Harvard University Department of Philosophy
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The Department of Philosophy at Harvard University is a philosophy department in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States that is associated with the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Housed at Emerson Hall, the department offers bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in philosophy. Both undergraduate and graduate students can complete programs with other Harvard departments. Students publish and edit The Harvard Review of Philosophy, an annual peer-reviewed journal on philosophy. The department consistently ranks among the top ten philosophical faculties in the United States and the world and specializes in a wide range of philosophical topics, including moral and political philosophy, aesthetics, metaphysics, analytical philosophy, history of philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of science and philosophy of language, mind, and logic.[2][3]
Parent institution | Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences |
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Chairperson | Bernhard Nickel |
Academic staff | approx. 25 full-time faculty members (2023)[1] |
Students | approx. 80-100 undergraduate students and 50 Ph.D. students |
Location | Emerson Hall, Cambridge, MA, United States |
Website | https://philosophy.fas.harvard.edu |
Historically, philosophy at Harvard has transitioned from conservative religious traditions to more liberal and progressive schools of thought. Harvard initially trained Puritan clergymen in logic, ethics, and theology. During the early 19th century, Harvard was associated with the development of unitarianism and, correspondingly, the philosophy of transcendentalism and produced thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Harvard's philosophy department was an important source of pragmatism of philosophers such as William James, C. I. Lewis and George Santayana and American idealism of Josiah Royce. W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain LeRoy Locke followed the tradition of pragmatism and applied philosophy to African-American experiences and culture. Later in the 20th century, philosophy at Harvard saw significant contributions in political philosophy, especially with John Rawls and Robert Nozick. More recently, Harvard philosophy professors such as Willard Van Orman Quine and Hilary Putnam have made notable advances in analytic philosophy.