The Department
The Philosophy Department encourages student participation in regular discussion groups and colloquia.
Recent guest lecturers featured in the department's
international speakers series include Richard Rorty (University of
Virginia), Jane Heal (Cambridge), Günter Wohlfart (Wuppertal),
Carl Hausman (Pennsylvania State), Th. C. W. Oudemans (Leiden),
Daniel Dennett (TUFTS), Gunther Mensching (Hannover), Guy Debrock
(Nijmegen) and Roland Faber (Vienna).
The Department organizes a weekly discussion group, the Jockey
Club, including faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and
interested participants from the St. John’s community. Many
participants also come from other disciplines in the
university.
Graduate students in the department do much of their working and informal socializing in the graduate lounge. The lounge has computers for word-processing and Internet use and is a central place for student interaction with one another and with faculty.
Graduate students are generally active in the life of the
department, participating in colloquia, discussion groups and the
frequent departmental mixers organized by the MUN Philosophy
Society.
The department also has its own reference room (The Barend Kiefte
room) which houses thousands of philosophy texts plus two computers
with word-processing and Internet capabilities. It is a place to
study, read, or meet others in the department.
If you cannot find what you are looking for in the reference room,
then you should try the university's excellent library and computer
resources. The Queen Elizabeth II Library subscribes to more than
85 journals in philosophy.
The book collection (1.6 million) offers excellent support for
graduate level study in philosophy, particularly in metaphysics,
ethics and a wide range of historical aspects of philosophy. A very
good array of reference services supports and extends the resources
available in the collection.
