Department of Philosophy

Welcome to the Harvard University Department of Philosophy's Website!

The Department offers a program covering a wide range of fields in systematic philosophy and the history of philosophy.

Among the special strengths of the Department are moral and political philosophy, aesthetics, epistemology, philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, the history of analytic philosophy, ancient philosophy, Kant, and Wittgenstein.

Philosophy has been included in Harvard's curriculum from the time of its founding in 1636. The Department has had a long and fruitful involvement in the practice of philosophy in the United States and beyond, especially from the "Golden Age" of the late nineteenth century down to the present day.

Photographs of some of the famous figures from the Department's history may be found on the Faculty History page.

For more information about the history of the Department and the teaching of philosophy at Harvard, please see:

• Harvard Presidents' Reports. Covering the years 1825-1995, many of these reports list individual faculty members, their course offerings, and individual course enrollment numbers.
• Kuklick, B. (1977). The Rise of American Philosophy: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1860-1930. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Menand, L. (2002). The Metaphysical Club. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.
• Rand, B. (1929). Philosophical Instruction in Harvard University from 1636-1906. Boston: Harvard Graduates Magazine Association.

Please also consult the bibliography to the guide to the Bechtel Room portraits for additional resources.