Columbia's Philosophy Department has had an illustrious past with figures ranging from John Dewey and Ernest Nagel to Isaac Levi, Arthur Danto, and Sidney Morgenbesser shaping its interests and methods in the discipline.

At present it is distinguished by its ecumenical ethos, with advanced research being pursued in the wide swath of subjects in analytical philosophy as well as in the history of Western Philosophy -- British, American, and from the European continent.

Given its distinguished pragmatist heritage, the department - unsurprisingly - does not think of the subject of philosophy as a merely self-standing discipline, but as being continuous with other disciplines (logic, mathematics, physics, biology, psychology and economics on the one hand, and history, literature, law, political science, art, and music on the other). There is much interest too in responding, as philosophers, to pressing political, social, and cultural issues in the immediate as well as global environment.