Dalhousie University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Philosophy

Corporate body (Dalhousie University)

Dalhousie University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Philosophy

• Dalhousie University. Faculty of Arts and Science. Department of Philosophy (1925-1988)

1925-

Philosophy has been taught at Dalhousie since 1838 with the appointment of the college's first principal and professor of moral philosophy, Thomas McCulloch. In Dalhousie's early curriculum, philosophy was a required subject for the BA degree, and when Dalhousie reopened as a university in 1863, William Lyall was hired as professor of metaphysics. A decade later, he became the first Munro Professor of Logic and Psychology, and in 1884 Jacob Gould Schurman was appointed Munro Professor of Metaphysics. After Lyall's death in 1891, both positions were folder into a single chair, and James Seth became the first Munro Professor of Philosophy. However it was not until 1925 that Herbert Leslie Stewart became head of an actual department of philosophy. Since then, the department has been led by many notable figures, including George Grant, Roland Puccetti, David Braybrooke and Susan Sherwin.

The Department of Philosophy is located in the Marion McCain Arts and Social Sciences Building on Dalhousie’s Studley Campus.

The Department of Philosophy offers BA, MA, and PhD degrees in philosophy, with a focus on “fundamentally important questions,” including topics of knowledge, value, existence, ethics, race and gender, and truth and justice. The department maintains a weekly colloquium open to graduate students, alumni and faculty, who are invited to present papers. The philosophy program receives financial support in the form of alumni donations and contributions from the wider community.

The basic statute relating to Dalhousie University is Chapter 24 of the Acts of 1863. This statute replaced earlier statutes, and the 1863 statute itself has been amended and supplemented several times over the years. The provisions of these various statutes provide for the establishment and regulation of the university, the membership of the Board of Governors and its rights and powers, the authority of senate for the internal regulation of the university (subject to the approval of the board), and various other matters.

The Department of Philosophy is within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and is run by an limited-term chair appointed from among the faculty. In 2021, there are twelve full-time faculty alongside adjunct and emeritus professors, part-time instructors, cross-appointed faculty, visiting scholars and fellows.

Dalhousie University. Faculty of Science. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience (1948-)

Dalhousie University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (1988 -)

Sherwin, Susan (1947-)

Stewart, Herbert Leslie (1882-1953)