Description of the Report

This report ranks graduate programs primarily on the basis of the quality of faculty. In October of 2024, we conducted an on-line survey of approximately 550 philosophers throughout the English-speaking world. The survey was built using Qualtrics survey software with the help of the Office of Assessment, Accreditation & Strategic Planning at Western Illinois University. 239 philosophers responded and completed some or all of the surveys. The survey presented 89 faculty lists, from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Note that there are some 110 PhD-granting programs in the U.S. alone, but it would be unduly burdensome for evaluators to ask them to evaluate all these programs each year. The top programs in each region were selected for evaluation, plus a few additional programs are included each year to “test the waters.” The faculty lists are based on current information as to their shape for fall 2025 and are confined to full- or part-time faculty (status indicated), excluding adjuncts. Emeritus faculty members were also excluded. A penultimate copy of the draft list can be found at the Leiter Reports. The faculty lists indicated with an * which faculty will be 75 or older in 2025, which were part-time, and which were philosophers or cognate faculty in other units at the university and are involved with the supervision of PhD students in philosophy. Different respondents had different “centers of gravity” in their scoring: some gave no 5s, others gave no score lower than a 2. It was also clear that respondents had different philosophies of evaluation: some clearly tried to consider the breadth of strength in a department, while others ranked a program highly or lowly based simply on its strength in his or her fields. The range of evaluations for single departments should be a cautionary note to all undergraduates about relying too much on the advice of just one or two faculty advisors. Idiosyncrasy abounds, even at top departments! As in the past, we did not include the name of the university with the faculty lists. This has proved beneficial in forcing evaluators to respond to the current faculty. As one respondent put it a few years ago: “surprisingly tough to say what I think, without the institutional halo effect front loaded.” The survey prompt for each faculty list was: Please rate the overall quality of the graduate program’s faculty. The survey taker was then given a dropdown menu from which to select a ranking:

At the top of the list there was a blank for non-responses. The blank was the default for all responses even in the specialty areas. Both in the invitation letter and the first page of the survey gave invitees instructions on several matters. Specifically, evaluators were instructed: “Individuals should NOT rate their Ph.D. granting institution or graduate programs that employs them. The editors will ‘clean’ the data of any such stray ratings.” All of the improper and stray ratings of this sort were removed from the data set before the calculation of the means in both the overall ratings and the specialty area ratings. “Faculty quality” should be taken to encompass the quality of philosophical work and talent represented by the faculty and the range of areas they cover, with the two weighted as you think appropriate. Since the rankings are used by prospective students, about to embark on a multi-year course of study, you may also take in to account, as you see fit, considerations like the status (full-time, part-time) of the faculty; the age of the faculty (as a somewhat tenuous guide to prospective availability, not quality); and the quality of training the faculty provide, to the extent you have information about this. Evaluators were selected with an eye to balance, in terms of area, age and educational background– though since, in all cases, the opinions of research-active faculty were sought, there was, necessarily, a large number of alumni of the top programs represented. Approximately half those surveyed were philosophers who had filled out the surveys in previous years; the other half were nominated by members of the Advisory Board, who picked research-active faculty in their fields. Included below are the philosophers, by field, who filled out reputational surveys this year. The school from which the evaluator received the PhD (or equivalent) and their current employment. A very rough characterization of the philosopher’s area(s) is given in the last column. Below are the 239 evaluators who completed some or all of the overall and specialty survey.

