Research Specialties & Topics
The faculty’s research expertise span a wide range of and types of philosophy, offering students a rich set of options and opportunities to pursue their philosophical passions. At the center of faculty research and teaching is a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.
Moral and Political Philosophy
The department offers a broad spectrum of courses in moral and political philosophy, including history of ethics, ethical theory and metaethics, moral psychology, applied ethics, the history of political philosophy, philosophy of resistance, feminist philosophy, and the works of contemporary political theorists, among others, taught by Michelle Mason Bizri, Tamara Fakhoury, Sarah Holtman, and Valerie Tiberius. Brian Bix and Sarah Holtman teach courses in philosophy of law and its intersections with ethical and political theory. Sarah Holtman and Tamara Fakhoury host a moral, political, and feminist (MPF) discussion group.
Students interested in moral and political philosophy can complement their research in the Department by furthering their interdisciplinary interests in several other departments and centers at the university. The Department of Political Science provides students additional course opportunities in political philosophy and offers a graduate minor in political psychology. Both the Center for Bioethics and the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change offer graduate minors, which afford excellent opportunities for combining theoretical and applied work.
Philosophy of Language
Peter Hanks, David E. Taylor, Brian Bix, Michael Kac, and Phil Bold all have research and teaching interests in the philosophy of language broadly construed, and, in particular, its intersection with metaphysics, linguistics, cognitive science, and the history of analytic philosophy. These researchers use both formal and ordinary language approaches—Fregean, Davidsonian, Austinian, and Wittgenstenian, among others. As a member of the linguistics faculty, Kac also provides an important cross-disciplinary link with the Institute of Linguistics.
In our intermediate courses in the philosophy of language students become acquainted with central issues concerning reference, truth, and meaning. Advanced courses continue the study of these issues, at greater depth. Special topics courses and seminars provide students with a chance to examine specific subjects, including theories of truth, rule-following, rationality and interpretation, linguistic understanding and misunderstanding, belief ascription, and our knowledge of meaning. These courses are supplemented by a variety of offerings in related areas such as philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, and philosophy of logic.
History of Philosophy
Faculty in the department have vast expertise in the history of early modern and early analytic philosophy. Jessica Gordon-Roth researches John Locke; early modern theories of personal identity; feminist philosophy; and early modern women philosophers, including Anne Conway, Mary Astell, and Catharine Trotter Cockburn. Bennett McNulty studies Immanuel Kant; the history of philosophy of science, especially in the early modern period; Margaret Cavendish; and early analytic philosophy. Dwight K. Lewis Jr., while having research interest in early modern philosophy generally construed, focuses on concepts of human difference (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, power, decoloniality, etc), underrepresented philosophers, Africana Philosophy/philosophy of race, and social/political philosophy.
Professors Gordon-Roth, Lewis, and McNulty founded The Center for Canon Expansion and Change (CCEC) in 2021 with the goal of effecting meaningful change in the way that philosophy is done, understood, organized, and taught. CCEC focuses on supporting instructors who want to teach neglected figures or a new canon of early modern philosophy, but otherwise lack the resources to do so.
Other faculty have various research and teaching interests in the history of philosophy. Sarah Holtman and Michelle Mason Bizri each work on the history of moral philosophy. Roy T. Cook , Peter Hanks , and Phil Bold study early analytic philosophy. Alan Love has interests in the history of philosophy of science, especially of biology. Tamara Fakhoury teaches Ancient Greek Philosophy, regularly offering a course on Plato’s philosophy of Love and Friendship.
The department regularly offers focused graduate seminars on particular themes and figures in the history of philosophy. Recent seminars include those on theories of personal identity in the early modern period and on Kant’s philosophy of science, while many undergraduate courses are synoptic, covering a particular time period or swath of topics in the history of philosophy. Regularly, advanced undergraduate and graduate courses examine particular figures (recently, Amo, Wittgenstein, Kant, Conway, and Hume).
