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At Ignatius University, there is a diversified international faculty of philosophers thus allowing for the exploration of a wide range of studies. From the catalog, it is apparent that no area of philosophical inquiry seems to be overlooked. Or, if something has been left out, a new and bright student will bring it to our attention. Thus there is great flexibility in the program. For example, a student may wish to concentrate on Political Philosophy or Philosophy of Peace. In such case, an attempt is made to broaden the philosophical inquiry with the insights of those faculty affiliated with the United Nations in our School of Diplomacy. The School of Philosophy at Ignatius offers the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil) in philosophy. The Master of Arts in Philosophy (M.A.Phil.) in philosophy is not a terminal degree but is awarded to all who are accepted into the D.Phil. program and complete all the requirements for the master’s degree. There is no residency requirement for either of these degrees. However, students are welcome to attend colloquia with faculty in New York, Indianapolis, United States and Sofia, Bulgaria.
From the outset, the student should understand that Distance Learning is no less, and perhaps, more demanding than the traditional classroom experience. Students in the philosophy program are required to join the national philosophical organization in their own country and to attend each year its annual convention e.g. American Philosophical Association in the United States. This provides the opportunity for an exchange of ideas with other philosophers though the spoken word rather than through written communication. We will also keep you informed of “chat rooms” on the web that are hosted by professional philosophers.
Philosophical thinking is free of any particular theological position. Students submit the identical program requirements to both universities and upon graduation receive the Ph.D.(Sofia) and the D.Phil.(Ignatius).
The Master of Arts in Philosophy (M.A.Phil.) is a 60 credit program which includes a 15 credit thesis. It is suggested that the student explore in the thesis an area which may become a dissertation topic later. All students are required to complete the following six courses as part of the master’s program: Ancient Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Philosophy of Culture, Philosophical Anthropology, and Epistemology. The additional 9 courses may be selected from any in the catalog. The subject of the thesis is discussed with a faculty adviser.
A 3.0 average is required in course work in order to receive the master’s degree and to be eligible to continue on for the doctorate.
In the work for the doctor’s degree, those admitted are required to take 6 additional courses (18 credits) including Philosophy of Religion and Psychology of Religion, if these last two specific courses have not already been taken. There is also required a successful dissertation writing and oral defense (12 credits) and a minimum 3.0 overall average in course work.
Admissions Requirements
Application is made to Ignatius University.
1. Successful completion of the baccalaureate degree with a minimum 3.0 index from an accredited institution.
2. A total minimum score of 1500 on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) including Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical.
3. Since there is no philosophy subject examination on the GRE, students are required to have a minimum of 12 credits in philosophy with a B+ average.
4. Three excellent letters of recommendation from faculty (two from philosophy).
5. A personal interview locally arranged.
6. TOEFL of 550 for non-native English speaking students. All non-native English speakers and those who have not graduated from an English speaking institution must take the TOEFL.
Master of Arts in Philosophy (M.A.Phil.)
The master’s degree is not a terminal degree but on the way to the doctorate. A “B” average is required for the degree. To enter the doctoral program, the student must have a minimum of a 3.0 average in the master’s program.
All single courses are three credits. A&B indicates a two semester course ( 3 + 3 ).
Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.)
All courses in philosophy are 3 credits except Philosophy 598 and 599 ( 6 credits each ). A minimum of a 3.0 average is necessary in the doctoral courses in order to qualify for the degree. When all course work is completed, the candidate will meet with the Dean to discuss the proposed Dissertation. Subsequently, a mentor and two readers will be selected as well as two additional committee members. The student will be provided a handbook for writing an acceptable dissertation in philosophy. The D.Phil is awarded upon successful defense of the dissertation.
Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in Philosophical Theology
This program may be obtained through Philosophical Theology courses listed in the School of Philosophy but cross referenced with the School of Theology. Basically, the Theology course outline is followed with the addition of the philosophy texts cross referenced in the School of Theology. The specified philosophy texts become the basis of the critique of the theological material by way of an extensive term paper.
Doctor of Philosophy, ( D.Phil. ) In Philosophical Psychology
There is a certain richness, satisfaction, importance and depth of thought in bridging the disciplines of philosophy and psychology.
Graduate credits may be obtained through approved courses in the SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY.