First Last	PhD School	Current School	AREA
Mark Alznauer	University of Chicago	Northwestern University	History
Kristin Andrews	University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul	York University, Toronto	M&E, PS&M
Steve Angle	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Wesleyan University	Chinese
Andre Ariew	University of Arizona	University of Missouri	PS&M
Rachel Barney	Princeton University	University of Toronto	History
Sam Baron	University of Sydney	University of Melbourne	M&E, PS&M
Jeffrey Barrett	Columbia University	University of California, Irvine	M&E, PS&M
Thmas Barrett	Princeton University	University of California, Santa Barbara	PS&M
John Bengson	University of Texas, Austin	University of Texas, Austin	M&E, Value
Eva Benjamin	University of Bristol	Duke University	M&E, PS&M
Karen Bennett	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E
Jose Bermudez	Cambridge University	Texas A&M University
Sven Bernecker	Stanford University	University of California, Irvine	M&E
John Bickle	University of California, Irvine	Missisippi State University	M&E, PS&M
Brian Bix	Oxford University	University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul	Value
Ned Block	Harvard University	New York University	M&E, PS&M
Chris Bobonich	University of California, Berkeley	Stanford University	History, Value
Paul Boghossian	Princeton University	New York University
Nic Bommarito	Brown University	Simon Fraser University	Value, Indian, Chinese
Matt Boyle	University of Pittsburgh	University of Chicago	History, M&E, Value
David Braddon-Mitchell	Australian National University	University of Sydney	M&E, PS&M
Gwen Bradford	Yale University	Rice University	Value
Tad Brennan	Princeton University	Cornell University	History, M&E
Thom Brooks	University of Sheffield	University of Durham	History, Value
Justin Bruner	University of California, Irvine	University at Buffalo	PS&M, Value
John Brunero	Columbia University	University of Nebraska	Value
Lara Buchak	Princeton University	Princeton University	M&E, PS&M
Wesley Buckwalter	City University of New York Graduate Center	George Mason University	M&E
Craig Callender	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	University of California, San Diego	PS&M
Peter Carruthers	Oxford University	University of Maryland, College Park	M&E, PS&M
Victor Caston	University of Texas, Austin	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	History
Eddy Keming Chen	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	University of California, San Diego	M&E, PS&M
Andrew Chignell	Yale University	Princeton University	History, M&E
Ian Church	University of St. Andrews/Stirling Joint Program	Hillsdale College	M&E, PS&M
Justin Clarke-Doane	New York University	Columbia University	M&E, PS&M, Value
Jonathan Cohen	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	University of California, San Diego	M&E
Juan Comesaña	Brown University	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E
Becko Copenhaver	Cornell University	Washington University, St. Louis	History
J. Angelo Corlett	University of Arizona	San Diego State University	M&E, Value, Race
Roger Crisp	Oxford University	Oxford University	Value
Steven Crowell	Yale University	Rice University	History
Javier Cumpa	University of Madrid	University of Madrid	M&E
David Danks	University of California, San Diego	University of California, San Diego	M&E, PS&M
Michael Della Rocca	University of California, Berkeley	Yale University	History, M&E
Neil Dewar	Oxford University	Cambridge University	PS&M
John Doris	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Cornell University	PS&M, Value
Dale Dorsey	University of California, San Diego	Oxford University	Value
Kevin Dorst	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	M&E
Lisa Downing	Princeton University	Ohio State University	History
Lidal Dror	Harvard University	Princeton University	M&E, Value, Race, Feminism
Kenny Easwaran	University of California, Berkeley	University of California, Irvine	M&E, PS&M
Jeremy Fantl	Brown University	University of Calgary	M&E
Luis Favela	University of Cincinatti	Indiana University, Bloomington	M&E, PS&M
Matthew Festenstein	Cambridge University	York University, Toronto	History, Value
Rachel Fraser	Oxford University	Oxford University	M&E, Feminism
Johann Frick	Harvard University	University of California, Berkeley	Value
Dmitri Gallow	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	University of Southern California	M&E, PS&M
Jonardon Ganeri	Oxford University	University of Toronto	Indian
Don Garrett	Yale University	New York University	History
