Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw

Webpage of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw

Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw > Areas Of Research

Areas Of Research

The research conducted at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw covers all the most important fields of philosophy studied worldwide. The spectrum of our research includes the following areas:

  • history of philosophy [Department of History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Department of History of Modern Philosophy, Department of History of Contemporary Philosophy, Department of History of Polish Philosophy];
  • philosophy of politics [Department of Political Philosophy];
  • philosophy of society [Department of Social Philosophy];
  • philosophy of religion [Department of Philosophy of Religion]
  • philosophy of aesthetics [Department of Aesthetics];
  • philosophy of culture [Department of Philosophy of Culture];
  • ethics and bioethics [Department of Ethics, Centre for Bioethics and Biolaw];
  • epistemology [Department of Epistemology];
  • ontology and the philosophy of science [Department of Philosophy of Science];
  • analytical philosophy, the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind [Department of Analytic Philosophy];
  • semiotics [Department of Logical Semiotics]
  • logic [Department of Logic, Department of Philosophical Logic].

Additionally, the Faculty conducts research on more specific philosophical issues, such as:

  • classical and contemporary German philosophy [Laboratory of German Philosophy];
  • French philosophy [Laboratory of French Philosophy];
  • the traditions of the Lvov-Warsaw School [The Lvov-Warsaw School Research Centre];
  • experimental philosophy [Laboratory of Experimental Philosophy “KogniLab”];
  • the philosophical foundations of communication [Laboratory of Philosophy of Technology and Communication] and
  • the methodology of the humanities [Laboratory of Methodology of Humanities].

The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw attaches great importance to the integration of research and the education that is provided by the Faculty. We provide courses of study in Philosophy, Bioethics, and Cognitive Science. Therefore, our academic interests are not limited to strictly philosophical issues but cover also problems which are relevant socially and to other scientific fields .

The variety of research areas, as well as the achievements of the faculty members, form an impressive whole. We are the leading and most active philosophical centre in the country. We publish internationally (including leading journals), conduct research projects, and cooperate with scholars form other centres worldwide. In the last five years alone, our faculty members and doctoral students have produced over 1,200 publications, including, but not limited to:

  • Numerous monographs, collected volumes and edited books, including several published with respected international publishing houses, such as: Brill, Cambridge University Press, Königshausen & Neumann, and Springer.
  • Several hundred articles, over seventy of which were published in high-ranked international journals, including the most prestigious and renowned international journals, such as; “Archive for Symbolic Logic”, “Bioethics”, “Dao. A Journal of Comparative Philosophy “, “Episteme”, “Erkenntnis”, “Journal of Medical Ethics”, “Journal of Symbolic Logic”, “Linguistics and Philosophy”, “Metaphilosophy”, “Mind”, “Mind and Language”, “Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic”, “Philosophical Studies”, “Review of Symbolic Logic”, “Studia Logica”, “Synthese, Philosophia”, “The American Journal of Bioethics”, “Topoi”, and others.
  • Several hundred chapters in monographs and collections of papers.

The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw is a leader in securing research funding from national programs. Our faculty members and doctoral students have been carrying out numerous research projects financed from external sources, primarily from the National Science Centre and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the National Program for the Development of Humanities. Some of the projects were financed by some of the most respected and competitive programmes:

  • One international project in the HERA programme (National Science Centre – NCN),
  • Two projects in the MAESTRO (NCN) programme,
  • Two projects in the SONATA BIS (NCN) programme.

The total value of the projects carried out at the Faculty reaches PLN 30,000,000. Many of these projects were carried out in cooperation with international centres, resulting in the publication of articles in renowned journals, awards for scientific achievements (including international awards), as well as international conferences and intensive international collaboration. Members of the Faculty are also regularly invited abroad to give lectures.

In recent years, faculty members and doctoral students have received several awards for their scientific achievements, including:

  • The Tadeusz Kotarbiński Scientific Prize awarded by the Polish Academy of Science;
  • International E.W Beth Dissertation Prize for a doctoral dissertation,
  • National Science Centre Award;
  • Prof. Jerzy Perzanowski Prize for doctoral dissertations awarded by the Prime Minister of Poland;
  • Scholarships for Outstanding Young Scientists and Doctoral Students awarded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education;
  • START scholarships for young scientists awarded by the Foundation for Polish Science;
  • The scientific award ‘Polityka’;
  • Barbara Skarga Prizes.

In the past five years, faculty members or doctoral students have been involved in the organisation of over a hundred conferences in the field of philosophy . This includes more than fifty international conferences with guests from the best academic centres in the world, as well as fifty national symposia.

The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw has a very strong position in the field of philosophical research, both globally and nationally. Examples of our world-leading contributions to the field include:

  • The successes of the faculty members and doctoral students in receiving grants of the Marie Curie programmes, the Fulbright Commission, the Humboldt Foundation and other international grant agencies (e.g. DAAD, Kościuszko Foundation);
  • The growing worldwide recognition of the work of the faculty members and doctoral students, as evidenced by the growing number of citations of our publications;
  • International awards for scientific achievements (including the Humboldt award, E.W. Beth Dissertation Prize, and several conference awards);
  • A growing interest from international scholars in cooperation with our faculty members and doctoral students, as well as an increasing number of international students applying and successfully obtaining research projects within our Faculty;
  • A growing number of invited lectures given at the most important and prestigious international scientific events (including universities in Amsterdam, Lausanne, Mainz, Yale, Stanford, Oxford, St Andrews, San Diego, Helsinki, Paris, Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, and Nottingham);
  • The participation of world-renowned researchers with in conferences organised by the Faculty;
  • The successes of our graduates (students and doctoral students) in applying for post-doc positions at preeminent academic centres in Europe (such as the University of Oxford, University of Bochum, and the University of Amsterdam).

The international significance of the Faculty of Philosophy is also evidenced by the increasing number of leading scientists from abroad (including Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, Vienna, and Bonn) who regularly visit our Faculty to conduct research with our faculty members or deliver invited lectures. In recent years, our conferences have been attended by Saul Kripke, Timothy Williamson, Axel Honneth and François Recanati.

The University of Warsaw obtained the highest scientific category ranking of “A+” in the field of philosophy, awarded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

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