Philosophy

Dinners with the faculty in Victorian manors, bearded men in smoking jackets, pretentious banter over sherry carts—you won’t find any of these august fixtures in the Philosophy concentration. (There’s always the Divinity School and the Society of Fellows for that.) What you will find—in typical Harvard fashion—is a motley assortment of young and old minds passionately interested in what they do and, perhaps, a little out of step with the rest of the university.

Even basic intellectual expression in the Philosophy department offers unique challenges. (Sometimes it can be tempting to throw your copy of Descartes’ “Meditations” into Mass. Ave. traffic.) Instead of running your own interpretation of the readings through your TF’s critical analysis filter (par for the course in other humanities areas, especially English), philosophy papers introduce the rudiments of philosophical thought by having students retrace the steps that other scholars have paced over for years.

This style of learning isn’t for everyone, but those who like the intellectual precision of the Philosophy concentration enjoy small classes and lots of individual attention. The course offerings are ample, covering a broad range of topics without the academic fluffiness of the Core. It’s annoying, though, that only one Philosophy class is cross-listed in the Core (Phil 178, “Equality and Democracy”). “Out of step” indeed.

Philosophy courses are unique in their maddening, yet intriguing specificity. You’ll find this especially apparent in the 100-level classes, where the specialized interests of the professors manifest themselves in a grab bag of “nowhere-but-Harvard” courses, like Phil 152, “Philosophy of Biology,” and Phil 150, “Foundations of Space-Time Theory.” Although most upper-level classes don’t have any official prerequisites, the department suggests taking at least one introductory course before attempting a 100-level class. It’s good advice. Trust me: you don’t want to tackle the nature of existence before you can write a decent essay.

To help you write that perfect paper, you’ll be assigned to a faculty member (not a TF) for advising, and despite the lax course requirements—12 courses for the elective track, 13 for honors—you’ll probably need all the help you can get, at first anyway.

Along with its “light” course load, Philosophy is famous for Professor Alison Simmons (who is very active in the ongoing curricular review and is the department’s Head Tutor) and her accessible but difficult Phil 8 class, “Introduction to the History of Early Modern Philosophy.” It’s the kind of class that people say is both the best and hardest they’ve taken at Harvard. Matthew Boyle offers a less daunting but less interesting introductory course, Phil 3, “Introduction to the Problems of Philosophy.” Jeffrey K. McDonough rounds out the department’s trio of introductory classes with his new Phil 19, “Introduction to Philosophy of Religion,” notable for its lofty yet intriguing promise to explore the “tenability of miracles” and other aspects of divinity.

New courses abound in the department, presumably because of the usual turnover of visiting and junior faculty members noticeable within a small concentration. But the core senior faculty—including professors Warren Goldfarb, Thomas Scanlon, Gisela Striker, and Simmons—can be comforting as they lead you through their one-of-a-kind intellectual trial-by-fire.