Our Department
The tv University Department of Philosophy is one of the most active and supportive philosophy departments in Canada. Our program will prepare you for any career because philosophy is the .
Where do I begin?
The basic skills practiced in philosophy are the very skills demanded and rewarded in the most lucrative, influential professions. Start your journey by registering for a first-year course or pick a second-year course in an area of interest to you.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
All Philosophy courses at tv emphasize the importance of academic integrity. Students are responsible for ensuring that all work they submit is their own, and, unless otherwise explicitly indicated by the instructor, AI-driven tools and generative AI models (including language models like the GPT suite, translation models like Google Translate or DeepL, editing tools like QuillBot, GrammaryGo, etc.) should not be used to generate ideas or written materials for any class offered by the Philosophy department.
All Philosophy courses at tv emphasize the importance of careful scholarship and academic integrity. Students are responsible for ensuring that all work they submit appropriately cites the sources of text and ideas that are not their own. Unless otherwise explicitly indicated by the instructor, students should follow MLA citation practices for written work that is submitted for any class offered by the Philosophy department. Find out more about MLA citation and how to format an MLA works cited page .
AFFILIATED GROUPS
- Atlantic Canada Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy
- tv Women Around Philosophy
- Evolutionary Studies Group
- Animal Studies Group
- The Canadian Philosophical Association - see the CPA's
- The tv Philosophy Equity Committee
DEPARTMENT KUDOS
Steven Burns Prize in the History of Philosophy:
Shared prize:Laskhana Saranyan(‘The Cartesian Circle’)&Sonnie Meltzer: (“Against Cartesian Isolation and Toward a Relational Epistemology of Other Minds”)
Roland Puccetti Prize:
Shared prize:Zachary Comber(‘A “Bad Faith” Response toDe-Weaponizing Incivility and Disinformation’)&Ben Baxter(‘Is it intelligible or ever advisable to have secret laws?’)
- Michael Hymers was recently interviewed about his latest book,Wittgenstein on Private Language, Sensation and Perception(Cambridge UP, 2025), by Troy Dana for theFriction Philosophypodcast series <>. You can also view the interview on Youtube here: <>.
- On April 9th, Duncan MacIntosh was interviewed by Preston Mulligan of CBC Information Morning Radio Halifax on current geopolitics, including President Trump's threats of Genocide against Iran, and his administration's targeting of survivors of attacks on Venezuelan drug smuggling boats.
- “,” by Letitia Meynell has been published in a special issue ofInformal Logic, celebrating the work of Cate Hundleby.
- “,” by Letitia Meynell has been published inPhilosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology(PTPBio).
- On January 17th, 2026, Duncan MacIntosh delivered a keynote address to the University of Manitoba's Philosophy Students Association conference, The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. The address was entitled "I, Robot; I, Roboticist; I, Philosopher: Reflections From a Philosophical Gadfly of the Military-Industrial Complex".
- “Gaia: the Earth is an organism (not a Darwinian individual)” by Letitia Meynell and Andrew Lopez (Colorado State University) has been published in Biology and Philosophy . The article is behind a paywall, but is available as a pre-print at the PhilSci Archive .
- Andrew Fenton was a guest onto discuss what we owe the "Marineland belugas."
- Andrew Fenton talks toabout current events at Universal Ostrich Farms in BC.
- Hear Andrew Fenton’s recent interviews about nonhuman animal research ethics onand.
- Congratulations toJulia Chiavegato, on your publication "Broadening the Scope: A Critical Response to Climate-Conscious Clinical Medical Ethics."
- Congratulations toDr. Doolittleasone of 83 new appointments announced to the Order of Canada. Presented by the Governor General, the Order honours people from all sectors of society who’ve made “extraordinary and sustained contributions” to the country/news/2025/07/03/order-canada-ford-doolittle-companion.html?utm_source=dalnewsWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=642&utm_campaign=dalnewsWeekly
- Congratulations toDr. Derek Andrews who successfully defended his PhD dissertation, "Psychiatric Natural Kinds: Implications for Nosology, Practice, and Policymaking" in June, 2025.
- Clarisse Paron’s paper, “Eugenic Logics and the Pathologization of Children’s Bodies: Evaluating the American Pediatric Obesity Guidelines for Harmful Scientific and Medical Conduct” is the winner of the 2025 Irving and Jeanne Glovin Award.CongratulationsClarisse!
- Congratulationsto Tom Vinci on the eve of publication of his chapter ‘Sensibility and Intellect in Descartes’, to appear in the forthcoming bookThe Cartesian Mind,Edited By,,(Routledge, 2026). Tom’s chapter marks 51 years since his first publication in 1974 in theJournal of the History of Philosophy!
- Congratulations to Dr. Tiffany Gordon who successfully defended her PhD dissertation, "A Black Feminist's Defence of Retribution, Incarceration, and Reform" in November, 2024.
- Congratulationsto Dr. Erik Nelson (who defended his dissertation last summer) on winning a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship under the supervision of Dr. Kristin Andrews at York University.
- Congratulationsto Erik Nelson who successfully defended his PhD dissertation, "The Nonlinguistic Mind: Nonlinguistic Concepts, Normativity and Animal Cognition" in June, 2024.
- Congratulationsto our PhD student, Clarisse Paron, for being awarded thefor presenting on of the best two student papers at the Annual Meeting, June 2024. The title of her paper is “Are the New American Pediatric Obesity Guidelines Eugenic? Eugenic Logics and the Medicalization and Pathologization of Children’s Bodies.”
- Congratulationsto our PhD students, Lara Millman and Clarisse Paron, for being awarded tv’s President’s Graduate/Undergraduate Student Teaching Award(2 of 3 available university-wide awards!)
- Congratulationsto Dr. Travis LaCroix, who has accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Durham University, starting in the fall of 2024.
- Congratulations to Dr. Travis LaCroix, who has been award an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council! Travis’s research project is entitled “Philosophy on the Spectrum: The Philosophy of Autism and Autistic Philosophy.”
- Tyler Hildebrand’s paper “Inductive Reasoning Involving Social Kinds” (with Barrett Emerick) has been published in theJournal of the American Philosophical Association.
- Congratulationsto Kayla Beals, who is the 2024 recipient of the F. Hilton Page Memorial Prize, awarded to a graduating student whose thesis is judged to be outstanding.
- Congratulationsto George Arnott, who is the 2024 recipient of the Roland Puccetti Memorial Award for the best essay submitted by a student in a 3000- or 4000-level class. George’s essay is entitled "The Virtuous Cohort" Habituation and Character-Friendship as Rational Motivators for Aristotelian Courage.