In 1890-91, E.B. Andrews, then President of Brown University, was also professor of philosophy and taught all the courses at Brown in that subject. Other Brown Presidents who have taught philosophy include Francis Wayland (President from 1827 to 1855), and W.H.P. Faunce (1899-1929). In 1894 W.G. Everett was appointed Professor and attained high distinction in our field before retiring in 1930. Notable among Visiting Professors in those early years was Roy Wood Sellars. Alexander Meiklejohn, a Brown philosopher from 1897 to 1912, was also an educational leader whose ideas inspired the special program still offered today at institutions such as St. John's College.
The new age of Brown philosophy arrived in 1926 with Curt Ducasse, who, for a quarter century, from the late 20s, was the most important philosopher at Brown. He was influential not only in the department, but in the University, and in the highest councils of the profession. Around him there gathered a steadily larger and more impressive department, including Arthur Murphy, Ralph Blake, and Charles Baylis. Soon after World War II, Brown renewed its ascent through Vincent Tomas, John Ladd, Richard Taylor, Richard Cartwright, Joel Feinberg, Wesley Salmon, Richard Schmitt, John W. Lenz, and especially Roderick Chisholm. For a quarter century, from the late 50s, it was Chisholm who figured centrally in Brown philosophy, though others contributed as well. In the mid-sixties Herbert Heidelberger, Jaegwon Kim , and Ernest Sosa formed a faculty core in Chisholm's seminar every semester, drawing inspiration, along with an excellent group of graduate students. In the decades from the 70's on, the Department renewed itself regularly and, despite its smallness, retained a high ranking, as it does now. Dan Brock, Philip Quinn, James Van Cleve, Victor Caston, and Martha Nussbaum were tenured Department members during these decades.
Faculty who have more recently joined the tenured ranks include David Estlund (Chair), James Dreier, Justin Broackes, Felicia Nimue Ackerman and Bernard Reginster. In 2001, Mary Louise Gill was appointed (jointly with Classics) as Full Professor, and Brian Weatherson (now at Cornell University) as Assistant Professor. Christopher Hill came to Brown in 2002 as Full Professor. Nomy Arpaly joined us in 2003, and was tenured in 2005.
In 2005 we welcomed Richard Heck from Harvard as Full Professor . Two new Assistant Professors also joined us this year: Joshua Schechter, an NYU PhD, and Douglas Kutach, whose doctorate is from Rutgers. On July 1, 2006, Charles Larmore came to Brown from the University of Chicago as Full Professor.
The Department continues to attract fine graduate students, extending a long tradition graced by such names as: Richard Cartwright, Richard Taylor, Vincent Tomas, Keith Lehrer, James Cornman, Robert Sleigh, James Ross, and many others in more recent decades. As the foregoing lists of faculty and students would suggest, the Department has been traditionally strong in epistemology and metaphysics, ethics, and history of philosophy -- the core areas of philosophy. Because it is a relatively small graduate department it has focused on training its graduate students to become philosophers, rather than offering a comprehensive menu of courses in all subfields of philosophy.
For more information about the history of the Department, see the Encyclopedia Brunoniana entry here.
