Department of Philosophy

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About the Department

The Department of Philosophy at Florida State University was organized in September 1965, following the dissolution of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies into two distinct academic programs, the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Religion. Effective that same year, the Department of Philosophy implemented its bachelor's and master's degree programs, and instituted for the first time in the state of Florida a doctoral degree program in Philosophy. In 2018, the Department of Philosophy started the FSU Experimental Philosophy Research Group, consisting of philosophers and scientists from around the world. 

The department hosts the annual Werkmeister Conference (recent topics include Debunking Arguments, Cosmopolitanism, Form & Function in Biology, and Folk Concepts), the annual Minorities in Philosophy Conference, the Minds Online Conference, the annual Florida State University Free Will, Responsibility, and Agency Conference, the bi-annual UF-FSU Philosophy conference, a Colloquium Series, a Friday Lunchtime Talk series, various reading groups, a graduate student writing group and FSU’s public philosophy series, Brain Freeze. In addition, the department features the Bayles Ethics Lectures and various Departmental Workshops. Further, the department publishes Social Theory and Practice, a leading journal in social and political philosophy founded by the department in 1970, and Berkeley Studies, a web-based journal dedicated to promoting the scholarly understanding of the life and philosophy of George Berkeley. 

The department has also been privileged to be the home of the generously funded Big Questions in Free Will Project and Philosophy and Science of Self-Control Project. These projects have funded dozens of research grants, multiple series of conferences, and many publications. 

The department is committed to maintaining an exceptionally strong faculty, and new appointments are made regularly. The faculty has a diverse set of interests, with special strengths in ancient and modern philosophy, ethics, logic, action theory, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of biology.

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Recent News

Zina Ward awarded BJPS Popper Prize for the best article published in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science in 2022

Zina Ward, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University, was awarded the BJPS Popper Prize (named for Karl Popper) for the best article published in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science in 2022.  Click here to visit the BJPS website announcement regarding this award, which contains a link to the full publication.

Faculty News

FSU Graduate Students Win Awards at 68th Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Associatio

At the 68th Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association (FPA), Joseph Masotti received the Graduate Paper Award for his paper, “Objective Oughts When You Simply Cannot,” and Zach Smith received the Rini Prize for Public Philosophy for his paper “Counterfactual Abilities and the Will Theory of Rights.”

Alumni News

Two FSU Philosophy Graduate Students Win Awards at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association

Jared Ifland and Carme Isern-Mas both presented and received awards for their papers at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association. Jared was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Philosophy Paper Award for his paper “Realism on Thin Ice: An Argument from Mathematical Practice,” and Carme was awarded the Rini Prize for Public Philosophy for her paper “Personal Identity: at risk when our friends act immorally.” Additionally, Nolan Cannon, Matt DuPree, and Romy Vekony each presented their papers at the conference.

Alumni News