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by John Malcolm
Professor Emeritus
Fall, 1999
In 1952 Arthur Child came to Davis to take charge of the newly formed
Department of Philosophy and Fine Arts. He was the only philosopher and began
with 31 undergraduate students. The next phase of the department saw the addition
of William Bossart in 1957 and the establishment of a separate Department of Philosophy
in 1958 with a major program in 1959. Neal Gilbert and Ronald Arbini joined the
department in the early 1960's. It is chiefly due to the dedicated efforts of
Professors Child and Gilbert that we have an outstanding collection of philosophy
books and journals in both the Shields and the Departmental libraries.
In 1965 Marjorie Grene and John Malcolm were added. In that year graduate
students were first accepted. The main emphasis in both undergraduate and graduate
teaching was on the history of philosophy, a concentration that was useful in placing
a good number of our first graduate students in Junior Colleges. Indeed, all members
of the department were qualified to teach advanced courses in either Ancient or
Modern (17th-18th century) Philosophy. This focus was maintained in the late 1960's
and the early 1970's when Fred Berger, Joel Friedman, G. J. Mattey and Michael Wedin
came to Davis. Virtually all members of the department, however, had interests other
than history of philosophy. Marjorie Grene, for example, was internationally known
in an impressive number of fields, notably continental (European) philosophy and
Philosophy of Biology, in addition to her work on historical figures such as
Aristotle and Descartes.
In more recent years the predominant focus of the department can no longer be
said to be on the major figures of the past. A History and Philosophy of Science
program was started in 1983 under the supervision of James Griesemer. Until 1990 it
was primarily a lecture series, but in that year it became an interdepartmental
program with an undergraduate minor. Though originally concentrated on Philosophy of
Biology, it came to include Philosophy of Physics (Paul Teller). Several people have
replaced Fred Berger in Ethics and Philosophy of Law (currently Gerald Dworkin and
Connie Rosati) and at present the majority of our graduate students are working in
that field.
Today the prevailing direction of the department may be characterized as analytic
rather than continental. Central areas of philosophy are strongly represented with
Metaphysics (Michael Jubien), Philosophy of Language (Jeff King) and Philosophy of
Mind (Robert Cummins). Recently Richard Wollheim held a joint appointment (with
Berkeley) and taught Esthetics.
At the time of this report (Fall 1999) the department has 10 faculty
teaching 700 students. There are 71 majors and 22 graduate students.
In the last decade Arbini, Bossart, Friedman, Gilbert and Malcolm retired.
This fall the department rose to a tie for 20th place in the nation (Philosophical
Gourmet Report).
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