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Philosophy

Philosophy

Welcome to the Philosophy Department

AI robot looking into the face of a statue of a Greek philosopher

Philosophy investigates basic questions of knowledge, reality, self, and society. It provides concepts and methods that help us organize our thinking, ask clearer questions, and broaden our understanding, as we study the basic features of our lives, the world, and our experience of things. Philosophy is a humanistic field of inquiry, concerned with how we define ourselves as human beings, find meaning and value in life, and work out the beliefs we hold true.

Philosophy combines various fields of study:

  • Metaphysics takes up basic questions of being and existence: What is there, and what is its basic nature?
  • Epistemology is the study of knowledge, investigating the origins of knowledge, problems of certainty, and different forms of knowledge.
  • Aesthetics inquiries into the bases of our likes, dislikes, and judgments of taste and beauty.
  • Ethics is the broader study of values—the good, the right, and the just—in the context of human action and interaction. In applied or practical ethics, we confront concrete problems in fields like environmental ethics, bioethics, and professional ethics.
  • Logic articulates the nature of reasoning, evidence and inference, guiding us as we exercise various forms of judgment.

Across such concerns, philosophy investigates the concepts, methods, and basic orientations of other human enterprises, academic disciplines, and creative pursuits. It also extends to various fields and activities:  philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of art, philosophy of religion, and so on.