The Department of Philosophy is part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and offers both a Major and a Minor in Philosophy.

The Department counts 21 full-time faculty members working in a variety of specialties, who are active scholars committed to undergraduate education. They share their expertise in a wide variety of philosophical schools, national traditions, historical periods, and specialized areas of philosophical work.

The curriculum is designed to provide students with a foundation in the history of philosophy and also to encourage students to pursue work in their own areas of interest. Formal coursework is only one part of the Philosophy student's education. Since inquiry and study are most fruitful when conducted in a vital community of fellow scholars, the Department is committed to offering a number of excellent learning opportunities that go beyond traditional classroom structures.

Professor Judy Whipps is featured on the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy’s homepage in their “I am an American philosopher” interview series. Read the whole interview here (https://american-philosophy.org/i-am-an-american-philosopher-interview-series/i-am-an-american-philosopher-judy-whipps/)

GVSU philosophers in the world: Professors. Wenhui Xie and Andrew Spear at the world Congress of philosophy in Rome, August 2024. Professors Xie and Spear both presented their research, attended other sessions at the conference, and spent some time one evening checking out the architecture of Rome.

Argument often aims at settling matters on the first order—what propositions are true or what course of action is best taken. But argument sometimes aims to settle matters on the second order, like whether another argument was good, bad, or fallacious. So, sometimes we argue about whether people are eating cats, but other times we argue about arguing about whether people are eating cats. We can call the second of these “meta-arguments.” What’s interesting is that the rules for first-order arguments sometimes don’t seem to apply to meta-arguments. Some meta-arguments, in fact, seem to consist in explicitly violating the rules of first order argument. That situation is, to borrow a phrase, weird.

Questions?: Contact David Vessey [email protected]