About

The Philosophy Department at UMass Amherst has a long and distinguished history producing cutting-edge research and providing excellent programs for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Although we are a relatively small department, our faculty have wide-ranging interests. We have particular strengths in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind & language, and meta-ethics, and in select areas in the history of philosophy (Stoic philosophy, women philosophers in the modern period, British empiricism, Kant, and early analytic philosophy). We offer teaching and supervision (at both graduate and undergraduate level) in all these areas, as well as general ancient and modern history of philosophy, normative ethics (including applied ethics), feminist theory, and the philosophy of science.

Our faculty also have interdisciplinary research and teaching interests that intersect with those of faculty in other units of the University, especially the Departments of Linguistics, Psychology, Women Gender Sexuality Studies, Economics, and the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance. We are currently participating in the development of a new Cognitive Science Institute.

Beyond teaching and research, our mission includes service to both the profession and the community at large. We are especially proud to have helped organize the Mentoring Project For Pre-tenure Women Faculty in Philosophy, and to have contributed, thanks largely to the efforts of the late Gary Matthews, to the Philosophy for Children movement.