About the OSU Philosophy Department

The Ohio State University is one of North America's major research universities. The Department of Philosophy—one of the top departments in the College of Arts and Sciences—offers B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy.

Undergraduate courses are offered in all primary areas of philosophical inquiry, with special strengths in the history of philosophy, ethics (especially metaethics), metaphysics, logic, and the philosophy of mathematics and logic.  Because of the diversity of disciplines at The Ohio State University, undergraduate majors and minors are able to integrate their philosophical studies with work in such disciplines as African and African American Studies, Cognitive Science, Comparative Studies, Economics, History, International Studies, Law, Linguistics, Mathematics, Medicine, Music, Political Science, and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Department Faculty members are leading scholars in their fields. The Department has an active Colloquium Series. It awards prizes for outstanding philosophical work by undergraduates (the Bingham Prize) and by graduate students (The Fink Award).

The Department's Graduate Program is a strong one with an excellent placement record.  Placement information is available for graduates of our doctoral program since 1995-96.)  Areas of special strength in the Department include: Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic, Logic, Modern Philosophy, Ethics and Metaethics, Moral Psychology and Action Theory, Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Language, History of Analytic Philosophy, and Metaphysics.

The Department is proud of the many individuals who have earned Ph.D. degrees in Philosophy at Ohio State.  The list of our Ph.D. recipients goes back to 1919, when Dr. Raymond Gregory completed the program, writing a dissertation on John Locke. The first woman to receive a Ph.D. from our program was Dr. Sarah Watson Emery in 1942, who wrote a dissertation on William James.