Michael Gill	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	University of Arizona	History, Value
Anthony Gillies	University of Arizona	University of Arizona	M&E
Michael Giudice	McMaster University	York University, Toronto	Value
Michael Glanzberg	Harvard University	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E, PS&M
Javier Gomez-LAvin	City University of New York Graduate Center	Purdue University	M&E, PS&M
James Grant	Oxford University	Oxford University	Value
Dan Greco	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Yale University	M&E
John Greco	Brown University	Georgetown University	M&E
Stephen Grimm	University of Notre Dame	Fordham University	M&E
Steven Gross	Harvard University	Johns Hopkins University	M&E, PS&M
Alex Guerrero	New York University	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	Value
Volker Halbach	LMU, Munich	Oxford University	M&E, PS&M
Toby Handfield	Monash University	Monash University	M&E, PS&M
Michael Hardimon	University of Chicago	University of California, San Diego	History, Race
Verity Harte	Cambridge University	Yale University	History
Stephan Hartmann	University of Leipzig	Monash University	M&E, PS&M
Allan Hazlett	Brown University	Washington University, St. Louis	M&E
Thimo Heisenberg	Columbia University	Rice University	History
Benjamin Hellie	Princeton University	University of Toronto	M&E
Grace Helton	New York University	Princeton University	M&E, PS&M, Value, Feminism
Christopher Hill	Harvard University	Brown University	M&E, PS&M
Christopher Hitchcock	University of Pittsburgh	California Institute of Technology	PS&M
Wesley Holliday	Stanford University	University of California, Berkeley	M&E, PS&M
Robert Hopkins	Cambridge University	New York University	Value
Leon Horsten	University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul	Universitat Konstanz	History, M&E, PS&M
John Horty	University of Pittsburgh	University of Maryland, College Park	M&E, PS&M
Stephen Houlgate	University of Edinburgh	University of Warwick	History
Andrew Huddleston	Princeton University	University of Notre Dame	History, Value
Simon Hutteger	University of Salzburg	University of California, Irvine	M&E, PS&M
Tracy Isaacs	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	University of Western Ontario	M&E, Value, Feminism
Jenann Ismael	Princeton University	Johns Hopkins University	PS&M
Henry Jackman	University of Pittsburgh	York University, Toronto	History
Scott Jenkins	Princeton University	University of Kansas	History
Robin Jeshion	University of Chicago	University of Southern California	History, M&E, Feminism
Thomas Johansen	Oxford University	University of Oslo	History
Nicholas K. Jones	Birkbeck University	Oxford University	M&E
Jim Joyce	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	M&E, PS&M
Shelly Kagan	Princeton University	Yale University	Value
Peter Kail	Cambridge University	Oxford University	History
Paul Katsafanas	Harvard University	Boston University	History, Value
Dan Kaufman	University of Massachusetts, Amherst	University of Colorado, Boulder	History
Pierre Keller	Columbia University	University of California, Riverside	History
Hannah Kim	Stanford University	University of Arizona	Value, Race, Chinese
Hyunseop Kim	New York University	Seoul National University	M&E, Value
Jeffrey King	University of California, San Diego	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E
Alex Klein	Indiana University, Bloomington	McMaster University	History
Niko Kolodny	University of California, Berkeley	University of California, Berkeley	Value
Matthew Kramer	Cambridge University	Cambridge University	Value
Uriah Kriegel	Brown University	Rice University	M&E
Peter Lamarque	Oxford University	York University, Toronto	Value
Nick Laskowski	University of Southern California	University of Maryland, College Park	Value
Céline Leboeuf	Harvard University		Race, Feminism
Michael LeBuffe	University of California, San Diego	University of Otago	History
Harvey Lederman	Princeton University	University of Texas, Austin	M&E, PS&M, Chinese
Mi-Kyoung Lee	Harvard University	University of Colorado, Boulder	History
Brian Leftow	Yale University	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	History, M&E
Brian Leiter	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	University of Chicago	History, Value
Ernest LePore	University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul	Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Arnon Levy	Harvard University	Hebrew university	M&E, PS&M
Martin Lin	University of Chicago	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	History
Elisabeth Lloyd	Princeton University	Indiana University, Bloomington	PS&M, Feminism
