Master's in Research Philosophy

Ghent University is a public university in Ghent, Belgium. It was founded in 1817 and is one of the largest universities in Belgium. The university has over 40,000 students and 6,000 staff members. It offers a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs in the fields of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medicine, and engineering. Ghent University is ranked #121-130 in the QS World University Rankings 2024. It is also a member of the League of European Research Universities and the Coimbra Group.

Graduates of this programme 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. Graduates of this programme 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.