

Sharpen your critical-thinking skills and deepen your understanding of the most fundamental questions of human existence from a Catholic perspective with a philosophy master’s degree from Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.
Blending tradition and trends
Rooted in the Western philosophical and Catholic intellectual traditions, Franciscan’s master’s program in philosophy prepares you for a variety of philosophy jobs by helping you build a firm foundation in the Personalist, Thomistic, and Analytic schools of thought. Then you’ll explore more recent trends in philosophy, with an emphasis on the philosophy of the human person, issues of personalist ethics, and phenomenology.
Here are just a few other ways Franciscan’s philosophy master’s degree program stands out from the rest:
With highly marketable skills, graduates from the philosophy master’s degree program at Franciscan University have wide-ranging opportunities for jobs in philosophy. After earning your MA, you can continue your graduate studies or build your career in any number of fields.
Graduate Programs for Philosophy Graduates
Potential Job Fields for Philosophy Graduates
Gaining admission to the MA Philosophy program is simple, and we are ready to help you navigate the process. Here are the things we need:
Email them to GradAdmissions@franciscan.edu
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Graduate Admissions
1235 University Blvd.
Steubenville, Ohio 43952
The costs associated with the MA Philosophy program include:
If you have any questions or need help please contact Graduate Admissions at GradAdmissions@franciscan.edu or (740) 284-5239
View the MA Philosophy Program on the Graduate Catalog
No one can say senior political science major Alexei Woltornist doesn’t come by his conservative political philosophy honestly.The grandson of not one, but two Russian immigrants who separately fled the…
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Dr. Mark K. Spencer ’07, MA ’08, didn’t just leave Franciscan University of Steubenville with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and theology and a master’s degree in philosophy. He also…
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As a Franciscan University Graduate, a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Army, and a worldwide traveler, Andrew Matwijec is living out the goals he set for himself early in life.Andrew…
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Sponsored and produced by Franciscan University’s graduate philosophy department, Quaestiones Disputatae is a forum for philosophers to discuss and share their work. The journal addresses significant questions and topics of contemporary philosophic interest, particularly from a Catholic perspective, in the spirit of the medieval “disputed question”.
Responding to the call by Pope John Paul II and the Catholic church, Franciscan University’s Center for Bioethics engages in the conversation on human life and dignity in the age of biomedical technological breakthroughs. In addition to offering the bioethics concentration, the Center hosts conferences and guest speakers.
St. John Paul II Library on Franciscan University’s campus in Ohio contains a special collection of writings in phenomenological realism.
Still undecided? You might also be interested in these other graduate degree programs at Franciscan that are similar to the philosophy master’s degree.
Since the MA Program in Philosophy began in 1993 almost 200 students have completed their degree. The following list of MA theses is a representative sample that gives some indication of the areas and themes of philosophy investigated by graduate students at Franciscan University.
The MA Philosophy faculty provide a mentoring program that assists graduate students in writing articles that are then presented at conferences or published in philosophy journals. A sample of these accomplishments is listed below.
Most of the philosophers that students study in their philosophy courses are no longer alive, and therefore it is impossible to receive answers to questions they might wish to pose to them. It is also important to realize that philosophy is a living tradition with new and important work currently being done by a number of philosophers representing diverse schools of thought. It is for these two reasons that the MA Philosophy Program offers a course in which students read significant works by living contemporary philosophers. Moreover, these philosophers, near the end of course, then visit the class so that the students have the opportunity to discuss with them, in person, any issues and questions they have regarding the writings they have studied during the semester. It is philosophy done as a dialogue with a living philosopher.
