The Doctoral School of Philosophy spans across various institutes within the Faculty of Humanities at Eötvös University (Institute of Philosophy, Institute of Theory of Art and Media Studies, Institute of Art History, Institute of Ancient and Classical Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies). The doctoral programs that are linked to the Institute of Philosophy are the following: 

• Ancient and Medieval Philosophy

• Modern Philosophy

• Phenomenology

• Analytic Philosophy

• Logic and Philosophy of Science

• Ethics and Political Philosophy

Prospective students interested in the philosophy of art, philosophy of religion and critical theories of culture may also choose to pursue PhD studies in one of the above programs. For further information on the Doctoral School of Philosophy as a whole, see https://www.elte.hu/en/doctoral-school-of-philosophy.

The goal of our advanced degree programs, each of them active for at least two decades, is to prepare students for obtaining their PhD degree. Students get acquainted with and well-versed in the latest research methodologies, participate in conferences, publish academic papers, gain teaching expertise in higher education, and write a doctoral dissertation. A low student-faculty ratio and highly personalized study tracks characterize these doctoral programs. Professors in the Doctoral School of Philosophy are part of the international scholarly community, and some of them have also acquired considerable international teaching experience in Europe, in the United States as well as globally. We offer our philosophy doctoral programs both in Hungarian and in English.

The Theoretical Linguistics program, which involves faculty members of the Centre for Theoretical Linguistics of the Institute of Philosophy as well as researchers at the Research Centre for Linguistics, is run by the Doctoral School of Linguistics. For more information, see http://www.nytud.hu/eng/index.html, https://btk.elte.hu/en/content/doctoral-school-of-linguistics.t.3199.

This program, established in 1995, focuses on Greco—Roman philosophy from the Presocratics to late antiquity, on Patristics and on Medieval thought, but its scope extends to the reception of ideas from these periods in the Renaissance and in modern times, too. The research topics pursued by our doctoral students include standard philosophical themes – issues in ancient and medieval epistemology, natural philosophy, metaphysics and ethics – as well as questions at the interface of philosophy and other disciplines, for instance, the history of science, rhetorics, aesthetics, theology and religious studies. The curriculum is primarily based on the close-reading of primary sources. In the first two years, our students acquire the skills necessary for analysing source texts, the methods of philology, history of concepts, and those of analytic philosophy. In the third and fourth years, the doctoral candidates focus on their specific research topic and work on their Ph.D. thesis. Applicants are expected to have some knowledge of Greek or Latin at the time of admission, and to be prepared to further develop their skills in Classical languages throughout their four years of study. Our program is open to both Hungarian and foreign applicants.

Head of program: László Bene.

Supervisors and instructors include: István Bodnár, Gábor Borbély and Péter Molnár (Department of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy of the Institute of Philosophy), István Bárány (Institute of Ancient and Classical Studies), Attila Simon (Institute of Hungarian Literature and Cultural Studies), István Bugár (University of Debrecen), Gábor Kendeffy (Károli Gáspár University), Péter Lautner (Pázmány Péter Catholic University), Attila Németh (Institute of Philosophy, Research Centre for the Humanities), Miklós Vassányi (Károli Gáspár University).

This doctoral program, launched in 1999, prepares students for scholarly and teaching careers with a concentration on 17th- and 18th-century philosophy. In addition to offering courses on prominent canonical figures like René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and John Locke, we also study 'minor' figures (e.g. Robert Burton, Moses Mendelssohn, Thomas Reid) and non-mainstream philosophical strands. Concerning the philosophical background of applicants, we are open to both 'Continental' and 'analytic' approaches; we adhere to the idea that answers to philosophical questions arise in dialogue with past philosophies. The focus of research and teaching is on the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, anthropology, social and political philosophy of the early modern period. Our program is open to both Hungarian and foreign applicants.

Head of program: Judit Szalai.

Supervisors and instructors include: Ákos Forczek (Department of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy), Gábor Boros (Károli Gáspár University) and Dániel Schmal (Pázmány Péter Catholic University). 

The importance of this program is due to the fact that Phenomenology is not only one of the philosophical movements of 20th century, but also the common starting point for the different approaches of Continental philosophy. Phenomenology has not only influenced 20th century philosophy in general, but also the human sciences (anthropology, psychology, sociology, etc.). The doctoral program of phenomenology has been working together with young scholars (mainly former students of the Program) of the Hungarian Phenomenological Society (founded in 2005), that organizes conferences, workshops and summer universities, and edits a philosophical review (Aspecto) and a book series (Aspecto books) printed by the publishing house L’Harmattan-Budapest.

Head of program: Tamás Ullmann.

