The problems of philosophy include some of the deepest, most interesting, and most challenging questions that the human mind can raise. What is the difference between appearance and reality? What are the sources and limits of human knowledge? Does God exist? What is the origin of evil? Can computers think or have feelings? Do we have freedom of the will? Why be moral, and how is morality related to law? What is the proper scope of governmental authority? What is scientific explanation and why does it work? How does science differ from art? What is truth? What is the meaning of a word?

Philosophy cannot claim to have discovered fully adequate answers either to these questions or to the other questions that fall within its scope, but it has developed fruitful ways of addressing them, and it has found a number of partial answers that are both useful and exciting. Although the department's bent is generally analytic, our course offerings cover a broad range and include every major period in the history of western philosophy and most of the major subfields of contemporary philosophy. Our areas of special concentration are the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of religion.