These courses may include Psychology 303 Psychopathology, Psychology 305 Approaches to Counseling, Psychology 311 Graduate Statistics and Design 1, Psychology 401 Graduate Statistics and Design 2, Psychology 404 Physiological Psychology, Psychology 601 Multivariate Statistics in Psychological Research, Psychology 602 Research Methods and Design 1, Psychology 606 Research Methods and Design 2, Psychology 515 Theories of Personality, Psychology 516 History of Psychology, Psychology 517 Systems of Psychology, Psychology 518 Theories and Explanations in Psychology, Psychology 519 Neuropsychology, Psychology 511 Sensation and Perception, Psychology 512 Motivation, Psychology 513 Conditioning and Learning, Psychology 514 Cognition and Memory and any other approved courses pertinent to the student’s research.
In the SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY, the student should select from Philosophy 421 Philosophy of Social Science, Philosophy 422 Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy 428 Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy 415 Philosophical Psychology, Philosophy 415 Philosophy of Psychology, Philosophy 417 Phenomenological Psychology, Psychology 431 Computational Theories of Mind, Philosophy 434 Philosophy of Psychoanlysis and others.
The student should work closely with the adviser in order to select other courses from the Philosophical Disciplines that bear upon the research. Philosophy 501 Existentialism and Philosophy 502 Phenomenology may also be pertinent. Almost all of the Specific Philosophers have had something important to contribute to psychology. In addition, certain of the History of Philosophy courses may provide further illumination by displaying a wider context.
Doctor of Psychoanalysis (Psa.D) in Philosophy Of Psychoanalysis
Background to the field.
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2013, 73, (117-120) © 2013 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis 002-9548/13
www.palgrave-journals.com/ajp
In these pages…
Psychoanalysis and Philosophy: Nurturing Dialogues
Since its inception more than a hundred years ago, psychoanalysis has been intermittently accompanied by ambivalence about its relationship with philosophy. Whether to continue the confrontations of the past or seek to reorient our mutual perspectives about the other is my question. In lieu of reductionist critiques and disputes about hegemony, I propose a nurturing dialogue as psychoanalysis and philosophy move forward, keeping in mind that while we are not necessarily bound by the past neither can we ignore that which in many ways defines the present.
The relationship between psychoanalysis and philosophy had its roots in Freud’s early interest in philosophy that began even before commencing his medical education. Although the requirement to take a philosophy course had been dropped, Freud nevertheless attended philosophical lectures from 1874 to 1875, given by the eminent Viennese philosopher Franz Brentano, a noted Aristotle scholar at the University of Vienna. Inspired by Brentano, Freud read Aristotle and wrote to his boyhood friend Eduard Silberstein: “under Brentano’s fruitful influence I have arrived at the decision to take my Ph.D. in philosophy and zoology” (Freud to Silberstein on March 7, 1875, p. 95). Later in life Freud also read other philosophers, such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, although he remained ambivalent about the intellectual debt he owed to Nietzsche (Kramer, 2012, p. 346).
Philosophical critiques of psychoanalysis abound. For the most part, they seek to convince the practitioners of psychoanalysis about the shortcomings not only of their theoretical foundations but also of the validity of their practice. These critiques have come for the most part from philosophers of science (i.e., Earnest Nagel, 1961; Karl Popper, 1963 and Alfred Grünbaum, 2006). Even philosophers such as Wittgenstein and Thomas Nagel who are not philosophers of science have borrowed arguments from the philosophy of science to critique psychoanalysis.
Critiques have also come from philosophers whose orientation is phenomenological (Heidegger, 1927, 1965), existential (Sartre, 1943), hermeneutic (Ricoeur, 1970), political and social (Adorno, 1973), (Habermas, 1972) and philosophical (Frie, 2002; Mills, 2003; Thompson, 2006).
Psychoanalysis from its early beginnings has had its internal critics as well, and many have challenged orthodox Freudian psychoanalysis; for example, Otto Rank (Rank, 1929; Dupont, 2012), Sándor Ferenczi (Ferenczi, 1930; Boschan, 2011), Wilhelm Reich (1926), Karen Horney (Horney, 1939; Rendon, 1991; Rubin, 2010), Harry Stack Sullivan (Conci, 2010), Erich Fromm (1964), Rycroft (Borgogno, 2010), Klein (1969), Deleuze and Guattari (1972), Gill (1976), Schafer (1976, 1978) and Lacan (1977).
I do not intend to revisit the questions whether psychoanalysis is a science or a hermeneutical enterprise, having discussed this earlier (Appelbaum, 2011). Neither do I wish to rebut the philosophical arguments proffered by the philosophers of science, principally those of Gru˝nbaum and Popper, having taken that up recently (Appelbaum, 2012). My intent is rather to bracket these concerns in order to point to a more nurturing dialogue between psychoanalysis and philosophy.
