---

The Department’s faculty span many areas. All faculty are committed to broadly educating both undergraduates and graduate students. In addition, the Department has developed three areas of specialization: Legal and Political Philosophy, Neurophilosophy, and Kant and Post-Kantian German Philosophy. We feel that our offerings in these three areas are some of the best to be found anywhere in the world.

Legal and Political Philosophy

Over the past fifteen years, the Department has worked to build an area of strength in legal and political philosophy. The Department has seven faculty members working in this area. Andrew Altman is Director of the Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics. His recent work focuses on the international context of legal debates. Andrew I. Cohen is the Associate Director of the Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics. His recent work focuses on contractarian theory and issues in applied ethics. Andrew J. Cohen works on liberalism. His recent work focuses on toleration. William A. Edmundson is jointly appointed in the Department and the College of Law. His recent work focuses on rights theory and the obligation to obey the law. Christie Hartley specializes in social and political philosophy and moral theory. Her recent work focuses on contractarianism. Peter Lindsay is jointly appointed in the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Political Science. His recent work focuses on liberal political theory. George Rainbolt chairs the Department. His recent work has been on rights theory. MA theses in this area include work on Rawls’s The Law of Peoples, liberalism and civil liberties, homosexual marriage, and soft legal positivism.

Work in legal and political philosophy is facilitated by the Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics. This endowed Center is housed within the Department but includes individuals from across the University. Among its many activities, the Center hosts conferences whose papers are published in leading journals in ethics, political philosophy, and legal theory.

The department designates an outstanding incoming graduate student who wishes to work in this area as a Graduate Scholar in Legal and Political Philosophy.

Neurophilosophy

Over the past three years, the Department, in coordination with the College of Arts and Sciences, has built an area of strength in empirically based philosophy of mind. The Department’s work in neurophilosophy is part of the College's broader Brains & Behavior Program. This program fosters collaboration between Georgia State University researchers interested in the neurobiology of cognition and behavior. The B&B Program includes over sixty faculty from eight departments. Two of them are faculty members in the Department of Philosophy. Eddy Nahmias works on human agency. His recent research focuses on the problem of free will and on experimental philosophy. Andrea Scarantino works on human and animal emotions. His recent research focuses on the intentionality of emotions and the issue of whether or not they are natural kinds. There is a distinctive Brains & Behaviors track available in the Department's MA program. Examples of MA theses topics in neurophilosophy include the problem of consciousness, naturalization of intentionality, and the philosophical implications of recent experimental evidence in neuroethics and neuroeconomics.

The Department offers Neurophilosophy Graduate Fellowships to graduate students (Deadline: February 15, 2008).

Visit the Department's Neurophilosophy web site.

Kant and Post-Kantian German Philosophy

The Department’s most recently built area of strength is in Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy. The Department has three faculty in this area. Their interests are broadly united by a focus on metaphysics and epistemology. Melissa Merritt's work on Kant focuses on critical philosophy as a mode of rational self-knowledge. Sebastian Rand focuses Hegel's philosophy of nature, with an eye toward physics and the transition from biology to the philosophy of spirit. Jessica Berry works primarily on Nietzsche, and in particular on Nietzsche and the ancient Greek skeptics. MA theses in this area include work on the function of the Antinomies, Nietzsche’s perspectivism, and Heidegger’s interpretation of the Transcendental Deduction.

The department designates an outstanding incoming graduate student who wishes to work in this area as a Graduate Scholar in Kant and post-Kantian German Philosophy.

Additional Faculty Strengths

Georgia State has other faculty who help to complement the faculty working within our three areas of strength. Sandra Dwyer's research focuses on applied ethics, critical thinking, and Hannah Arendt. Steve Jacobson specializes in epistemology. His research focuses on contextualism, skepticism, and the internalism/externalism debate. Tim O'Keefe specializes in ancient philosophy. His recent work focuses on Epicurus, ancient ethics, and ancient debates on freedom and determinism. The combination of his work with Jessica Berry's interest in ancient skepticism, means that Georgia State offers strong coverage in Greek philosophy.

---