Barry Loewer	Stanford University	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E, PS&M
Dominic Lopes	Oxford University	University of British Columbia	Value
Daniele Lorenzini	Paris XII & Sapienza University of Rome	University of Pennsylvania	History
Alan Love	University of Pittsburgh	University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul	PS&M
Peter Ludlow	Columbia University		M&E
Edouard Machery	Sorbonne University	University of Pittsburgh	PS&M
Edwin Mares	Indiana University, Bloomington	Victoria University, Wellington	History, M&E, PS&M
Kevin Mccain	University of Rochester	University of Alabama	M&E, PS&M
Edwin McCann	University of Pennsylvania	University of Southern California	History
Matt McGrath	Brown University	Washington University, St. Louis	M&E
Brian McLaughlin	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E, PS&M
Jacob McNulty	Columbia University	Yale University	History
Yitzhak Melamed	Yale University	Johns Hopkins University	History
Alfred Mele	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Florida State University	M&E
Krzysztof Mierzewski	Stanford University	Carnegie Mellon University	M&E, PS&M
Alex Miller	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	University of Otago	History, M&E, PS&M, Value
Cheryl Misak	Oxford University	University of Toronto	History
Michelle Montague	University of Colorado, Boulder	University of Texas, Austin	M&E
John Morrison	New York University	Columbia University	History, M&E, PS&M
Jessica Moss	Princeton University	New York University	History
Ryan Muldoon	University of Pennsylvania	University at Buffalo	PS&M, Value
Colleen Murphy	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign	Value, Race, Feminism
Mark Murphy	University of Notre Dame	Georgetown University	M&E, Value
Bence Nanay	University of California, Berkeley	University of Antwerp	M&E, PS&M, Value
Jake Nebel	New York University	Princeton University	PS&M, Value
Alan Nelson	University of Illinois, Chicago	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	History
Ram Neta	University of Pittsburgh	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	M&E
Alyssa Ney	Brown University	LMU, Munich	M&E, PS&M
Daniel Nolan	Australian National University	University of Notre Dame	M&E, PS&M, Value
Alastair Norcross	Syracuse University	University of Colorado, Boulder	Value
Jill North	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	PS&M
John Norton	New South Wales	University of Pittsburgh	PS&M
Brian O’Connor	Oxford University	University of Dublin	History
Timothy O’Connor	Cornell University	Indiana University, Bloomington	M&E
Samir Okasha	Oxford University	University of Bristol	PS&M
Graham Oppy	Princeton University	Monash University	M&E
Peter Pagin	University of Stockholm	University of Stockholm	M&E
Japa Pallikkathayil	Harvard University	University of Pittsburgh	Value
Clare Palmer	Queen’s College	Texas A&M	Value
James Penner	Oxford University	National University of Singapore	Value
Derk Pereboom	University of California, Los Angeles	Cornell University	History, M&E, Value
Ian Phillips	Univ College London	Johns Hopkins University	M&E, PS&M
Gualtiero Piccinini	University of Pittsburgh	University of Missouri–St. Louis	M&E, PS&M
Hanna Pickard	Oxford University	Johns Hopkins University	M&E, PS&M, Value
David Pitt	City University of New York Graduate Center	California State University, Los Angeles	M&E
David Plunkett	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Dartmouth College
Alexander Prescott-Couch	n/a	Oxford University	History, PS&M, Value
Duncan Pritchard	University of St. Andrews/Stirling Joint Program	University of California, Irvine	M&E
Ian Proops	Harvard University	University of Texas, Austin	History
Diana Raffman	Yale University	University of Toronto	M&E, PS&M
Michael Rescorla	Harvard University	University of California, Los Angeles	M&E, PS&M
Mathias Risse	Princeton University	Harvard University	History, Value
Sarah Robins	Washington University, St. Louis	Purdue University	M&E, PS&M
Veronica Rodriguez-Blanco	Cambridge University	University of Surrey	Value
Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra	Oxford University	Oxford University	History, M&E
Michael Rosen	Oxford University	Harvard University	History, Value
Ian Rumfitt	Oxford University	Oxford University	M&E, PS&M
Robert Rupert	University of Illinois, Chicago	University of Colorado, Boulder	M&E, PS&M
Paul Russell	Cambridge University	University of British Columbia	History, M&E, Value
Wendy Salkin	Harvard University	Stanford University	Value, Race
Nathan Salmon	University of California, Los Angeles	University of California, Santa Barbara	M&E
