William and Mary
Arts & Sciences » Philosophy

Philosophy

The department, through a varied and extensive program of courses, presents students with past and present attempts to think critically and reflectively about fundamental questions of knowledge and value in order that they will be led to examine their own views. The study of philosophical problems in the spirit of free inquiry requires the student to develop and exercise the powers of precise discrimination, creative imagination, logical organization and evaluative judgment.

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Roses are red, violets are blue ... maybe

behind the bricks sqthumb.jpgProfessor Joshua Gert taught the philosophy of color for the first time last semester.

As immigration takes center stage, students return from the border region

Nine W&M students, led by Professor Jennifer Mendez, spent part of their winter break on the U.S.–Mexico border immersed and enthralled in the human side of immigration.

Book of essays explores the sublime over the ages

Timothy Costelloe, an associate professor of philosophy at William & Mary, has edited a volume of original essays written by a variety of scholars from different disciplines, each of which considers the nature of the sublime, that transcendent aesthetic experience that philosophers and other writers have discussed at least since the third century AD.

Hunter J. Smith gives $10 million to W&M for freshman seminars

The Hunter Smith Family Foundation, located in Charlottesville, Va., has established the Hunter J. Smith Endowment for Freshman Seminars with a gift of $10 million to William & Mary.