The Department of Philosophy at Duquesne University was one of the first graduate programs in the United States to emphasize the concentrated study of phenomenology and contemporary Continental philosophy. The current program continues this commitment to this distinctive orientation. In addition, the department provides students with a thorough acquaintance with major works in each period of the Western philosophical tradition. Courses are regularly offered on figures such as Husserl, Heidegger, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Gadamer, Derrida, Foucault, Adorno, and Habermas, as well as on Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche. The department offers programs leading to a Ph.D. degree and an M.A. degree.