Bernhard Salow	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Oxford University	M&E
Howard Sankey	University of Melbourne	University of Melbourne	PS&M
Joseph Schear	University of Chicago	Oxford University	History
Elizabeth Schechter	University of Maryland, College Park	University of Maryland, College Park	PS&M
David Schmidtz	University of Arizona	University of Arizona	PS&M, Value
Thomas Schramme	Freie Universitat	University of Liverpool	Value
Eric Schwitzgebel	University of California, Berkeley	University of California, Riverside	M&E, PS&M
Stefan Sciaraffa	University of Arizona	McMaster University	Value
Russ Shafer-Landau	University of Arizona	University of Wisconsin, Madison	Value
Nick Shea	King’s College, London	King’s College, London	M&E, PS&M
Christopher Shields	Cornell University	University of California, San Diego	History
Ted Sider	University of Massachusetts, Amherst	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E, PS&M
Allan Silverman	University of California, Berkeley	Ohio State University	History
Robert Simpson	Oxford University	University College London	Value
Rachel Singpurwalla	University of Colorado, Boulder	University of Maryland, College Park	History
Brian Skyrms	University of Pittsburgh	University of California, Irvine	PS&M
Chris Smeenk	University of Pittsburgh	University of Western Ontario	PS&M
David Sosa	Princeton University	University of Texas, Austin	M&E, Value
Ernest Sosa	University of Pittsburgh	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E
Jack Spencer	Princeton University	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	M&E, PS&M
Julia Staffel	University of Southern California	University of Colorado, Boulder	M&E, PS&M
Robert Stainton	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	University of Western Ontario	M&E
Aaron Stalnaker	Brown University	Indiana University, Bloomington	Chinese
Kyle Stanford	Univrsity of California, San Diego	University of California, Irvine	PS&M
Stephen Stich	Princeton University	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E, PS&M, Value
Anna Stilz	Harvard University	University of California, Berkeley	Value
Daniel Stoljar	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Australian National University	M&E
Eleonore Stump	Cornell University	Saint Louis University	History, M&E, Value
Justin Sytsma	University of Pittsburgh	Victoria University, Wellington	M&E, PS&M
Robert Talisse	City University of New York Graduate Center	Vanderbilt University	History, Value
Serife Tekin	York University, Toronto	SUNY Upstate Medical University	M&E, PS&M, Value
Iain Thomson	University of California, San Diego	University of New Mexico	History
John Thrasher	University of Arizona	Chapman University	PS&M, Value
Justin Tiwald	University of Chicago	University of Hong Kong	Chinese
J.D. Trout	Cornell University	Illinois Institute of Technology	M&E, PS&M
Michael Tye	University at Buffalo	University of Texas, Austin	M&E
Laura Valentni	Oxford University	LMU, Munich	Value
Peter van Inwagen	University of Rochester	University of Notre Dame	M&E
Bryan van Norden	Stanford University	Vassar College	Chinese
Manuel Vargas	Stanford University	University of California, San Diego	M&E, Value, Race
Máté Veres	Central European University	University of Toronto	History
Daniel Viehoff	Columbia University	University of California, Berkeley	Value
Katja Vogt	LMU, Munich	Columbia University
David Wallace	Oxford University	University of Pittsburgh	PS&M
Ted Warfield	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	University of Notre Dame	M&E
Georgia Warnke	Boston University	University of California, Riverside	History, Feminism
Eric Watkins	University of Notre Dame	University of California, San Diego	History
James Weatherall	University of California, Irvine	University of California, Irvine	PS&M
Paul Weithman	Harvard University	University of Notre Dame	Value
Evan Westra	University of Maryland, College Park	Purdue University	M&E, PS&M, Value
Eric Wiland	University of Chicago	University of Missouri, St. Louis	M&E, Value
Thomas Williams	University of Notre Dame	Georgetown University	History
Timothy Williamson	Oxford University	Oxford University	M&E, PS&M
Jessica Wilson	Cornell University	University of Toronto	M&E, PS&M
Eric Winsberg	Indiana University, Bloomington	University of San Francisco	PS&M
Christian Wuthrich	University of Pittsburgh	University of Geneva	PS&M
Jose Zalabardo	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	University College London	History, M&E
Dean Zimmerman	Brown University	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	M&E