Applied Ethics

Applied ethics examines practical moral problems and offers guidance for solving them, typically by employing concepts and arguments from ethical theory. But the traffic of ideas goes both ways: practical problems often raise questions that advance ethical thought in general. Applied ethics bridges ethical theory and our moral life.

Decision Theory and Game Theory

Both decision and game theory concern the reasoning process underlying people’s choices, that is, how their desires, beliefs, and other attitudes combine in a way that make people choose one option over another.

Epistemology

Epistemology belongs to the classical fields of theoretical philosophy. The subject is devoted to the study of knowledge as well as other epistemic phenomena such as justification, understanding and defeat

History of Philosophy

Stockholm University has a long standing reserach in History of Philosophy. One of the focus areas of the research in the history of philosophy, broadly speaking, Western Europe from classical Greek antiquity through late antiquity in the Roman empire through to Latin Middle Ages and the early modern period.

Logic and philosophy of logic

Logic studies the principles and methods for correct argumentation and reasoning. Formal logic uses precise logical languages endowed with formal semantics and systems for deductive inference to capture logically correct reasoning. Philosophy of logic studies philosophical problems arising in logic, related to its nature and foundational role for science.

Metaethics

Metaethics is the philosophical study of moral judgment and moral language. Can moral judgments be true or false, and, if so, in virtue of what? Is moral truth relative to different assessors? Can we acquire moral knowledge? Are moral judgments best understood as beliefs about moral reality, or as desires that reality be in a certain way?

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a core subject in philosophy at Stockholm University.

Normative Ethics

Normative ethics seeks to answer the question of what is good or bad, how we should live, and how we should act, given that our decisions inevitably affect others for better or worse.

Philosophy of Language

Philosophy of language studies the nature of language, its use in communication, its relation to thought and the world. Investigations range widely: from foundational questions concerning the constitution of linguistic meaning, the development of formal semantics for artificial or natural languages, the pragmatics of language use and its social significance.

Philosophy of Mind

Philosophy of mind investigates a broad set of questions concerning the mind and its nature. One set of issues relates to the so called mind-body problem. This includes research on the nature of consciousness, its relation to the brain and to behavior.

Philosophy of Science

Stockholm University has a strong standing in the philosophy of science. It takes a meta-level look at the scientific process and asks questions such as: how does the scientific process work? In which sense and on what grounds can scientific investigations be successful? What is the relation between scientific results and truth?

Philosophy of the social and behavioural sciences

The philosophy of social science addresses philosophical questions raised by the social and behavioral sciences. That’s sciences dealing with human attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, practices, cultures, and institutions.

Political Philosophy

Political philosophy explores a wide range of topics relating to the organisation of our collective and social institutions. This includes the study of different political systems, such as democracy, communism, republicanism, liberalism, libertarianism, etc. and related questions about the authority and legitimacy of governments and other state institutions.