About the Department

The Department of Philosophy is one of four constituent departments of the School of Social Science and Philosophy. The Chair of Moral Philosophy was established in 1837, the (former) School of Mental and Moral Science in 1904, and the Department of Philosophy in 1964, but philosophy has been an important part of the Trinity College curriculum since its foundation in 1592. Undoubtedly, the college's most significant contribution to philosophy to date has come from George Berkeley (1685-1753), who has a permanent place in any list of the great philosophers. Most of his more famous works, such as An Essay Toward a New Theory of Vision (1709), and A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710), were written during his time as a Fellow of Trinity College. After Berkeley, the most significant philosopher to come out of Trinity was the political philosopher, Edmund Burke (1729-1797), who inaugurated the College debating society while still a student. His most famous work is Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), and among his other texts, an influential book on aesthetics, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, was written while Burke was reading for his B.A. degree at Trinity.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries the major influences on Trinity philosophy were Platonism, German Idealism and Berkeley. In recent years the Department has continued to maintain strong interests in these areas, but has also broadened out to include contemporary analytic philosophy, continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, and a range of specialised interests in the history of philosophy. In the current academic year there are seven full–time lecturers, two part–time lecturers and a number of postgraduate teaching assistants. Staff memebers publish internationally and have been invited to give lectures and seminars in Continental Europe, the United Kingdon, the United States, Canada, and Australia. There are also regular visiting speakers and lecturers, strengthening our connections with the international philosophical community.

The main Philosophy Degree is four years long, with set programmes in first and second year followed by greater choice in the thrid and fourth. Teaching is by lecture and tutorial. Fourth year involves small-group seminars where staff and visiting scholars teach their current research projects and students are required to write a thesis. Every week during term there is a philosophy colloquium where visiting speakers present papers. Dublin has had an exciting list of distinguished philosophical visitors in the last few years, (whether to Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin or the Royal Irish Academy) including, Rorty, Putnam, Davison, Searle, Habermas, Derrida, McIntyre, Nussbaum, Sorabji and Ricoeur.

An energetic undergraduate student society, the Metaphysical Society provides a forum for discussions. Quite a few of our students have continued to further study in philosophy in such graduate schools as Rutgers, Berkeley, Stanford, Pittsburgh, Oxford, Tulane, Duke, City University of New York, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins, London, Edinburgh and St. Andrews. Doctoral students from Trinity have gone on to lectureships in UCD, Hull, Oxford and London.