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Independent Studies

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Research Independently

Interested in pursuing a topic in philosophy that isn't covered by the courses we offer? You should consider signing up for an independent study! This will offer you the opportunity to work one-on-one with one of our faculty members on a subject of your choosing. Independent studies offer students the opportunity to truly delve into what they want to learn, and the end product is usually a paper that can be submitted as publication, writing sample, or conference submission.


How to sign up

Signing up for an independent study is straightforward. Speak with the professor you would like to work with, and see whether they're available. If so, just find a time that works for both of you, and a course will be created for your chosen topic. All you have to do then is sign up for that course, and you'll be all set. Note that you'll want to set things up well ahead of time—it's almost always a good idea to get the ball rolling the semester before you want to take the independent study.


Previous Independent Studies

We have students take independent studies all the time! Below, you'll find a list of some of the independent studies that students have signed up for in the last few years.

  • Consciousness in Nature
    Dr. Yanssel Garcia | Spring 2023

    An exploration of the various attempts that have been made to find a place in nature for consciousness, especially within a physicalist framework. The ultimate aim is to make progress in understanding how matter can give rise to mind.

  • Mechanism in Neuroscience
    Dr. Yanssel Garcia | Spring 2023

    An independent study exploring the relationship between neuroscience and its mechanistic foundations. Of particular interest is whether common distinctions in neuroscience between directed and non-directed action are tenable from within a deterministic framework.

  • Selfhood and Self Knowledge
    Dr. Joseph McCaffrey | Fall 2022

    An examination of philosophical issues surrounding personal identity, narrative, introspection, self-knowledge, and wellbeing exploring texts in the contemporary philosophy of mind, emotion, and science.

  • Philosophy of Mental Health
    Dr. Joseph McCaffrey | Spring 2022

    A course on the nature of mental health and mental illness, concerning particularly whether mental illness is a value-free scientific concept or is bound up in social norms and values. This included an examination of contemporary texts in the philosophy of psychiatry and from the disciplines of psychiatry and clinical psychology.

  • Philosophy of Neuroimaging
    Dr. Joseph McCaffrey | Fall 2021

    This independent study examined the role of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to search for the neural correlates of consciousness and other mental processes. Of interest was the notion of a “neural correlate” and whether we should expect a one-to-one mapping between psychological kinds and neural mechanisms.

  • Wittgenstein's Tractatus
    Dr. Andrew Newman | Spring 2020

    A thorough analysis of Wittgenstein's Tractatus, which included going through the Tractatus line by line and studying Frege and Russell and pertinent issues in logic and metaphysics.

  • Philosophy of Memory
    Dr. Joseph McCaffrey | Spring 2020

    An independent study on the nature of human memory with a focus on philosophical questions such as: “Is memory truthful or are our memories constructed?,” “Is ‘memory’ a natural kind in psychology given our multiple memory systems?,” and “Can molecular neuroscience reduce what we know about memory to changes at the cellular level?”

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