Philosophy and Religious Studies
It is difficult to discuss Rice’s Department of
Philosophy without, in the same breath, speaking of the Department
of Religious Studies, since both examine the history and current
state of philosophical thought.
Although Rice’s Department of Philosophy is relatively small,
it has solidified its standing in several important areas. The 2002–04
version of Blackwell Publishing’s Philosophical Gourmet
Report,
the most widely used, peer-based ranking of philosophy departments
in the English-speaking world, rates the Rice philosophy department “excellent” in
applied moral, political, and social philosophy—on par with
Princeton, New York University, and Duke, and ahead of Oxford, Stanford,
and the University of Michigan. Rice also ranked highly in ethics
and political, modern, and 20th-century Continental philosophy—on
par with or ahead of Berkeley, UCLA, Yale, Cambridge, Brown, Cornell,
and the University of Chicago. Our interdisciplinary program in Continental
philosophy is one of the best, bringing together faculty from history,
religious studies, and French studies, as well as philosophy. Another
targeted area of study is value theory, which includes ethics, social
philosophy, and political philosophy. Many of these areas are complemented
by the department’s long-standing lecture series “Ethics,
Politics, and Society” and numerous conferences and symposiums.
Religious studies once meant seminary school. Today, in a world in which religion
is at the root of much global conflict, it is vital that we understand other
religious cultures and traditions. Faculty in the Department of Religious Studies
are widely respected specialists in analysis of religious traditions in regions
where religious conflict is endemic, such as the Middle East and Africa, and
in regions where the religion, such as Bon, or Tibetan Buddhism, is influential
but little understood. In the past few years, religious studies faculty members
have included a past president of the American Academy of Religion, a fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellow, a winner of
the national Award for Excellence book prize bestowed by the American Academy
of Religion, and multiple National Endowment for the Humanities and Ford Foundation
grant winners. In addition, Rice has initiated major international conferences
on such topics as Cameroon and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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