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Philosophy at Minnesota has a distinguished history. John Dewey, the logician Henry Sheffer, and the historian F.J.E. Woodbridge all taught at Minnesota early in their careers. Kierkegaard scholar David F. Swenson taught at Minnesota throughout the 1920s and 1930s. |
 F.J.E. Woodbridge |
 David Swenson |
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 Herbert Feigl |
 Wilfrid Sellars |
Many developments in the
Department can be traced to the arrival of Herbert Feigl in 1941. He was
joined by Wilfrid Sellars in 1946, and they set about making Minnesota a
center for the study of analytic philosophy. Their anthology, Readings
in Philosophical Analysis, published in 1949, exhibited their broad
and ambitious conception of analytic philosophy. Along with their journal
Philosophical Studies, begun in 1950, the anthology played an important
role in developing Minnesota's reputation. Its companion volumes on ethical
theory, edited by Sellars with John Hospers, and on the philosophy of science,
edited by Feigl with May Brodbeck, introduced a style of investigation and
argument thought to be applicable to the disciplined consideration of any
philosophical subject.
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 Rudolph Carnap 
Paul Feyerabend |
During the 1950s Alan Donagan, Michael Scriven, and Burnham Terrell joined the Department. The Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science was established under the directorship of Feigl, and a number of promising young philosophers of science, including Rudolf Carnap, Paul Feyerabend, Carl Hempel, and Hilary Putnam, joined or visited the Center for extended periods. The early volumes of Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science were published under the editorship of Feigl and Grover Maxwell. With substantial foundation support, the Center was able to host a number of successful conferences on topics in the philosophy of science. The Center has continued to flourish, and 18 volumes of Minnesota Studies have thus far been published. |  Michael Scriven  Carl Hempel |
 May Brodbeck |
In
the 1930s and 1940s Philosophy was one of the few University departments
with a female faculty member. Mary Shaw, a Hume scholar trained at Columbia,
joined the Department in the early 1930s and served until her retirement
in 1958. May Brodbeck, an internationally renowned philosopher of social
science, served in the Department from 1948 until 1974, when she became
provost of the University of Iowa. |
| The Department today has strong programs in many areas. We have particular strengths in the areas of moral and political philosophy; the philosophies of mind, language, and logic; and the philosophy of science. Each area includes courses in the development of the field, and on current issues and approaches. Work in moral and political philosophy ranges from the nature and role of moral principles to moral psychology, from the grounds of political legitimacy to the politics of community service, from moral reasoning to applied ethics. Faculty in the philosophies of mind, language, and logic investigate the nature of psychological explanation, including disputes about individualism; the cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence; language both in formal terms and in social and political contexts; and the foundations of logic and mathematics. In the philosophy of science, research and teaching centers on specific physical, biological, and social sciences, as well as on scientific rationality and scientific change and on feminist philosophy of science. In addition, several faculty members have as their primary interest the history of philosophy, from ancient to modern. Others have research and teaching interests in aesthetics, offering courses in the principles of aesthetics, in philosophical issues related to particular arts, and in the relationship between aesthetics and ethics. The Department also has strengths in feminist philosophy, especially as it relates to epistemology and the philosophy of science, and there is substantial faculty and graduate student interest in theories of race. Finally, the Department collaborates with a number of interdisciplinary centers in teaching and in research and has cosponsored numerous conferences. The Department has both broad interests and a generous view of philosophy. At an earlier period in our history, we were interested in demarcating philosophy and drawing boundaries between it and other disciplines. Today we are interested in challenging those boundaries and working together with other disciplines in the pursuit of common interests and toward solutions to common problems. |
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