New York University Department of Philosophy
The New York University Department of Philosophy is ranked 1st in the US and 1st in the English-speaking world as of the most recent edition of the Philosophical Gourmet Report from 2021 (as well as in the 2017, 2014, 2011, 2009, and 2006 editions).[1] It is also ranked 1st in the world by the 2023 QS World University Rankings, and is internationally renowned.[2] It has particular strengths in epistemology, history of philosophy, logic, metaphysics, moral and political philosophy, philosophy of language, philosophy of logic and philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of mind.[3] The department offers B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy, as well as a minor in philosophy and a joint major in language and mind with the NYU Departments of Linguistics and Psychology.[4] It is home to the New York Institute of Philosophy, a research center that supports multi-year projects, public lectures, conferences, and workshops in the field, as well as outreach programs to teach New York City high school students interested in philosophy.[5]
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Established | 1832 |
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Parent institution | New York University, Arts & Science (College of Arts & Science, Graduate School of Arts & Science) |
Chairperson | Sharon Street |
Address | 5 Washington Pl , , , 10003 , |
Website | as.nyu.edu/philosophy |
The faculty and students have close relations with the philosophy department of Columbia University. Every year, NYU and Columbia philosophy graduate students organize the Annual NYU/Columbia Graduate Student Philosophy Conference.[6] Furthermore, doctoral students are able to cross-register to take courses at Columbia University, as well as at the other members of the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium (IUDC): Princeton University, CUNY Graduate Center, Rutgers University, Fordham University, Stony Brook University, and The New School.[7] Within NYU, the department works especially closely with the School of Law, whose Center for Law and Philosophy hosts the Colloquium in Legal, Political, and Social Philosophy on a weekly basis during the fall semester of each academic year.[8] Many former and current faculty members of the department have held or currently hold dual appointments in both philosophy and law, including Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Nagel, Liam Murphy, Samuel Scheffler, Jeremy Waldron, and Kwame Anthony Appiah. Other research centers affiliated with the department are the Center for Bioethics and the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness.[9]
The department is housed in 5 Washington Place, a historic building within the jurisdiction of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission near the border between the neighborhoods of NoHo and Greenwich Village. The interior of the building was completely renovated in 2007 by Steven Holl Architects, featuring design elements inspired by the writings of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, namely his Remarks on Colour.[10]
Gallery of prominent faculty
- Anthony Appiah (2014-)
- Ned Block (1996-)
- Paul Boghossian (1992-)
- David Chalmers (2009-)
- Ronald Dworkin (1975–2013)
- Miranda Fricker (2022-)
- Frances Kamm (1980s-2003, Emeritus)
- Thomas Nagel (1980–2016, Emeritus)
Current faculty
This list includes affiliated faculty notable enough to have an individual article in Wikipedia in addition to all regular faculty
- Kwame Anthony Appiah, ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of race, probability and decision theory
- Ned Block, philosophy of mind, philosophy of neuroscience and cognitive science
- Paul Boghossian, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, epistemology
- David Chalmers, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology
- Sanford Diehl, ethics, social and political philosophy
- Cian Dorr, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of physics
- Hent de Vries, metaphysics, philosophy of religion
- Hartry Field, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of logic, philosophy of mathematics
- Kit Fine, logic, metaphysics, philosophy of language
- Laura Franklin-Hall, philosophy of biology
- Miranda Fricker, moral philosophy, social epistemology
- Jane Friedman, epistemology
- Don Garrett, early modern philosophy
- Robert David Hopkins, aesthetics, philosophy of mind
- Paul Horwich, philosophy of language, metaphysics, Wittgenstein, philosophy of science
- Dale Jamieson, environmental ethics
- Anja Jauernig, Kant, early modern philosophy, 19th and early 20th century German philosophy, history of philosophy of science, aesthetics, and animal ethics
- Marko Malink, ancient philosophy, philosophical logic
- Matthew Mandelkern, philosophy of language, semantics, philosophy of cognitive science
- S. Matthew Liao, bioethics
- Tim Maudlin, foundations of physics, metaphysics, logic, philosophy of science
- Jessica Moss, ancient philosophy
- John Richardson, Heidegger, Nietzsche, ancient philosophy
- Samuel Scheffler, moral and political philosophy
- Jeff Sebo, bioethics, animal ethics, and environmental ethics
- Sharon Street, ethics
- Michael Strevens, philosophy of science, concepts, philosophical applications of cognitive science
- Peter Unger, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, ethics
- Daniel Viehoff, political, legal, and moral philosophy
- Jeremy Waldron, philosophy of law, social and political philosophy
- Crispin Wright, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, epistemology
Emeritus faculty
- Richard Foley, epistemology
- Frances Kamm, ethics
- Béatrice Longuenesse, Kant, Hegel, modern philosophy, philosophy of mind
- Thomas Nagel, philosophy of mind, philosophy of law, political philosophy, ethics
- William Ruddick, philosophy of science and medicine, professional and applied ethics, bioethics
