Welcome to the University of Tennessee's Philosophy Department

Welcome to the Philosophy Department

Look around and get acquainted with our faculty. Check out speakers and other events in philosophy. Explore our programs. Declare yourself a Philosophy Major. Update us on what you've been doing since you graduated. Stay current on news and notes. Or take in the big picture by reading our most recent newsletters, 2013 Newsletter, 2012 Newsletter and the 2011 Newsletter.

While offering courses in the traditional areas of philosophy (logic, metaphysics, epistemology, history of philosophy, etc.), the Philosophy Department at UT has special strength in ethics and value theory, broadly construed to include not only social and political philosophy, for example, but also those areas of metaphysics or the philosophy of science that are most closely related to ethics and value theory. For more information about current areas of faculty expertise and interest, see: Our Faculty.

At the undergraduate level, we offer both a major and a minor in philosophy. For information about the undergraduate program, see: Undergraduate Program.

At the graduate level, we offer both the M.A. and the Ph.D. degrees. For information about the graduate program, see Graduate Program.

We are a smaller but dynamic department. In addition to teaching, our faculty are actively engaged in research and scholarship. Further, the department regularly hosts prominent visiting speakers who lecture on a wide range of topics. It also regularly organizes and hosts conferences and symposia, typically on topics of faculty research or of special interest to students. Additionally, faculty and graduate students regularly present works in progress to the department in a somewhat less formal context conducive to discussion and welcoming to philosophers at every level, including undergraduates, regardless of their formal affiliation with the department. If you're keen on finding out more about what we do when we're not teaching our classes, check our schedule of upcoming events and make plans to attend a few.