The Penn State Philosophy Doctoral Program makes a major change to its history course requirements.

As of this semester (fall 2018), doctoral students will be able to takes courses in World Philosophies in fulfillment of the program course requirements. This new course rubric is intended to problematize the chronology of Western philosophy. It signals the doctoral programs distinctive agenda of diversifying the Western canon. The rubric includes not only figures outside the Western canon, but also figures who have remained marginal or entirely neglected because they have not been generally considered as “philosophers.” World Philosophies courses aim to focus attention on the methodological question of how philosophy and its history is to be conceived.