- Stephen Schiffer, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, epistemology
- J. David Velleman, ethics, moral psychology
Notable former faculty
- Raziel Abelson, ethics and ordinary language philosophy
- Margaret Athelton, early modern period philosophy, philosophy of psychology, feminist philosophy
- William Barrett, existentialist philosophy
- James Burnham, political philosophy
- Keith DeRose, epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, and history of modern philosophy
- Ronald Dworkin, philosophy of law
- Paul Edwards, ethics
- Sidney Hook, philosophy of history, philosophy of education, political philosophy, ethics
- Michael Lockwood, philosophy of mind
- Ferdinand Lundberg, social philosophy
- Kai Nielson, metaphilosophy, ethics, social and political philosophy
- Christopher Peacocke, philosophy of mind, epistemology
- James Pryor, epistemology, philosophy of language
- Theodore Sider, metaphysics and philosophy of language
Notable former visiting scholars
- Moshe Halbertal, Maimonides, ethics, philosophy of religion
- Derek Parfit, identity, philosophy of logic, ethics
- Peter Singer, applied ethics
Notable alumni
- Ruth Barcan Marcus, philosopher and logician known for the Barcan formula
- Brent Barraclough, classical pianist
- Stanley Bosworth, founding headmaster of Saint Ann's School
- Peter Daou, political strategist and advisor to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry
- Richard Gambino, professor and pioneer of the field of Italian-American studies
- Lewis Frumkes, humorist and writer
- Sandra Harding, philosopher of feminist and postcolonial theory
- Paul Kurtz, philosopher and father of secular humanism
- Tibor Machan, libertarian philosopher
- Walter Ralston Martin, Christian minister and apologist
- Leonard Peikoff, objectivist philosopher and intellectual heir to Ayn Rand
- Shimon Peres, former president and two time prime minister of Israel
- William Reeves, co-founder of BlueCrest Capital Management
- Tim Rollins, artist
- Isaac Rosenfeld, writer
- Harold M. Schulweis, rabbi and theologian
- Jeff Sebo, philosopher
- David Sidorsky, philosopher
- Harold Spivake, former Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress
- Stephen Yagman, federal lawyer
Other philosophers affiliated with NYU
The following people are notable philosophers not affiliated with the Department of Philosophy who currently hold or have held faculty positions within other departments at New York University
Student organizations
At the graduate level, students can participate in the NYU chapter of Minorities and Philosophy (MAP), an international organization consisting of philosophy students committed to addressing minority issues in the profession, theoretical issues regarding philosophy of gender, race, sexual orientation, class, disability, native language, etc., and philosophy done from minority perspectives.[11] The MAP chapter at NYU pursues these goals through a variety of events, including talks, film screenings, workshops, trainings, and collaborative events organized with other NYC-area chapters.
At the undergraduate level, students can participate in the NYU Philosophy Forum, which hosts talks and panels with faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students throughout the academic year.[12][13] In addition, the Philosophy Forum organizes the Annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference @ NYU.[14] The conference is held at the end of the spring semester of each academic year, is open to the public, and generally features undergraduate students selected from various universities giving presentations of their original work on any philosophical topic, panels on philosophical topics of interest, as well as lectures by notable philosophers who are invited from both the faculty at NYU and other institutions.[15] Past keynote lecturers for the conference include Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers, and Saul Kripke, with other notable speakers and panelists including Kwame Anthony Appiah, Ned Block, Paul Boghossian, S. Matthew Liao, Michele Moody-Adams, Sharon Street, and Paul Thagard.[16]
In popular culture
In the 1989 action film Road House, the main character, James Dalton (played by Patrick Swaze), has a philosophy degree from NYU.[17]
The NYU Department of Philosophy is featured prominently in the 1995 horror film The Addiction. The film's main character, Kathleen Conklin (played by Lili Taylor), is a doctoral candidate in the department who is turned into a vampire after being bitten by a mysterious woman during a chance encounter.[18] Supporting characters include a fellow doctoral candidate (played by Edie Falco) and a faculty member who serves as Kathleen's dissertation advisor (played by Paul Calderón). Other members of the department are shown during a scene at the department's graduation party.
References
- "The Philosophical Gourmet". Blackwell Publishing Philosophy. 2018.
- "QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022 – Philosophy". Top Universities.
- "NYU Department of Philosophy Webpage". NYU Philosophy Department Webpage.
- "Programs of Study". cas.nyu.edu.
- "New York Institute of Philosophy".
- "NYU/Columbia Graduate Student Philosophy Conference". 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-03-28.
- "Inter-University Doctoral Consortium".
- "Center for Law and Philosophy".
- "Centers and Projects".
- "NYU Philosophy Department". Steven Holl Architects. 26 June 2017.
- "NYU MAP". NYU Department of Philosophy.
- "Philosophy Forum". NYU Department of Philosophy.
- "NYU Philosophy Forum". NYU Philosophy Forum. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
- "About". Annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
- "Annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference – 2021". Annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
- "Our Speakers". Annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
- "Road House (R)". www.washingtonpost.com.
- The Addiction