Complementing the research and course offerings within the department is the Early Modern Interest Group (EMIG), housed within the Minnesota Center of Philosophy of Science. Every semester, an interdisciplinary group works through less canonical primary texts and hosts visiting speakers.
Metaphysics and Epistemology
The Department has several faculty members whose research focuses on metaphysics and epistemology. David Taylor focuses on topics at the intersection of metaphysics and the philosophy of language, for example, the concept of indeterminacy, and the relationship between deflationary theories of ontology and deflationary theories of truth. Jessica Gordon-Roth researches early modern metaphysical and ontological debates (mostly about persons) and early instances of epistemic injustice theory. Cat Saint-Croix primarily focuses on social epistemology and the relationship between epistemic normativity and moral and practical normativity.
The department regularly offers intermediate and advanced courses, as well as seminars, in epistemology and in metaphysics,which are taught employing a wide variety of approaches, including traditional, analytic, Wittgensteinian, feminist, and cognitive-theoretical approaches.
Recent topics in epistemology have included skepticism about the external world, the problem of induction, other minds, perception, memory, testimony, the structure of knowledge, social epistemologies, naturalized epistemology, and feminist epistemology. Metaphysics courses typically cover such topics as identity, essentialism, Zeno's paradoxes, arguments for the unreality of time, freedom and determinism, the realism/nominalism debate, and the nature and existence of natural and social kinds. In addition, offerings in the philosophy of mind, in the philosophy of science (on space, time, and quantum mechanics), and in the philosophy of language (on truth and abstract entities in semantics) often incorporate metaphysical issues.
Philosophy of Race
Dwight K Lewis Jr. works on concepts of human difference (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, power, decoloniality, etc), underrepresented philosophers, early modern philosophy generally construed, Africana Philosophy/philosophy of race, and social/political philosophy. Tamara Fakhoury has special research and teaching interests in African American Political Philosophy and issues at the intersection of sexism and anti-Arab/anti-Muslim discrimination.
The Center for Canon Expansion and Change (CCEC) (co-founded by Dwight K. Lewis Jr., Jessica Gordon-Roth, and Bennett McNulty) runs summer programs to help instructors teach more diverse and inclusive syllabi, covering topics which include positionality, pedagogy, access, and justice techniques in the classroom.
In addition to our faculty expertise, the University provides access to a rich spectrum of resources to research and engage with the issues of race, difference, inclusion, and belonging, such as Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies,
Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature, and Religious Studies, among others.
Philosophy of Science
The Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science (and its publication series Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science), since its founding in the 1950s, has become one of the world’s leading centers for research and teaching in the philosophy of science.
Alan Love (currently the Director of MCPS) works on the nature of conceptual change and interdisciplinary explanation in the biological sciences, as well as the structure of scientific problems and methodology in philosophy of science. The Center’s cohorts of postdoctoral fellows, its interdisciplinary research interest groups (including the Biological Interest Group, Physics Interest Group, and Social and Behavioral Science Interest Group) and programming provide a unique opportunity for engagement and research for anyone interested in the philosophy of science.
The department regularly offers courses in the philosophy of science, including topics such as the nature and evaluation of scientific theories, scientific explanation, and causation. These courses are often taught in sequence with graduate research seminars focusing on more specific topics, including the history of philosophy of science (e.g., logical empiricism or 19th century philosophy of science). The department also offers courses relating to the whole spectrum of sciences: mathematics, biology, psychology and cognitive science, and the social sciences.
Bioethics, Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of Well-Being
The department provides a variety of opportunities to develop specialization or competence in applied ethics. Carl Elliott, trained in medicine before coming to philosophy, has worked on a range of topics, including clinical ethics, whistle-blowing, the influence of money in medical trials, and research-subject protection, among others. (Students interested in these topics may pursue a graduate minor in bioethics, taking courses both in the philosophy department and in related areas of health care, law, and the sciences.)
