The Department of Philosophy at Florida State University was established in September 1965, following the division of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies into two distinct departments. That same year, the Department of Philosophy implemented its bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and instituted the state of Florida’s first doctoral degree program in philosophy. All three degree programs remain active.
In 1966, the department welcomed to its faculty William H. Werkmeister—Werkie, as he liked to be called—following his retirement from the University of Southern California. Born in Germany, Werkmeister had earned his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Nebraska, where he subsequently taught and served as department chair. He was a prolific Kant scholar, also publishing extensively on value theory, epistemology, logic, philosophy of science, and the history of American philosophy. Although he retired from full-time teaching in 1972, Werkmeister continued to teach courses at Florida State until the early 1990s. Two conferences focusing on his work were held here, each resulting in a published volume: Man and Value: Essays in Honor of William H. Werkmeister (1981), and Kant and Critique: New Essays in Honor of W. H. Werkmeister (1993). The Werkmeister Room in Dodd Hall houses his library and serves as a venue for seminars and faculty meetings.
Jaakko and Merrill Hintikka joined the faculty in 1978. Jaakko had been a student of Georg Henrik von Wright at the University of Helsinki and had taught at Harvard and Stanford before arriving at Florida State. He published influential work in philosophy of language, mathematical and philosophical logic, epistemology, philosophy of science, and history of philosophy. A volume of the Library of Living Philosophers focuses on his work. Merrill and Jaakko remained in the department until the former’s death in 1987 and the latter’s departure for Boston University in 1990.
Notable visiting faculty in the 1980s and 1990s included Richard Brandt and R. M. Hare, the latter of whom held a faculty position at the University of Florida but drove up to Tallahassee to teach a few courses.
Michael Ruse was hired as Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor in 2000, having previously taught for thirty-five years at the University of Guelph. He wrote extensively on the theory of evolution, the relation of science and religion, and the demarcation problem, which seeks, among other things, to distinguish science from pseudoscience. In 1981, he served as a witness for the plaintiff challenging an Arkansas law permitting the teaching of “creation science” in public schools; the law was found unconstitutional. Ruse was an incredibly prolific scholar, author or editor of some 70 volumes. He founded the journal Biology & Philosophy, which he edited from 1986 to 2000. At Florida State, he founded and directed the Program in History and Philosophy of Science, which offered a master’s degree.
Also in 2000, Alfred Mele took up the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Chair at Florida State, following two decades at Davidson College. He is a leading figure in the philosophy of action and on topics including free will, moral responsibility, and self-deception. His presence in the department is largely responsible for the department’s ranking by the Philosophical Gourmet Report as the top department for Philosophy of Action in the English-speaking world. During his tenure at Florida State, Mele has been awarded two multi-year, multi-million-dollar grants from the John Templeton Foundation. “Big Questions in Free Will” ran from 2010-2013, and “The Philosophy and Science of Self-Control” ran from 2014-2017. Recipients of subgrant awards presented their research at several conferences at Florida State, and several recipients, including David Hunt, Jenann Ismael, Brian Leftow, and Hugh McCann, spent time in residence here. A conference in honor of Professor Mele was held at Florida State in fall 2024.
Recent research awards to department faculty include a three-year, $300,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant won by Courtney Fugate for the translation and publication of major works by Johann Nicolaus Tetens (1736-1808), who influenced Immanuel Kant and, through him, later German philosophers. Professor Fugate has supervised work on the project by scholars at several other universities, as well as work by graduate research assistants at Florida State. Although the NEH cancelled the grant halfway through (part of the federal government’s withdrawal of support for research), the project continues, albeit now only at Florida State.
The journal Synthese, edited by Jaakko Hintikka, was housed in the department until his departure in 1990. Law and Philosophy was founded in 1982 by Alan Mabe, who also served as chair of the department. A third journal, Social Theory and Practice, was founded in the department by Donald Hodges in 1970; we continue to publish it, currently under the editorship of Professor Mark LeBar. The department also hosts the online journal Berkeley Studies.
Donald Hodges chaired the department at its origin, followed by Eugene Kaelin, David Gruender, and Alan Mabe. Russell Dancy took over as chair in 1993 and served until August 2004. He was succeeded by Piers Rawling, who held the position until 2022, when Randolph Clarke became chair.
The department continues to benefit from the generosity of various benefactors. A gift from Anna Forbes Liddell established a Graduate Fund for Excellence in her name. Liddell began teaching at the Florida State College for Women in 1926 and stayed on as it became Florida State University in 1947, until her retirement in 1962. She served as chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and was selected as the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of the Year at Florida State in 1959. A generous gift from Lisa Liseno, a doctoral alumna of the department, established the Lisa Liseno Graduate Student Award in Philosophy. After receiving her degree in philosophy, Liseno held several administrative positions at Florida State, including Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, Director of the Program for Instructional Excellence, and Director of the Fellows Society. An annual gift from James J. Farina III has funded, among other things, our yearly undergraduate paper prize.
Our greatest benefactors, in financial terms, have been William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister. An endowment left by them to the department enabled the hire in 2000 of two eminent scholars, Michael Ruse as Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor and Alfred Mele as William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Chair. The endowment also funds an annual Werkmeister conference; recent topics have included Kant on Moral Perfectionism, Normative and Other Interests, and New Work on Imagination. And it has provided scholarship funding for graduate students in the department.
*Thanks to Margaret and Russ Dancy for sharing their knowledge of the department’s history.