Engaged in the Contemporary World
We offer a distinctive balance of work in the traditional areas of philosophy with research and teaching in the more directly practical areas of bioethics, environmental philosophy and ethics, and social and political thought.
Faculty are producing important scholarship in traditional philosophical sub-disciplines. At the same time, we have established areas of concentration focusing on more immediate and practical concerns. In conjunction with scholars in MSU's medical schools, the department has achieved national distinction in ethical and theoretical debates about healthcare issues. These efforts overlap with research and teaching on race and gender issues, democratic theory, agricultural and environmental ethics, ethics and development, and critical social theory. With our commitment to this combination of problems, we are a distinctive program with a purposeful and diverse graduate student body.
The graduate program supports interdisciplinary work in such programs as Environmental Science and Policy; Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change; African American and African Studies; Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior; Cognitive Science; and Women, Gender, and Social Justice. The global dimension of the department is illustrated by its Ethics and Development graduate specialization and the undergraduate specialization in Peace and Justice Studies. The faculty has been ranked among the most productive in the nation and our graduate students hail from around the world.
Upcoming Events
Graduate 'Work in Progress' Series, Mladjo Ivanovic, "Lives Rendered Invisible: Atrocities, Memory, and the Power of the Visual," Friday, December 6, 3:00 p.m., 530 S. Kedzie.
Sunday 8 December, Ancient Circle: Professor Emily Katz, MSU, "The Separation of Limits: Metaphysics B.5," 1:30-3:30 p.m., Okemos campus
Sunday 26 January, Ancient Circle: Phil Meade, "Music and Geometry in the Pythagorean Life," 1:30-3:30 p.m., Okemos campus
4-5 April, 4th Annual Undergraduate Conference with featured speaker, Lorraine Code, York University (Toronto)
23-24 May, 2nd Annual Workshop on Food Justice: Bringing Theory and Practice Together, CFP
Featured News
Jenny Carmichael presented "Spinoza and Anomalous Monism," written with a CAL Undergraduate Research Initiative grant, at the Texas A&M Early Modern Philosophy Initiative--a three-day, all-expenses-paid conference for prospective PhD students.
Professors Michael O'Rourke, Kyle Whyte, and Sean Valles recently received a $196,759 grant from the National Science Foundation Ethics Education in Science and Engineering program for the project, "Values and Policy in Interdisciplinary Environmental Science: A Dialogue-based Framework for Ethics Education."
Read about Lorenzo Buchanan's undergraduate research project.
Jenny Carmichael is the winner of the 2013 Lewis K. Zerby Prize for the best philosophy essay by an MSU undergraduate student for her essay, "Indiscernibles and Plato's Forms," now published in Stance 6, 37-43.
Josh Sietsema is the winner of the 2013 Martin Benjamin-Bruce L. Miller Award to the most promising sophomore philosophy student.