About
The primary mission of the philosophy program at Tel Aviv University is to provide outstanding education to a large number as well as a great variety of students, who wish to pursue the study of philosophy at different levels and with different degrees of specialization. The program offers courses in nearly every branch of traditional and contemporary philosophy, including Logic, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Science. It covers the history of philosophy from Greek philosophy and the philosophy of the middle Ages to early modern and 19th and 20th century philosophy. The diverse approach characteristic of the program allows students to study also Indian, Chinese and Japanese philosophy, the philosophy of the Clinical Sciences, Digital Culture, Post-Modernism and Feminist philosophy.
Since its foundation the philosophy program has been commited to a spirit of pluralism. The department takes pride in its diversity and its openness. The intentional avoidance of a governing ideology is clearly reflected in the different traditions of philosophy represented in the program of study as well as in the diverse concerns and specializations of the members of the department. There is a balance between faculty members in the tradition of analytic and those in continental philosophy, an equal attention to contemporary debates as to research into the history of philosophy, and a unique possiblity to study Western together with Eastern philosophy. This makes the philosophy department unique in the Israeli landscape.
The study program in philosophy is planned so as to realize a vision of philosophy as both a branch of knoweldge demanding the utmost rigor of thought and an extensive training in its complex tradition, as well as a central part of humanistic and scientific culture. The philosophy department’s course curriculum is therefore, in part at least, open and accessible to many students who do not necessarily wish to specialize in the discipline. But at the same time it offers the opportunity, through a carefully planned gradation of studies, to pursue in depth specialization and research in the diverse areas of philosophy. In an environment that seems at time dismissive or even hostile towards humanistic education, the philosophy department aims to provide opportunities for studies free from the pressures of immediate application, to allow study for its own sake. At the same time as the program emphasizes the need to attend to the tradition of philosophy in all it breadth and richness and seeks to explore how philosophy takes new forms and acquires relevance in relation to recent cultural, political as well as scientific developments.
