Research

There is a dynamic research culture within the Department of Philosophy which includes both analytic and continental traditions, as well as a range of specialties within the History of Philosopohy. Members of staff have published books in key areas, publish frequently in leading journals and are consistently successful in gaining external research grants.

Among the areas of research within the department are:

Mind and World (Alweiss, epistemology and Phenomenology; Berman philosophical psychology; Connolly, metaphysics and philosophy of language; Levine, philosophy of language and epistemology; O'Grady, epistemology; Politis, metaphysics; Skelton, psychoanalysis).

History of Philosophy (Alweiss, Kant and early Continental philosophy; Berman, Berkeley and 18th century philosophy; Levine, early Analytic philosophy; O'Grady, medieval philosophy; Politis, ancient philosophy).

Recent books by members of staff include: Lilian Alweiss' World Unclaimed: A Challenge to Heidegger's Critique of Husserl. Ohio University Press, 2003; David Berman's Berkeley and Irish Philosophy, London: Continuum, 1995; Paul O'Grady's Relativism, Chesham: Acumen, 2002, second edition forthcoming; Vasilis Politis' Aristotle and the Metaphysics, London: Routledge, 2004; and the Edinburgh International Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, was edited by Ross Skelton.

Papers by members of staff have appeared in such journals as: Ancient Philosophy, The Philosophical Review, The Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophy and Phenomenology Research, Phronesis, Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Ratio, International Philosophical Quarterly, The Journal for the British Society for Phenomenology, and the International Journal of Philosophical Studies, among others. Within the past six year, four of the six permenent members of the department have been successful in obtaining funding from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) to support one–year sabbaticals to support their research.

The Department organises a number of philosophy events. In addition to our weekly colloquium, every three years, the department hosts the Donellan Lectures, in which a distinguished philosopher delivers a series of three lectures over the course of one week. Donellan lecturers of the recent past include: Jerry Fodor (1989), Martha Nussbaum (1992), Richard Sorabji (1995), Richard Rorty (1998), Stanley Cavell (2002), Jonathan Lear (2005) and Robert Pippin (2008). In 2007 the Department instituted an annual Edmund Burke Public Lecture to be delivered by a distinguished philosopher on a topic in the area of political or applied philosophy. Phillip Pettit delivered the inaugural Burke Public Lecture. The Department has also helped to organise a number of interational philosophy conferences including a conference on the Philosophy of Mind (2004), The Annual Congress of the Society of Legal and Social Philosophy (2006), and the Congress of the International Plato Society (2007).

The Department has an expanding postgraduate research programme, and there is a commitment within both the school and the department to provide financial support for research students. The Department has been awarded a number of postgraduate as well as (two year) postdoctoral fellowships from the IRCHSS. In addition, a number of our postgraduate students have been awarded scholarships from the College to support their research, and departmental funds have also been used to provide further support to postgraduate students. For further information about postgraduate study in the department please click here.

Please see the webpages of individual members of the faculty for more details about their research.

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