysis of their practical experience in the high school classroom setting.

Ancient Philosophy

This course involves a critical study of selected themes and doctrines in ancient Greek philosophy, with a focus on such seminal thinkers as Socrates, Plato, and/or Aristotle. Typical issues include: the nature of reality; the relation between universals and particulars; the nature of the soul and its relation to the body; the difference between knowledge and true belief, and between the different kinds of knowledge (philosophical, practical, mathematical, knowledge of the natural world); the nature of the good life and of virtue; the roles that reason, emotions, and appetites play in the virtuous person; the kinds of social, economic, and political structures that characterize the best society.

Topics in Early Modern Philosophy

This course involves the critical examination of selected works from one or more of such major 17th and 18th Century philosophers as Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume and Kant. Topics might include the structure, scope and limits of human knowledge; the primary-secondary quality distinction; concepts of space, time and matter; nature of causation; nature of perception, consciousness and self-consciousness; personal identity; how mind and body are related; nature and existence of free will and the problem of evil and theodicy; the nature and foundations of moral and political rights.

19th Century Philosophy

This course involves the critical examination of selected works from one or more of such major 19th Century philosophers as Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. Typical themes to be addressed include: the nature of subjectivity and self-consciousness; the role that socio-economic institutions play in shaping human knowledge and self-identity; the nature of reason and its relation to history; social dimensions of freedom; arguments for and against the systematic character of human knowledge; the critique of modernity.

Philosophy of History

This course focuses on philosophical conceptions of the nature of history and historical knowledge. Topics may include: the ontological status of the past; identifying the proper focus and unit of study of human history (the individual, the nation, religious, cultural or economic eras, the human species as a whole); whether historical developments are law-governed or contingent; whether historical knowledge is distinct from other forms of knowledge; the narrative structure of history; and the politicization of historical narratives. Authors to be studied may include, among others, Thucydides, Vico, Herder, Hegel, Dilthey, Collingwood, Foucault, Benjamin, Ricoeur, Mink, Carr, and White.

Phenomenology and Existentialism

This course is an in-depth study of the influential philosophical movement known as phenomenology, and of the ways this movement was taken up and developed by the existentialists of the 20th Century. Some of the typical issues to be studied include: the distinction between reflective and lived experience; the character of perception and embodied experience; the intersubjective constitution of the world's meaning; the breakdown of the subject/object dualism; the temporal structure of human reality; the significance of our encounter with death and nothingness. The main authors to be studied may include Husserl, Bergson, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty.

Hermeneutics and Deconstruction

Hermeneutics and deconstruction represent two of the most influential perspectives on language, meaning, and expression to emerge in 20th Century philosophy. Despite their important differences, these two philosophical approaches each emphasize the role that interpretation plays in the constitution of human experience, action, self-identity, as well as in the constitution of all sorts of socio-cultural artifacts (for instance, laws, artworks, science). The course will focus on the work of such philosophers as Heidegger, Derrida, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Vattimo.

Recent Continental Philosophy

This seminar examines a selection of the most important themes and developments in recent continental philosophy. Some of the topics to be examined may include: difference and alterity; the 'ethical turn'; desire and the unconscious; critiques of subjectivity and self-identity; communicative action theory; bio-politics; performativity. The course will typically focus on the work of such philosophers as Foucault, Deleuze, Habermas, Irigaray, Kristeva, Levinas, Lyotard, Nancy, Butler and Zižek.

Topics in Philosophy

This course gives students the opportunity to engage in a rigorous and concentrated study of a specific canonical or contemporary philosophical topic.

Major Figures in Philosophy

This course gives students the opportunity to engage in a rigorous and concentrated study of the work of a major historical or contemporary philosopher.

Independent Reading

This course gives students the opportunity to pursue an area of study of their own choosing, under the supervision of a faculty member.

It may be possible to spend one semester at a different university during your second year in the MA program. So far, some our students have spent a semester at Oxford University and at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology.) If you are interested in exploring this possibility, contact the Graduate Program Director.

The Philosophy Graduate Student Union represents the interest of philosophy graduate students, and organizes many events and activities. The current executive officers are:

• Jason Poettcker: President
• Rachel Robinson: Vice President, Resident Blogger
• Erik Bormanis: Secretary
• Anna Shevchenko: Social Chair
• Codie Mitchell: Treasurer
• David Collins: Conference Coordinator
• Chandra Kavanagh: Webmaster

Our students have had papers accepted at peer-reviewed philosophy conferences across Canada, the US and Europe. Conference participation is an important part of a graduate education, and Ryerson is committed to providing significant financial support from a variety of sources to cover travel costs when our students participate in conferences. (The typical level of funding from all sources combined is about $1000.) Ryerson’s Philosophy Graduate Student Association also organizes an annual graduate student conference on campus.

Many of our students have received prestigious scholarships, fellowships, and awards, such as Ryerson Graduate Scholarships, Ontario Graduate Scholarships, and various awards funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), including Canada Graduate Scholarships and Foreign Study Supplements.

Our students have been offered admission into doctoral programs at many different institutions, including: Oxford University, the University of Birmingham, the University of Toronto, York University, the Institute for Christian Studies/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the University of Waterloo, McMaster University, Wayne State University, the University of Memphis, and the University of South Florida. Many of these offers have included a full funding package.

View a list of the research areas of the philosophy professors at Ryerson.

View the list of our current MA students and their research interests. [PDF]

View the list of recent graduates from our MA program, and the titles of their major research papers/theses. [PDF]

Here are some examples of recent course outlines for some of our courses:

PH 8003 Professional Seminar (David Hunter)

PH 8102 Metaphysics (Betty Trott)

PH 8104 Philosophy of Religion (Klaas Kraay)

PH 8106 Philosophy of Mind (David Hunter)

PH 8107 Human Rights and Justice  (Alex Wellington)

PH 8109 Moral Philosophy (Jo Kornegay)

PH 8110 Aesthetics (Glen Parsons)

PH 8111 Social and Political Philosophy (Robert Murray)

PH 8112 Feminist Philosophy (Meredith Schwartz)

PH 8117 19th Century (David Ciavatta)

PH 8121 Recent Continental Philosophy (John Caruana)

PH 8122 Ethics and Mental Health (Meredith Schwartz)

PH 8122 Phenomenology (Kym Maclaren)