Welcome to Philosophy
About the Department
The Department of Philosophy was established in 1983. It offers the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, and participates in two interdisciplinary doctoral programs, the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT) and Science and Technology Studies (STS).
It has nine regular faculty members working in a variety of philosophical fields, particularly the philosophy of science, the history of philosophy, and moral and political philosophy. It also has five visiting faculty members, working in epistemology, philosophy of language, continental philosophy, and moral and political philosophy. The department chair is James Klagge. The director of graduate studies is Walter Ott. The director of undergraduate studies is Joseph Pitt.
Please use the links to the left to explore information about the members of the philosophy community at Virginia Tech, the degrees and courses we offer, and past and future events in the department.
For more information about studying philosophy at Virginia Tech, see our video, "Philosophy at Virginia Tech: Unravel Your World," in either Windows Media, Quicktime, or RealMedia formats.
New Faculty
The Department of Philosophy welcomes three new tenure-track faculty members in 2011 and 2012:
- 2011-12: Benjamin C. Jantzen, Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon University, 2010. Website
Research Areas: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Physics, Philosophy of Biology. - 2011-12: Tristram McPherson, Ph.D. Princeton University, 2008. Website
Research Areas: Ethics (especially metaethics and normative ethics), Epistemology. - 2012-13: Michael Moehler, Ph.D. London School of Economics, 2007. Website
Research Areas: Moral and Political Philosophy (affiliated with ASPECT)
Recent Books
Members of the department have recent or forthcoming books:
| Deborah Mayo and Aris Spanos, eds., Error and Inference: Recent Exchanges on Experimental Reasoning, Reliability, and the Objectivity and Rationality of Science, Cambridge University Press, 2009. | |
 | Walter Ott, Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2009. | |
 | James Klagge, Wittgenstein in Exile, MIT Press, 2010. |
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| Joseph C. Pitt, Doing Philosophy of Technology: Essays in a Pragmatist Spirit, Springer Verlag, 2011. |
Facebook users can join the Philosophy Department facebook group. We'll use the group to post event notices and philosophy-related links.
Contact
The department is located on the second floor of Major Williams Hall on the Upper Quad of Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus (building 7 on the campus map).
For general correspondence and inquiries, please use the following address:
Philosophy Department
229 Major Williams Hall (0126)
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061 U.S.A.
Phone: (540) 231-4564
Fax: (540) 231-6367
Email: phildept (at) vt.edu