Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; la, Baccalaureus Philosophiae or ) is the title of an
academic degree
An academic degree is a qualification awarded to students upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions commonly offer degrees at various levels, usually including unde ...
that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's degrees, the BPhil is typically a
postgraduate
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree.
The organization and stru ...
degree awarded to individuals who have already completed a traditional undergraduate degree.
In China, the Bachelor of Philosophy is one of the twelve statutory types of bachelor's degrees. It is awarded to students who have completed an undergraduate program with a major in
Philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
,
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement. The subject is complex; several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, and unbiased analysis ...
, or
Religious Studies.
University of Oxford
The BPhil's earliest form was as a
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
graduate degree, first awarded in 1682. Originally, Oxford named its pre-doctoral graduate degrees two: the Bachelor as either the Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil) or the Bachelor of Letters (BLitt). The BPhil was a two-year degree plan partly taught and completed through research requirements. The BLitt was a two-year research degree. After complaints, especially from overseas students, that this naming convention often meant that graduate degrees were not being recognised as such, the university renamed them
Master of Philosophy
The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...
(MPhil) and
Master of Letters
The Master of Letters degree (MLitt or LittM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree.
Ireland
Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University offer MLitt degrees. Trinity has offered them the longest, owing largely to its tradition as Ireland ...
(MLitt). However, the Philosophy Faculty (then a sub-faculty) argued that its BPhil degree had become so well-known and respected in the philosophical world that it would be confusing to change the name. In philosophy, therefore, the degree continues to be called the BPhil. Those who pass the degree are given the choice of taking a BPhil or an MPhil; few if any choose the latter. (Note that Oxford also offers a number of other
graduate degrees labeled as baccalaureate degrees: the law faculty's BCL; and the music faculty's BMus.)
Today's Oxford BPhil course is a two-year programme of seminars, six essays (of up to 5,000 words each) and a research thesis (max. 30,000 words). The BPhil is regarded as a very demanding degree, and an academic background in philosophy is a prerequisite for admission.
The Oxford BPhil was designed to be a preparation for teaching philosophy at university level. Today it often also provides a foundation for doctoral (DPhil or PhD) work in philosophy. Notable graduates of the BPhil include:
Rosalind Hursthouse
Mary Rosalind Hursthouse (born 10 November 1943) is a British-born New Zealand moral philosopher noted for her work on virtue ethics. Hursthouse is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Auckland.
Biography
Born in Bristol, Englan ...
,
Richard Swinburne
Richard Granville Swinburne (IPA ) (born December 26, 1934) is an English philosopher. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Over the last 50 years Swinburne has been a proponent of philosophical arguments for t ...
,
Daniel Dennett
Daniel Clement Dennett III (born March 28, 1942) is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relat ...
,
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular, ...
,
George Boolos
George Stephen Boolos (; 4 September 1940 – 27 May 1996) was an American philosopher and a mathematical logician who taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Life
Boolos is of Greek-Jewish descent. He graduated with an A.B. in ...
,
Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel (; born July 4, 1937) is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 to 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest are legal philosophy, ...
,
Gerald Cohen
Gerald Allan Cohen, ( ; 14 April 1941 – 5 August 2009) was a Canadian political philosopher who held the positions of Quain Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London and Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, All Sou ...
,
Patricia Churchland
Patricia Smith Churchland (born 16 July 1943) is a Canadian-American analytic philosopher noted for her contributions to neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. She is UC President's Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the University of Calif ...
,
Thomas Friedman
Thomas Loren Friedman (; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for ''The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global tr ...
,
J. J. C. Smart,
Galen Strawson
Galen John Strawson (born 1952) is a British analytic philosopher and literary critic who works primarily on philosophy of mind, metaphysics (including free will, panpsychism, the mind-body problem, and the self), John Locke, David Hume, Imman ...
,
Cora Diamond
Cora Diamond (born 1937) is an American philosopher who works on Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gottlob Frege, moral philosophy, animal ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of language, and philosophy and literature. Diamond is the Kenan Professor of Ph ...
, and
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is a retired American singer, songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are "Me and Bobby McGee", " For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Nig ...
. Filmmaker
Terrence Malick
Terrence Frederick Malick (born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. His films include '' Days of Heaven'' (1978), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenp ...
started a BPhil course but left without a degree after a disagreement with his adviser,
Gilbert Ryle
Gilbert Ryle (19 August 1900 – 6 October 1976) was a British philosopher, principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase "ghost in the machine." He was a representative of the generation of British ord ...
.
