Faculty of Arts

Department of Philosophy

Philosophy is a discipline with the uncanny power to fascinate as well as to repel; it has alternately been regarded as the deepest and most important form of human enquiry, and as a useless trafficking in empty abstractions. Philosophers themselves quarrel about the nature of the subject, and some of the past two centuries' greatest have tried to write the culminating work to end the discipline. Yet interest in the subject has never seemed greater than in recent years, with many turning to it for guidance regarding the troubling questions of the age: Are there universal human rights? Is social inequality unjust? What is our proper relation to the environment? Are minds just sophisticated biological computers, and will artificial intelligence be able to do everything we do? Do we have free will? Can science ultimately explain us, or the universe? Is human cloning moral, and are there right or wrong answers to such questions? Is language uniquely human, and is it essential for thought? What makes a life meaningful, and what makes it good?

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  • QS World University Rankings 2011 placed the University of Ottawa as one of the top 150 for the field of Philosophy.

  • The University of Ottawa has recognized Douglas Moggach as Distinguished University Professor.  Professor Moggachis the holder of the University Research Chair in Political Thought (Faculty of Social Sciences) and a professor in the Department of Philosophy (Faculty of Arts).  The Distinguished University Professor title is conferred to him in recognition of exceptional scholarly achievement, pre-eminence in hisfield of knowledge and a solid teaching record. Congratulations.
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Last updated: 2012.05.22
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