PHILOSOPHY at TRU
Faculty
| Robin Tapley, Ph.D. (McMaster), Assistant Professor, Coordinator |
| Bruce Baugh, Ph. D (Toronto), Professor, Sabbatical |
| Geoff Bowe, Ph.D. (McMaster), Assistant Professor |
| Jeff McLaughlin, Ph.D. (Alberta), Assistant Professor |
| Jenna Woodrow, Ph.D. (Dalhousie), Assistant Professor |
| Kelvin Booth, Ph.D. (Southern Illinois), Assistant Professor |
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Links
Our Program
Philosophy is quite unlike any other field. It is unique both in its methods and in the nature and breadth of its subject matter and pursues questions in every dimension of human life, and its techniques apply to problems in any field of study or endeavor. Philosophy develops the capacity to see the world from the perspective of other individuals and other cultures; it enhances one's ability to perceive the relationships among the various fields of study; and it deepens one's sense of the meaning and varieties of human experience.
Our department offers courses on everything from Plato to Logic, Epistemology to Philosophy of Rock, Empiricism to Philosophy of Sex and Love, Philosophy of Mind to Feminism. Our faculty has expertise in both the continental and analytic traditions, history of philosophy, applied ethics, feminism, pop culture and philosophy of law.
With small class sizes and a faculty that is committed to undergraduate education, the Philosophy Major at TRU provides a solid grounding in both traditional fields of philosophical study and cutting edge courses in contemporary issues and ideas.
The Major in Philosophy offers a sufficient number of courses in core areas of philosophy for graduates to be able to gain admission to graduate studies in philosophy. At the same time, the program is sufficiently flexible that it will also satisfy the needs and interests of students who are not contemplating graduate studies in philosophy or who may be planning on pursuing other post-baccalaureate studies (education, law, social work).
sub-fields of philosophy
- Logic is concerned to provide sound methods for distinguishing good from bad reasoning.
- Ethics takes up the meaning of our moral concepts (such as right action, obligation, goodness, justice) and formulates principles to guide moral decisions whether in private or public life.
- Metaphysics seeks basic criteria for determining what sort of things are real, for what exists.
- Epistemology concerns the nature and scope of knowledge.
- The History of Philosophy studies both major philosophers and entire periods in the development of philosophy.
Many other branches have grown from these traditional core areas. For example: from metaphysics has developed the Philosophy of Mind, and the Philosophy of Religion. The Philosophy of Science is perhaps the largest sub-field developed from epistemology. The Philosophy of Language has grown out of both metaphysical and epistemological concerns. From ethics have come major sub-fields such as Political Philosophy, The Philosophy of Law, and applied ethics sub-fields such as Biomedical Ethics, Environmental Ethics and Business Ethics.
For more information on the activities in the Philosophy Program at TRU see the links above.