The department offers programs leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. It is the intention of the graduate program to enable the student to obtain an understanding of diverse traditions and to develop as a philosopher in his or her own right. Since its founding in 1963, the UCSD Philosophy Department has grown to become a nationally ranked department, offering excellent instruction and supervision at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Faculty have a broad range of research interests, with special concentrations in the philosophy of science, ethics and political philosophy, history of philosophy, and epistemology and metaphysics. The department is strongly committed to interdisciplinary work in philosophy, which graduate students can pursue through joint doctoral studies in the Science Studies Program and in the Department of Cognitive Science. The department has close ties to many other departments and programs on campus including History, Classical Studies, Psychology, Political Science, and the Division of Biological Sciences. Graduates of our Ph.D. program have been successfully placed in top departments across the country and abroad.