Department of Philosophy

Welcome to the Department of Philosophy at Indiana University, Bloomington. To learn more about the strengths of our department and the interests of our faculty, click on the menu bar above.

Sycamore Hall The Department of Philosophy is located in Sycamore Hall, near the southeast corner of campus. (Click for a campus map to Sycamore Hall.)

We are happy to announce that the distinguished historians of philosophy Allen and Rega Wood have joined the faculty of the Indiana University Bloomington Department of Philosophy this Fall. We welcome the Woods to our community. Our first Distinguished Visitor, Tim Scanlon, will be in Bloomington giving a series of lectures from Sept 29 - Oct 3. Dr. Scanlon will also be available to speak with students, so mark your calendars. (For seminar topics and scheduling details, see the events page on the linkbar to the left.) Chris Menzel will be giving a joint talk with the IU Logic Group on October 3rd at 4:00 in Woodburn 121. The title of his talk is "Two Arguments Against Modal Existentialism." An abstract for his talk can be found here.

Metaphysics and Epistemology

Faculty with particular interests in Metaphysics and Epistemology include:

• Metaphysics: Timothy O'Connor, Fred Schmitt, Dennis Senchuk
• Epistemology: Gary Ebbs, Mark Kaplan, Adam Leite, Fred Schmitt, Dennis Senchuk, Jonathan Weinberg

Note also that several faculty on our History of Philosophy page focus on the history of metaphysical and epistemological issues.

Philosophy of Mind

Faculty with special interests in Philosophy of Mind include: Karen Hanson, Timothy O'Connor, Fred Schmitt, Dennis Senchuk, and Jonathan Weinberg, as well as Adjunct Professors Colin Allen and Douglas Hofstadter.

Note that our Department maintains strong ties with the Cognitive Science Program.

Ethics, Philosophy of Law, Political Philosophy, Aesthetics

Faculty with interests in these "value" areas of philosophy, from either a contemporary or a historical perspective, or both, include:

• Ethics: Kate Abramson, Marcia Baron, Karen Hanson, Sandra Lynne Shapshay, Kevin Toh, and Allen Wood.
• Philosophy of Law: Marcia Baron and Kevin Toh.
• Political Philosophy:Marcia Baron, Kevin Toh, and Allen Wood.
• Aesthetics: Kate Abramson, Karen Hanson, David Charles McCarty, Sandra Lynne Shapshay and Jonathan Weinberg.

Logic, Philosophy of Mathematics, Philosophy of Language

Faculty with interests in these areas include:

• J. Michael Dunn (Logic, Philosophy of Mathematics)
• Gary Ebbs (Philosophy of Logic, Philosophy of Language)
• Karen Hanson (Philosophy of Language)
• David Charles McCarty (Logic, Philosophy of Mathematics, History of Logic—especially nineteenth and twentieth century, Philosophy of Language).
• Leah Savion (Logic, Philosophy of Logic, Philosophy of Language)
• Paul Vincent Spade (History of Logic—medieval logic and semantic theory)
• Joan Weiner (Philosophy of Logic, Philosophy of Language, History of Logic—Frege)

and Adjunct Professor

• Lawrence S. Moss (Logic).

Our Department is a participant in the Indiana University Program in Pure and Applied Logic.

History of Philosophy

Many of our faculty have primary or secondary interests in the History of Philosophy:

• Ancient: Adam Leite, Michael L. Morgan
• Medieval: Paul Vincent Spade, Rega Wood
• Early Modern: Kate Abramson (British Philosophy, especially Hume), Marcia Baron (Hume, Kant), Michael L. Morgan (Rationalists, Jewish Philosophy), Frederick F. Schmitt (especially Hume), and Allen Wood (19th-Century German Philosophy, especially Kant).
• Post-Kantian:
  • Continental: Michael L. Morgan (Jewish Philosophy, Levinas), Paul Vincent Spade (Kierkegaard, Sartre)
  • Analytic and "Proto"-Analytic: Gary Ebbs (Frege, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine), Karen Hanson (American Philosophy, Pragmatism), Adam Leite (Analytic Philosophy), David Charles McCarty (History of Logic, Early Analytic), Kevin Toh (twentieth-century practical philosophy), Joan Weiner (early analytic, especially Frege).

Some of our adjunct faculty also add to our resources in History of Philosophy, including:

• Chinese Philosophy: Robert Eno
• Islamic Philosophy: John Walbridge.

The Department of History & Philosophy of Science

The Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPSC) is a separate department at Indiana University, not part of the Philosophy Department. (For the story behind this unusual arrangement, see Henry Veatch's History of the Indiana University Philosophy Department in Bloomington: The Years 1929–65.) Students wishing a degree through HPSC must apply directly to their Department. For further information, and for details of their program, see their website.

Despite the administrative distinction between us, our two Departments maintain close and cooperative ties. Physically, we are located just a few steps from one another; they are in Goodbody Hall, just across Wells Quad from us. Many of our students take courses in HPSC, as theirs do in Philosophy. Our students often choose HPSC as their "outside minor area" of concentration, although other areas are popular as well. (See the discussion of our Ph.D. Requirements. The "outside minor area" is a requirement of the Graduate School.) Many faculty in HPSC also hold adjunct appointments in Philosophy. This means they can direct Ph.D. dissertations and serve on dissertation committees in Philosophy. At present, these include Professors Colin Allen, Jordi Cat, Amit Hagar, Elisabeth Lloyd, and Jutta Schickore, and Professor Emerita Norette Koertge. Please see our Faculty page for links to their webpages.