Brian Bix works on philosophy of law. Sarah Holtman works on issues related to applied ethics as they intersect with issues in philosophy of law and social and political philosophy. Valerie Tiberius does research on topics at the intersection of psychology and philosophy, focusing on the issues of well-being, value fulfillment, and virtue, and has a general interest in empirically informed ethics.
Feminist Philosophy
Research interests of Tamara Fakhoury and Cat Saint-Croix include feminist philosophy and its intersections with ethics and epistemology. Sarah Holtman and Tamara Fakhoury host a moral, political, and feminist (MPF) discussion group. Jessica Gordon-Roth’s recent work in the history of modern philosophy aims to expand the philosophical canon to include the erased voices of women. Additionally, Roy T. Cook and Cat Saint-Croix are active in the field of feminist logic, and Dwight K Lewis Jr. teaches and works on Black feminist narratives and philosophies.
Interested students can pursue a graduate minor in feminist and critical sexuality studies or supplement their philosophy work through the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS).
Moral Psychology and Philosophy of Psychology
Valerie Tiberius’s work explores the ways in which philosophy and psychology can both contribute to the study of well-being and virtue, and the general question of what it is for humans to live well. Michelle Mason Bizri’s work examines the moral psychology of the emotions and ethical questions concerning our attitudinal responses to persons.. Tamara Fakhoury’s work examines how conditions of oppression can alter what traits should be considered virtues and what it means to live a good and meaningful life under circumstances of injustice.
Logic, Philosophy of Logic, and Philosophy of Mathematics
The department is strongly represented in logic, the philosophy of logic, and the philosophy of mathematics. Roy T. Cook specializes in philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of logic, and mathematical logic. Cat Saint-Croix’s interests include logic and decision theory. The Foundations Interest Group hosted by the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science reads and discusses works of mutual interest in the philosophy and foundations of mathematics and the philosophy of logic. Additionally, Phil Bold researches the import of Wittgenstein’s thinking on long-standing issues in philosophy of mathematics.
The regularly taught year-long sequence in logic takes graduate students from the basic semantics and proof theory for first-order logic through soundness, completeness, and undecidability. It also introduces a number of other important topics, including basic set theory, the axiomatic method, Turing machines, recursive functions, the famous meta-theorems of Gödel and Tarski, and second-order logic. In addition to this sequence, students can take courses in modal logic (propositional and predicate), philosophy of logic, and philosophy of mathematics. Seminars are offered on such advanced topics as structuralism, intuitionism and constructivism in mathematics, conventionalism, the status of second-order and intuitionistic logic, foundations of modality, logicism, and the philosophical significance of Gödel's theorems.
Recent work by Roy T. Cook, Cat Saint-Croix, and Jessica Gordon-Roth will be showcased in a forthcoming Minnesota Studies volume on feminist philosophy and formal logic, stemming from a conference co-organized by Cook and Gordon-Roth in 2017.
Aesthetics
The department has a strong commitment to teaching and research in aesthetics. Graduate-level coursework examines the principles of aesthetics and the philosophies of the individual arts (such as film, music, literature, and graphic novels). Undergraduate and graduate-level seminars provide students with opportunities to pursue specialized topics (for example, art and language, criticism, and the aesthetics of mass art).
Roy T. Cook is interested in the particular philosophical problems raised by ‘popular’ art, in issues surrounding attempts to define the concept “artwork” and to define particular artforms, and in the aesthetics of popular art generally and film and comics in particular. Michael Kac researches and teaches the philosophy of music, particularly as regards music in relation to language and how music relates to the nonmusical world (when it does). Additionally, Dwight K Lewis Jr. has collaborated with the faculty in Art History in contemporary art courses and exhibitions.
In addition to their theoretical interests, some of our faculty members are practicing artists. Cook is a (sometimes professional) LEGO sculptor and (amateur) cartoonist, and Kac is a performing musician and composer. Both are interested in the ways that philosophical problems arise in relation to the arts and in topics in aesthetics more generally.