Philosophy

Philosophy research strengths

Research in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne covers the two discipline areas of 'Philosophy' and 'Applied Ethics'.

We have strengths in all research areas mentioned below, with particular international renown in:

  • Logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of language
  • Ethics, moral psychology, and metaethics
  • Applied ethics and political philosophy

Research in the two disciplinary clusters ranges across the entire spectrum, from pure basic research to applied research. Pure basic research in Philosophy spans the core areas of theoretical philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, philosophy of science), practical philosophy (ethics, political philosophy, moral psychology, metaethics, aesthetics), and history of philosophy (Ancient philosophy, Asian philosophy, history of modern philosophy, history of 19th and 20th century European philosophy, and history of early analytic philosophy).

We also engage in strategic basic research aimed at richer theoretical understandings of important social problems including the morality of terrorism, social justice and poverty both global and national, bioethics, and reasoning under uncertainty in the context of climate change debate. In addition, our applied research targets topics such as taxation and distributive justice, climate change justice, the ethics of food production and consumption, ownership of indigenous knowledge, and social organisation in multi-faith societies.

Research aspirations

Philosophy would like to build extra capacity in the fields of political philosophy, Asian philosophy, philosophy of cognitive science, and history of philosophy.