Supervisors and instructors include: László Komorjai, Csaba Olay (Department of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy), Sándor Sajó (Department of Aesthetics), Ádám Takács (Atelier Department of Interdisciplinary History), Katalin Vermes (Eszterházy Károly Catholic University).

The analytic tradition in philosophy has been prominent in the English-speaking world since the second half of the 20th century and became influential in Hungary in the 1990s. Launched in 1995, the Analytic Philosophy Doctoral Program has several faculty members teaching and advising who are internationally renowned scholars in analytic philosophy; the majority regularly teaches English-language courses. Hungarian as well as international students with an MA in Philosophy (or equivalent) can apply to the Doctoral Program; studies can be pursued, depending on the student's choice, in English or in Hungarian. The Analytic Philosophy Program encompasses the following areas: philosophy of language, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, epistemology; ethics, metaethics, moral philosophy; history of analytic philosophy; analytic approaches to feminist philosophy; analytic aesthetics and philosophy of art; analytic political philosophy. Further areas covered through cooperation with other doctoral programs in Philosophy, primarily the Doctoral Program in Logic and Philosophy of Science: philosophical logic; philosophy of mathematics; mathematical logic; philosophy of science.

Head of program: Zsófia Zvolenszky.

Supervisors include: Gergely Ambrus (Department of General Philosophy), Tibor Bárány (Department of Sociology and Communication, Budapest University of Technology and Economics), Zsuzsanna Balogh, László Bernáth (Institute of Philosophy, Research Centre for the Humanities), István Danka (Department for Philosophy and History of Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics; John von Neumann University, Kecskemét), Gábor Forrai (Department of Argumentation Theory and Marketing, ELTE Faculty of Economics), Dániel Kodaj (Department of General Philosophy), Miklós Márton,  (Center for Theory of Law and Society, ELTE Faculty of Law), Attila Mráz (Department of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy), Anna Réz (Department of General Philosophy), Judit Szalai (Department of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy), János Tanács (Department of Argumentation Theory and Marketing, ELTE Faculty of Economics), János Tőzsér (Institute of Philosophy, Research Centre for the Humanities), Gábor Zemplén (Department of Argumentation Theory and Marketing, ELTE Faculty of Economics).

The main scope of the program is logic and formal approaches to philosophy of science, primarily philosophy of physics and mathematics. We also offer courses and research topics in the fields of philosophy of language and formal semantics, as well as on themes in epistemology and metaphysics related with philosophy of science. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the Logic and Philosophy of Science program is open to both Hungarian and foreign students who hold an MA/MSc degree either in philosophy or in some other relevant field. The flexible curriculum and the strongly tutorial character of teaching bridge the differences in the backgrounds. We host the weekly Logic and Philosophy of Science Seminar, which aims to bring together the faculty and students, as well as the wider Budapest community of scholars interested in philosophical problems of sciences.  The doctoral program is in cooperation with our Master’s program in Logic and Philosophy of Science and the doctoral program in Analytic Philosophy. Together, these three programs and the external scholars involved into our work form a center of international importance in the field of logic and scientific oriented theoretical philosophy.

Head of program: László E. Szabó.

Supervisor and instructors include: Hajnal Andréka (Rényi Institute of Mathematics), Amitayu Banerjee (Rényi Institute of Mathematics), Alexa Gopaulsingh, Márton Gömöri (Department of Logic), Balázs Gyenis (Institute of Philosophy, Research Centre for the Humanities), Zalán Gyenis (Jagiellonian University, Krakow), Gábor Hofer-Szabó (Institute of Philosophy, Research Centre for the Humanities), Judit Madarász (Rényi Institute of Mathematics), András Máté (Department of Logic), Ildikó Sain (Rényi Institute of Mathematics), Gergely Székely (Rényi Institute of Mathematics), Zsófia Zvolenszky (Department of Logic).

The Ethics and Political Philosophy Program seeks to offer an overall view of modern and contemporary political philosophy as well as of ethical issues in various fields. With special emphasis on modern, especially 18th century history of ideas, the program intends to cover both classical authors (from Machiavelli to Rawls) and the main currents of political thought (from conservatism through Marxist thought to neoliberalism). Within a broader field of positions normative conceptions of the political, including contemporary critical theories, are given a certain priority.

Head of program: Csaba Olay.

Supervisor and instructors include: Gábor Borbély (Department of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy), Zsolt Krokovay (Department of General Philosophy), Mária Ludassy (Department of General Philosophy), Péter Molnár (Department of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy), Attila Mráz (Department of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy), Imre Orthmayr (Department of General Philosophy), Anna Réz (Department of General Philosophy), Dániel Schmal (Pázmány Péter Catholic University), Gábor Toronyai (Corvinus University).