Living Philosophers:
In the fall of 2007 a graduate course was offered on the thought of Germain Grisez who then visited the class in November to discuss his work with students. Germain Grisez is a prominent Catholic philosopher and theologian who received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago where he studied with the famous medieval scholar Richard McKeon. He taught at Georgetown University and since 1978 has been the Flynn Professor of Christian Ethics at Mount Saint Maryís University, Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Germain Grisez introduced a new refined theory of natural law based upon an understanding of basic human goods using the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. He has written extensively in the area of ethics and bioethics, and his work accounts for the renewal of natural law theory in the last twenty-five years. He is the past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association and in 2005 received the Paul Ramsey Award. Germain Grisezís scholarly contribution to philosophy, theology and bioethics is extensive. His Magnum Opus is a three volume work entitled The Way of the Lord Jesus. Some of his other books include:
This fall the MA philosophy department will offer another course in its series “Living Philosophers in Dialogue.” In these courses the works of a significant living philosopher are studied. Later in the semester the philosopher studied visits the class for a dialogue with the students on the works they have studied. The course this fall will be on the works of Dr. Peter van Inwagen who is the John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is one of the leading figures in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of religion. His monograph An Essay on Free Will played an important role in rehabilitating libertarianism with respect to free will where he is the first philosopher to introduce the terms incompatibilism and compatibilism with respect to free will and determinism. In 2003 Professor van Inwagen gave the prestigious Gifford Lectures that are published in his book The Problem of Evil in which he argues that the argument from evil fails to disprove the existence of God. Some of his other books are:
In the fall of 2006 a graduate course was offered on the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre which culminated in a visit to the class by Prof. MacIntyre at the end of November. MacIntyre, who is noted for his work in moral and political philosophy, was educated at the University of London and Oxford University. His early teaching career was in England where he taught at Manchester University, Leeds University, Essex University and Oxford. He came to the United States in 1969 where he has taught at Brandeis University, Wellesley College, Vanderbilt University, and Duke University where he is professor emeritus. Since 2000 he has been the Rev. John A. O’Brien Senior Research Professor and the Permanent Senior Research Fellow at the University of Notre Dame. Prof. MacIntyre was the recipient of a Metcalf Prize in 1974 and has honorary degrees from Swarthmore College, Queens University of Belfast, University of Essex, Williams College, and The New School for Social Research. He is a past president of American Philosophical Association.
MacIntyre, who converted to Catholicism in the early 1980s, works within the traditions of Augustine and Aquinas and is influential in the revival of contemporary interest in their ethical systems. He is also an important figure in the recent development of virtue ethics. McIntyre also has a scholarly interest in the work of Edith Stein on whom he has written two books. He is also the author of a recent significant work on education entitled, The End of Education: The Fragmentation of the American University, published by Commonweal. MacIntyre is the author of over thirty books. A list of some of his works is given below.
In April of 2008 Jean-Luc Marion discussed his work with a class of graduate philosophy students who had been studying his writings during the spring semester. Jean-Luc Marion is an internationally known French Catholic philosopher and theologian who works in the areas of modern philosophy, contemporary phenomenology and philosophy of religion and is known for his attempt to synthesize the Catholic intellectual tradition with post-modernist thought. Marion studied at the University Paris X ñ Nanterre and the Sorbonne. He did graduate work in philosophy at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris where he studied with Jacques Derrida and Louis Althusser. Marion was also influenced by the theologians Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar and the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. He has taught at the University of Poitiers, the University Paris X ñ Nanterre. He currently teaches at the Sorbonne and the University of Chicago. In 1992 Prof. Marion was awarded the Grand Prix du Philosophie de l’Academie Francaise. Some of his original work in philosophy concerns the notion of a saturated phenomenon; the idea that there are phenomena of such overflowing givenness that our consciousness of these phenomena are flooded or saturated. Marion is a prolific writer. His writings include:
In the fall of 2009, graduate students studied some important works of Nicholas Rescher, who came to visit the class in November. Nicholas Rescher is a University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh where he is also Chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science. He was educated at Queens College in New York and Princeton University where he received his Ph.D. at the age of 22, the youngest ever at the time. He has worked for the Rand Corporation as a research mathematician, and has taught at Princeton University, Lehigh University, and since 1970 the University of Pittsburgh.
