History of Philosophy from Plato to Kant
The Philosophy Department offers excellent opportunities for study in ancient, medieval, and early modern philosophy. The faculty who work in these areas include David Bradshaw (Plato, Aristotle, Neoplatonism, the Church Fathers), Eric Sanday (Plato, Aristotle, Neoplatonism), Alan Perreiah (history of logic, medieval and Renaissance philosophy), Oliver Leaman (philosophy of religion, Islamic and Jewish philosophy), Brandon Look (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, 17th and 18th century philosophy of science), James Force (Hume, Newton, skepticism), and Daniel Breazeale (Hume, Kant, Fichte, early Idealism and Romanticism).
 Since dissertation-level work in many of these areas requires knowledge of Greek, Latin, French, or German, philosophy students are encouraged to take (and can receive credit for) courses in the Classics, French, and German Departments. Faculty in other departments with an interest in the history of philosophy from Plato to Kant include: Robert Rabel [Classics] (Plato, Hellenistic Philosophy), Hubert Martin [Classics] (Plato, Plutarch), Louis Swift [Classics] (Latin patristics), Jay Francis [Classics] (asceticism, religious movements in late antiquity), Michael Jones [German] (Kant, Romanticism), Bruce Eastwood [History] (ancient and medieval science), David Olster [History] (Byzantine Empire, history of western religions). Finally, the program in Judaic Studies offers the opportunity to learn Hebrew and to study the history of Jewish philosophy in relation to its cultural environment.
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19th and 20th century Continental philosophy
Faculty from a variety of disciplines form a critical mass in this area, making the University of Kentucky an excellent institution at which to study 19th- and 20th-century continental philosophy. The department is distinguished by the fact that five members of the department, including all four faculty listed below, have received Research Awards from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to conduct research in Germany. Courses are offered and projects are overseen in a wide variety of figures, movements, and issues in this area. The Department of Philosophy specializes in and covers practically the entire span of 19th- and 20th-century German philosophy. The specialists in this area are Daniel Breazeale (Post-Kantianism, Fichte, German Idealism, Nietzsche, Existentialism), Ronald Bruzina (the phenomenological movement, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and post-structuralism), Eric Sanday (Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty), Theodore Schatzki (Nietzsche, Life-philosophy, Heideggerian phenomenology, Wittgenstein, and post-structuralism), and Christopher Zurn (Frankfurt School, post-structuralism, critical social theory, philosophical anthropology).
Faculty in other departments with interests in German and continental thought include: Michael Jones [German] (German Idealism, philosophy of history), Jeff Rogers [German] (Frankfurt School, especially Adorno and Benjamin), Robert Jensen [Art] (Frankfurt School), Virginia Blum [English] (psychoanalytic literary theory, psychoanalytic theory, cultural theory), Herbert Reid [Political Science] (phenomenology and post-Marxism), Ernest Yanarella [Political Science] (phenomenology and post-Marxism), and Dwight Billings [Sociology] (Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Habermas).
Philosophy Ph.D. students interested in German and Continental thought are encouraged to sample courses in other departments and to establish multidisciplinary dissertation committees. The W. T. Young Library at the University of Kentucky houses a superlative collection in German philosophy, including an extremely rich set of German language materials.
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Metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science
The department offers a strong and varied course of study to students wishing to specialize in the intersections of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of science. Five department members have focused interests in this area, joined by faculty in other departments. These are, Clare Batty (philosophy of mind, metaphysics), Harmon Holcomb (philosophy of science, philosophy of biology), Brandon Look (metaphysics), and Theodore Schatzki (philosophy of social science). Faculty in this area maintain close working relations with the departments of Physics and of Biological Sciences, the Linguistics Program, and the Committee on Social Theory. Together, they offer courses and oversee dissertations covering a wide range of topics in metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of science. |
Ethics and social and political philosophy
The Department of Philosophy offers excellent opportunities for graduate study in ethics (including metaethics and normative ethical theory, the history of moral philosophy, practical ethics, ethics with a focus on law and public policy, and ethics related to various professions) and social and political philosophy. Department faculty who teach and write in these areas are Joan Callahan (ethical theory, practical ethics, moral dimensions of political theory, ethics and public policy, professional ethics, feminism), Eric Sanday (ethics, social and political philosophy), Theodore Schatzki (social philosophy), Anita Superson (metaethics, ethical theory, social and political philosophy, practical ethics, feminism, moral psychology), and Christopher Zurn (social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, discourse ethics). Among the topics these faculty are currently researching are moral agency; moral and policy issues relating to human reproduction and families; moral responsibility; the ethics of organ transplantation; moral skepticism; the nature of the political; violence and forgiveness; struggles for social justice; and interrelations among deliberative democracy, constitutionalism, and the institutions and methods of judicial review.
Students with an interest in this area may also become involved in the Social Theory Program, a graduate program devoted to multidisciplinary teaching and research in the theoretical study of social life. Theodore Schatzki, of the Department of Philosophy, is one of the co-founders of the Program. Daniel Breazeale, Joan Callahan, and Christopher Zurn are also members of the Committee on Social Theory. In addition to the Social Theory Program, faculty in this cluster are closely associated with the various professional colleges at the University and the University Medical Center. Graduate students with teaching assistantships are provided opportunities to assist faculty in undergraduate courses focusing on health care ethics, death and dying, ethical issues across the professions, the individual and society, theories of human nature, legal philosophy, and agricultural ethics. The University libraries, including the Medical Center and Law School libraries, maintain excellent collections in ethics.
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