Master's in Philosophy

Can anyone recommend an inexpensive DL Master's in Philosophy? I am seeking regionally accredited or the equivalent foreign degree. I've done some research on these degrees from schools in South Africa.

 

Why is Master in Philosphy? Is it easy to use for unemployment? Anyway, check out Prescott College.

 

CSUDH has a MA in Humanities - it can include several philosophy courses.
Relatively low cost - around $6,750.
http://www.csudh.edu/hux/program.html

 

International Catholic University and Holy Apostles College & Seminary www.holyapostles.edu have a joint MA in Philosophy. I believe that former august Senior Member and Moderator Jack Tracey was working on this program; at any rate, he certainly expressed a liking for it.

 

A degree in philosophy at the undergraduate or graduate level is excellent prepartation for law school due to the high critical thinking component inherent in philosophy courses. At the very least you could out reason most people but if you are unemployed trying to reason with buracracy (employment office) is a lost cause. I have the URL for a good school that offers a graduate degree based on The Great Books; I will post that URL later when I have access to my USB thumbdrive.

 

Harrison Middleton University www.chumsci.edu offers an MA in Philosophy and Religion based on the Great Books of the Western World. They are accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council.

 

This is the school I referred to in my previous posting. Thank you for finding the information and saving me from searching through approximately 2000 sorted bookmarks.

 

Perhaps writing philosophy papers might teach students how to use better spelling and grammar.

(Sorry, but you left yourself wide open for that one.)

Maybe the original poster is interested in philosophy. Have you thought of that?

One of the beauties of distance learning is that it allows students to pursue their extra-vocational interests while continuing to hold down a job. It makes it possible for them to attend university without giving everything up, moving to a new city and studying full-time.

If you are suggesting that philosophy is an unworthy subject for study, then I couldn't disagree with you more vehemently.

Ancient philosophy gives us a window into how the Greeks and Romans conceived of their world. Indian philosophy provides the conceptual framework in which to place Buddhism, Hinduism the Jains and various yoga disciplines. Chinese philosophy opens a window into that great civilization.

Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, the inquiry into what knowledge is, how it's recognized, acquired and improved. That has obvious applications in the philosophy of science. The philosophy of mind delves into that conceptually tangled thicket, increasingly merging with cognitive and computer science. Ontology inquires into what kind of things really exist and which are man's own conceptual creations. (matter? universals? qualia? numbers? relations? holes and absences? good and evil? souls? spirits and divinities?) Value theory leads us into ethics and aesthetics. Logic leads us into the philosophies of language and mathematics. There are philosophies of education, law, history, politics and many other things. There's even business ethics (oxymoron as that seems to be). We see lots of discussion of religious education here on the boards, much of it doctrinally inconsistent. The philosophy of religion investigates how conflicting religious claims might be adjudicated, leading into the epistemological question of how human beings can have any knowledge of transcendent things.

Ultimately, there's the age-old question of how human life should best be lived. We are all inexorably headed towards death, so it makes some sense to attend to how our time here can best be spent. Should we all just be trying to maximize our bank balances and our social status? Are those the primary values in life?

Or are there other considerations? What about love and companionship? What about beauty and truth? Is satisfaction itself a value? Might it actually be better to be truly happy with modest circumstances, than to never be satisfied with any circumstances?

Could there conceivably be some value, even some utility, in taking a closer look at this life that we are rushing through and at this universe that we inexplicably find ourselves in?

 

Bill,

you are a heck of a writer and I hope you don't mind if I once again borrow some of your sentiments.

Best wishes,

 

Beautifully expressed, Bill!

I appreciate everyone's thoughts, and the links you posted.

I like the Holy Apostles program very much, even though I'm not Roman Catholic. But it is too expensive for me. Does anyone know of any RA-accredited programs whose cost is on a par with the SA universities?

 

Probably what you are looking at in a lower cost range would be at CSU- DH. You get the M.A. in Humanities and can concentrate in Philosophy.
Or, you can do Ft Hayes State's MLS and concentrate in Philosophy.

 

Unfortunately, I am confident that such an animal does not exist.

 

The University of Wales at Lampeter offers several distance learning MA programs in philosophy. They also have DL MPhil and PhD programs. The orientation is a bit too 'continental' for my taste, but somebody might like it.

http://www.lamp.ac.uk/philosophy/postgraduate.html

The Wales-Lampeter department of theology and religious studies also has some DL offerings that will be of interest to many philosophy students. I'm attracted to both their MA in Religious Experience and to their MA in Indian Religions but it isn't clear that either one is entirely doable by DL.

http://www.lamp.ac.uk/trs/Postgraduate/prospective_taught/taught_degrees.htm

 

ooppss! Wow, take it easy...buddy! I was kidding about the whole unemployment thing. Of course, whatever degree full fill others.

 

Unfortunately, the last time I looked (probably a couple of days ago), the MLS in Philosophy at Fort Hays State University www.fhsu.edu did exist, but the philosophy concentration was not online.

 

Madurai Kamaraj University www.mkuniversity.org offers both a Master of Arts in Philosophy & Religion and a Master of Philosophy in Philosophy & Religion.

 

Bears' Guide notes that, from the Land Down Under, the University of Melbourne www.unimelb.edu.au and the University of New England www.une.edu.au offer a master's in philosophy via distance learning.

 

I seem to recall that California State University Northridge www.csun.edu having a proposed MA in Humanities (alleged start date: Fall 2009) which said it was going to offer a possible concentration in Philosophy. We'll see if that actually materializes.

 

If there be any for whom TRACS accreditation is "good enough," Southern Evangelical Seminary www.ses.edu offers a Master of Arts in Philosophy and a Master of Divinity in Philosophy via distance learning. They also offer a PhD program via distance that emphasizes Philosophy & Apologetics.

 

Well, I think that those who declare majors in unemployability (which includes history majors as well as philosophy majors) probably pretty much understand that they are majoring in unemployability but are willing to pay the bucks for a nice-looking piece of paper that validates the fact that they've spent years studying a subject they love before taking that "would you like fries with that" job.