What can individuals know? What is the value of art? What are the roles of reason, perception, and feeling in shaping our relations with one another? Philosophy at Kenyon examines questions such as these in all the major fields of philosophical thought, using diverse approaches ranging from the empiricist and rationalist schools to the idealist, existentialist, and pragmatic.

The great philosophers give the highest expression to the search for an understanding of ourselves, our world, our relationships with each other, and our values. By studying ancient, modern, and contemporary philosophers, students in the Department of Philosophy at Kenyon learn what is of timeless and current importance in these noted works, and they articulate their own answers to universal questions.