Bracketing the past is not forgetting the past. It is the recognition that our conceptualizations are not written in stone as exemplars of Forms residing in a Platonic heaven endlessly to be revisited as in Nietzsche’s eternal return of the same. Conceptualizations do not arise ex nihilo, nor do they come to us fully developed as Athena emerged from the head Zeus. They are rooted in the Zeitgeist of the time in which they are conceived. No single philosophical viewpoint can present a Weltanschauung that encompasses the descriptive totality of our dynamic culture as is exemplified by the diversity of philosophical theories. Psychoanalysis can do no better than philosophy has done for its principal concerns.
A nurturing dialogue between psychoanalysis and philosophy entails and is rooted in a consideration of the commonality of their principal concerns. The stated concerns of both disciplines define the space and the scope of the dialogue. The scope limitations of the dialogue are flexible in their concerns about the centrality of individual humans and humanity as a whole. One of the things that psychoanalysis and philosophy can do together and each in their own way is to foster a goal that lessens the pains inherent in existence both for individuals and for the society as a whole. In so doing, the psychoanalyst and the philosopher relate to each other as coequals that recognize not only what divides them but also what unites them in a common humanistic effort forged in the furnace of the enlightenment and continued in and past the postmodern future.
In my view, when considering their relationship to philosophy, psychoanalysts have often been defensive. Psychoanalysis is a unique discipline as is philosophy. Psychoanalytic theories and practice have influenced not only the arts and literature but also our everyday social culture. Given the development and the contributions of psychoanalysis during more than one hundred years, it is now time for psychoanalysts to affirm that its relation to philosophy is one of nurturing dialogue. Furthermore, this dialogue is a symmetrical one. What we dialogue about is the exchange of philosophical and psychoanalytic ideas from different perspectives. This special issue of the American Journal of Psychoanalysis recognizes and affirms that both psychoanalysis and philosophy are wellsprings of mutual inspiration, to be developed by each separate discipline according to their own guiding lights.
Jerome Applebaum
Guest Editor
Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/ajp.2013.9
Our Program:
Entry Requirement to the Doctoral Program: Candidate must hold an accredited master’s degree in any discipline. However, it is recommended, but not necessary, to be a graduate / student of a psychoanalytic training program. For those without prior psychoanalytic training and interested, a psychoanalytic training program may be provided simultaneously with the doctoral studies.
The doctorate is in the field of Philosophy of Psychoanalysis i.e the interface between philosophy and psychoanalysis or the integration of the clinical and theoretical in psychoanalysis. This exploration is of paramount importance at this stage of the profession of psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysis came into being due to a particular Zeitgeist. To understand psychoanalysis, which is more than just a psychotherapy but rather a way of thinking and examining reality, it is necessary to have a proper philosophical background. The history of philosophy is a history of ideas which capture the feelings, accomplishment and defeats of a particular time. Philosophy is a reflection, summation and an encapsulation of history, literature, arts, religion, culture among myriad other forces of the particular time.
For psychoanalysis to advance and not remain static which is the equivalent of irrelevant, it is necessary to have scholars skilled not only in psychoanalytic treatment but in the philosophy of psychoanalysis. Our program provides an examination of various pertinent areas bearing on psychoanalysis (eight courses:applied ethics; epistemology; social philosophy; existential dialectics; philosophy of culture; philosophy and intercultural relations; continental philosophy; philosophy of psychoanalysis ) all within the flow of an on going historical matrix from ancient to contemporary times.
Philosophy and Psychoanalysis [PSA 501] Applied Ethics / Psychoanalysis [PSA 509] Social Philosophy / Psychoanalysis [PSA 504] Philosophy and Culture / Psychoanalysis [PSA 505] Epistemology / Psychoanalysis [PSA 508] Philosophy and Intercultural Relations / Psychoanalysis [PSA 503] Existential Dialectics / Psychoanalysis [PSA 506] Continental Philosophy / Psychoanalysis [PSA 502]
Dissertation: The courses (8 x 3 credits = 24 credits) are designed so the student may be engaged in preliminary research in the area in which the dissertation will be written. With this background of an ongoing dialectic, the student is prepared to write a dissertation in which she/he may critically examine both the clinical and philosophical underpinnings of psychoanalysis. It is our expectation that from this research and experiential learning, ideas for the advancement of present psychoanalytic treatment may be made and new ideas for the future development and application of psychoanalysis in general.
12 credits are set for the Dissertation. A total minimum of 36 credits is required for the entire program.
Graduation: Upon completion of the required course work and satisfactory defense of the dissertation, the Doctor of Psychoanalysis (Psa.D) is awarded from Ignatius University and additionally the Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil) is granted by Sofia University to those students enrolled with both IU and SU.