The Department has strong faculty representation in the major historical periods, the principal approaches, and the basic problem areas of classical and contemporary philosophy. O ur students acquire a broad competence in the history of Western philosophy and a thorough understanding of the systematic foundations of philosophical views.
Students also learn logic, languages, and the exegesis of texts and arguments.
These are skills indispensable to the fruitful practice of philosophy understood as the cultivation of dialogue and informed reflection on the fundamental and perennial issues of human life. T he Department is committed to excellent teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and considerable effort is devoted to training graduate students to become excellent teachers in their own right. While all major periods and thinkers are represented, our faculty is especially prominent in Ancient, Early Modern, the Scottish Enlightenment, German Idealism, Phenomenology, Continental Philosophy, Analytic Philosophy, American Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. Our philosophers of science combine scientific with philosophical and historical education. The Philosophy of Religion is pursued with special emphasis on metaphysics and on the comparative study of religions.