Other universities
Several universities have adopted the Oxford model of the BPhil as a graduate degree, either as originally intended (in a variety of academic subjects) or as it subsequently developed (in philosophy only); for example,
Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram
Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram is an ecclesiastical institution of higher learning established by the Syrian Catholic congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) for Catholic education, as an independent institute empowered to grant degrees, ...
and
Newcastle University
Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...
.
At other universities, the term ''Bachelor of Philosophy'' refers to an undergraduate bachelor's degree. Frequently, the degree is either research-based or involves additional academic components, (e.g. independent study, interdisciplinary study, foreign language requirements, etc.). For example, at
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...
, the BPhil program enables students to plan their own academic programs in conjunction with a faculty preceptor. At
Miami University
Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...
's
Western College Program
The Western College Program was created in 1974 when the Western College for Women merged with Miami University. The program consisted of an interdisciplinary living/learning community with small class sizes and student-designed focuses. Majors inc ...
, BPhil candidates participate in a residential program, worked with faculty to design individualized majors, and produce a thesis. At the undergraduate
Honors College
Honors colleges and honors programs are special accommodation constituent programs at public and private universities – and also public two-year institutions of higher learning – that include, among other things, supplemental or alternativ ...
of the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...
, BPhil candidates must pass oral examinations of a senior thesis.
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
's BPhil degree requires two years of a foreign language. The
University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
offers the BPhil as a taught, research-based undergraduate degree in the fields of
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
and
counselling
Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes.
This is a list of co ...
. The
University of New Brunswick
The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Americ ...
offers the BPhil as a seminar-based degree in interdisciplinary leadership.
St. John's Seminary (Massachusetts)
Saint John's Seminary, located in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, is a Catholic major seminary sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
Founded in 1884, the seminary has 114 seminarians and approximately 60 lay ...
offers the BPhil degree upon completion of its two-year pre-theologate program, (for men studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood). The
Technical University of Kenya
Technical University of Kenya (TU-K) is a public university in Nairobi, Kenya. It was chartered in January 2013 by then-president Mwai Kibaki.
History
Technical University of Kenya grew out of the Kenya Polytechnic. The Kenya Polytechnic was f ...
offers the BPhil to those with higher diplomas in various subjects.
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...
offers a BPhil in journalism & Philosophy Prospective students must have obtained a recognised undergraduate degree in any discipline and sat for the department's entrance examination, which is written across South Africa. Top-performing applicants are then invited to interview for final selection. The BPhil is regarded as one of the most sought after and demanding postgraduate offerings at the university.
In 1948 the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
offered a PhB which differed from the BA in that it required two fewer non-required courses. The degree was offered by the college as part of the Hutchins program that allowed students to matriculate after two years of high school.
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
has historically offered PhB programs.
Australia
Australian National University
The Bachelor of Philosophy (PhB) is an individually tailored, research-based undergraduate degree in arts/social sciences or the natural sciences.
Students undertake supervised research courses, entitled Advanced Studies Courses, each semester with researching academics, often on a one-to-one basis. Admission is open to the top one per cent of school-leavers (ATAR 99.00 or greater). The duration of the program is four years, including an honours year, where a research thesis is undertaken. In order to graduate with the degree, students are required to maintain a high distinction average (80 per cent and above) across all courses in each semester of the degree and must complete the honours year with first-class honours.
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia also offers the Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil) course for high-achieving new students. This is a research intensive degree which takes four years including an honours year and a research placement unit in second or third year. Students studying the course choose disciplines from any of the bachelor's degrees. Places are very limited with on average only about 30 places offered to students each year. Thus there is a lot of competition for places and the cut-off admission rank is very high.
University of Tasmania
The Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil) is an intellectually challenging, high impact award that provides academic extension, personal development, and recognition for experiences outside the traditional degree structure, and it is available to students who are undertaking, or have undertaken, another undergraduate degree. Enrolment in the degree is limited to high achieving students who are deemed to be capable of successfully completing additional study alongside their principal degree. The BPhil is not offered as a standalone degree at
UTAS
The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university's residential colleges, first prop ...
and can only be completed concurrent with, or after completion of a principal undergraduate degree and entrants must have an ATAR above 90 or a current GPA above 5.5.
University of Notre Dame Australia
References
{{Reflist
External links
University of Pittsburgh Honors CollegeOxford University Graduate Studies Prospectus: PhilosophyNorthwestern UniversityAustralian National UniversityDharmaram Vidya KshetramUniversity of Newcastle upon TyneUniversity of BirminghamUniversity of New BrunswickStellenbosch University
Academic courses at the University of Oxford
Philosophy, Bachelor of