Academics

Cornell's philosophy department is home to a distinguished tradition of philosophical research and teaching. Students at every level and in every area of intellectual endeavor find opportunity to engage with great philosophical ideas and problems and develop the critical thinking and analytical skills necessary for advancing our understanding of them.

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Undergraduate Program Graduate Program Faculty Profiles Course Listings

Undergraduate Program

The study of philosophy provides students with an opportunity to become familiar with some of the ideas and texts in the history of thought while developing analytical skills that are valuable in practical as well as academic affairs. It affords the excitement and satisfaction that come from understanding and working toward solutions of intellectual problems.

Graduate Program

The Sage School's graduate program leads to the Ph.D. in philosophy. Its distinguishing characteristics are small classes and a collegial atmosphere in which vibrant philosophical exchange among graduate students, faculty and visiting philosophers is the norm. Graduate students receive individual attention to their work from faculty members. And the intellectual community among graduate students is stimulating and supportive.

Philosophy News

Persistent questioning of knowledge takes a toll

4/17/2024

It can be demoralizing for a person to work in a climate of repetitive skepticism and doubt about what they know.

Summer Experience Grant applications now open

4/01/2024

The grants provide funding for students in unpaid or low-paying summer experiences to offset the cost of taking on those positions.

Spring on the Arts Quad Cornell University Photography

Students host first undergraduate philosophy conference

3/13/2024

Sophia Gottfried '25 talks about putting on Cornell's first undergraduate philosophy conference.

A moral philosopher contemplates the evils of 'fatphobia'

3/12/2024

After penning two acclaimed books on misogyny, Kate Manne turns her attention to a different—but related—form of oppression

Following Freedom

3/06/2024

"There’s something kind of beautiful about that sort of devotion to studying questions that really matter." Toni Alimi

Arcanum on the Interface of Philosophy and Math

3/06/2024

Hodes works primarily in logic and the philosophy of mathematics, so he is accustomed to getting confused looks when he explains his projects. “I am interested in defending some version of logicism, the idea that an awful lot of mathematics is really fancy logic, which is to say higher order logic,”...

The voices we can(not) silence

3/06/2024

An accomplished philosopher of language, social philosopher, cognitive scientist, and mathematician with a full roster of other interests and experiences behind them, Professor Starr reflects on having “gotten deeply into a number of different things at different stages of [their] life.”