Nicholas Rescher’s career is extraordinary. He has been the president of the Charles Sanders Peirce Society, G. W. Leibniz Society of America, American Philosophical Association, American Catholic Philosophical Association, and the American Metaphysical Society. He is a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Institut International de Philosophie, Pennsylvania Academy of Science, Academie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences, Academia Europaea: European Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Royal Society of Canada. He is an honorary member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford and has been a visiting professor at Temple University; University of Western Ontario; Catholic University of America; University of Rochester; Salamanca, Oxford University; and University of Konstanz. He has received honorary degrees from Loyola University of Chicago, National Autonomous University of CÛrdoba (Argentina), Lehigh University, University of Constance (Germany), Queens College of the City University of New York, Fernuniversität Hagen (Germany), and the University of Helsinki. He was a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Humanities Prize; the Medal of Merit for Distinguished Scholarship, University of Helsinki; the President’s Distinguished Research Award, University of Pittsburgh; the Belgian Cardinal Mercier Prize; and the Thomas Aquinas Medal of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. He has served on the governing boards of several scholarly organizations, and has held positions in numerous professional societies, scholarly committees and commissions. His work and research has received support from the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Rescher has been commissioned to undertake support studies for Congressional committees on science/technology matters and has been invited to testify before the Committee on Science and Technology on issues of space exploration and colonization. He has served as editor of the History of Philosophy Quarterly, and the Public Affairs Quarterly, and has served on the editorial board of over 20 journals. He was editor and helped found the American Philosophical Quarterly.
He is a prolific writer whose contribution to philosophy and science extends over five decades. Rescher’s work represents a many-sided approach to fundamental philosophical issues that weaves together threads of thought from continental idealism and American pragmatism. One of the few contemporary exponents of philosophical idealism, Rescher has been active in the rehabilitation of the coherence theory of truth and in the reconstruction of philosophical pragmatism in line with the idealistic tradition. Apart from this larger program Rescher has made various specific contributions to logic, the history of logic, the theory of knowledge, and the philosophy of science.
Rescher has authored over 400 articles and 100 books in several different areas of philosophy. Many have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, German, Italian, French, Bulgarian, and Korean. He has authored a four volume autobiography entitled, Mid-Journey: An Unfinished Autobiography; Ongoing Journey: An Autobiographical Essay; Instructive Journey: An Autobiographical Essay; and Enlightening Journey: An Autobiographical Essay. Among his many other writings are:
In the spring of 2007 the distinguished American philosopher John Searle visited a class for a discussion with graduate students who had been studying some of his writings in a course devoted to his work in philosophy. John Searle is the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley and one of the leading philosophers in the world. He was educated at the University of Wisconsin and received a B.A., M.A. and D.Phil. from Oxford University. He has received honorary degrees from the University of Lugano, University of Torino, University of Bucharest, Adelphi University, and University of Wisconsin. He has also received numerous awards including the Jean Nicod Prize in France, the Puffendorf Medal in Sweden, The Jovellanos Prize in Spain, the Tasan Award in Korea, and the National Humanities Medal in the United States. He was a past president of the American Philosophical Association. Although Professor Searle has taught at the University of California since 1959, he has also been a visiting professor at dozens of universities including the Sorbonne, the Catholic University of Lublin, Charles University in Prague, Syracuse University, University of Aarhus in Denmark, University of Toronto, University of Florence, the University of Oslo. He has given hundreds of lectures at colleges and universities throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia.
Searle’s early work, which to a great extent established his reputation as a philosopher, was on speech acts or illocutionary acts. This topic was further developed in his later work on intentionality. Building still further on his work on intentionality, Searle presented a critique of behaviorism arguing for the existence of consciousness in a book entitled The Rediscovery of the Mind; a work also critical of artificial intelligence. Searle also works in the area of social philosophy in which he developed the notion of collective intentionality as distinct form and not reducible to individual intentionality. His more recent work focuses on the nature of rationality. He is the author of numerous books including:
In the spring of 2012, a graduate course was offered on the works of the renowned phenomenologist Robert Sokolowski. Near the end of the semester, he visited the class to discuss his work with the students.
After completing his PhD in philosophy and S.T.B. at The Catholic University of Louvain in 1963, Robert Sokolowski started teaching at The Catholic University of America where he had completed his B.A. and M.A years earlier. He continues to serve there as the Elizabeth Breckenridge Caldwell Professor of Philosophy, and he teaches courses on Husserlian phenomenology, Aristotle, and philosophy of religion. He has also served elsewhere as a visiting professor at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, the University of Texas at Austin, Villanova University, and Yale University. Sokolowski is a two-time recipient of research fellowships sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has also worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, consulting theoretical physicists and mathematicians on philosophical issues.
Robert Sokolowski is also the author of numerous articles and books. His 1999 work Introduction to Phenomenology has helped acquaint countless readers across the world with Husserlian phenomenology, as it has been translated into 7 languages so far. His other works include:
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