Ohio State Philosophy

08/21/2026

The Philosophy Department is pleased to welcome four students to our graduate program. William Bosco, Yimo Liu, Alvaro Prado Velasquez, and Min Seo have a variety of philosophical interests and ambitions.

Read more about their backgrounds and future plans: https://philosophy.osu.edu/incoming-graduate-students-2026

07/24/2026

Owain Griffin defended his dissertation, "On the Uniqueness and Determinacy of the Standard Model of Arithmetic." His advisor was Stewart Shapiro.

The dissertation concerns the intended interpretation of mathematical theories. Reasonably straightforward results in model theory show that the axioms of our mathematical theories fail to determine their own intended interpretation, often in quite radical ways. The worry, simply put, is that if the relevant axioms could not determine the subject matter of a theory, what possibly could? In the dissertation, Owain explores this problem.

He first shows how model-theoretic underdetermination can entail a skeptical conclusion about mathematics which presents a substantial challenge for philosophers. He then draws attention to the fact that existing discussion of this problem relies upon an unspoken assumption that the background logic is strictly classical, and demonstrate that an alternative theory cast in intuitionistic logic can provably avoid the problem. Finally, he proposes and defends a new, algebraic theory of mathematics, and argue that it is preferrable to existing philosophical theories of mathematics.

Congratulations Owain!

04/29/2026

Congratulations to Justin D'Arms for being selected as a College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor!

This award serves to honor full professor colleagues who have excelled in teaching, service, and research/creative activity, and whose work has demonstrated significant impact on their fields, students, college and university, and/or the public.

04/29/2026

Owain Griffin is this year's Graduate Teaching Award recipient! The Graduate Teaching Award recognizes excellence in teaching by graduate instructors who demonstrate outstanding pedagogical skill, commitment to student learning, and contributions to the department’s educational mission. Congratulations Owain!

04/28/2026

The Fink Prize is awarded in recognition of an outstanding graduate student essay in philosophy.

Congratulations to Shao-An Hsu, winner of this year’s Fink Award for his paper, “Rigidity, Open Texture, and Natural Kind Terms.” An honorable mention goes to Charles Crumpler for his paper “Purity of Method and Higher-Order Resources”.

The Fink Committee, chaired by Professor Abe Roth with Professors Stewart Shapiro and Neil Tennant, noted the overall strength of this year’s submissions.

04/23/2026

The Bingham Award is designed to recognize undergraduate excellence in Philosophy, and is awarded on the basis of a student essay written during the school year.

The Department of Philosophy is proud to announce that Tabitha Skelding has won this year’s Bingham Award for her paper, Aristotle’s Biological Sciences and the Concept of Species”. Tabitha's work was selected by the Bingham Committee, chaired by Professor Lisa Downing with committee members Robert Kraut and Neil Tennant.

Congratulations to Tabitha, and many thanks to the Bingham Committee for their thoughtful work in evaluating the submissions!

04/23/2026

Shoshanah Calland, an Honors student majoring in English and Philosophy, organized the first Undergraduate Philosophy Research Symposium, held at the Ohio Union on Wednesday, April 8. Original research projects were presented by Shoshanah herself, as well as by Isaac Astifan, Klaus Chamberlain, Chloe Chung, Cameron Poston and Jack Rose. Shoshanah also worked this year as the Editor in Chief of the fourth volume of Sorge, a Journal of Undergraduate Philosophy at Ohio State. That volume is now available, and features work by three of our students: Tabitha Skelding, Jack Rose, and Jonas Watkins. Thank you to Shoshanah for her hard organizational work this year, and congratulations to all of our successful young scholars!

10/07/2025

https://philosophy.osu.edu/news/welcome-undergraduate-philosophy-ambassadors

The Department of Philosophy is delighted to introduce this year’s Undergraduate Philosophy Ambassadors. Each year, the department appoints ambassadors to help build community, assist with outreach and recruitment, and share their enthusiasm for philosophy with fellow students. Please join the dep...

08/27/2025

The Philosophy Department is pleased to welcome five students to our graduate program. Christopher Caldwell, Richard Coulter, Charlette Hwang, Yuxuan Luo, and Joseph Phelan have a variety of philosophical interests and ambitions.

The Philosophy Department is pleased to welcome five students to our graduate program. Christopher Caldwell, Richard Coulter, Charlette Hwang, Yuxuan Luo, and Joseph Phelan have a variety of philosophical interests and ambitions. Read more about their backgrounds and future plans.

05/12/2025

https://philosophy.osu.edu/news/lincoln-lundgren-defends-honors-thesis

On April 24, Lincoln Lundgren defended his Honors thesis “Completing the Coincidence Argument against Metaethical Non-Naturalism”; a shortened version of his thesis also won the department’s Bingham award this year. Lincoln’s work contributes to understanding and evaluating a style of argume...