Show Me
What are the ideas that made us, as a society, who we are today? Who are the thinkers who proposed them, and why?
The history of philosophy explores how philosophical and scientific thought has evolved over time, in relation to wider society.
As citizens of a modern world, we have inherited a rich legacy of philosophical ideas and debates from great thinkers. The history of philosophy allows us to understand who we are in new ways and, using the resources this philosophical lineage provides us, helps us address today's concerns and solve today's problems.
Our robust philosophy program covers the great thinkers, their ideas, debates and how they have shaped the world we live in today, from Socrates and Plato to the postmoderns.
First year
PHIL102 Theories of Human Nature
Second year
PHIL213 Postmodern European Philosophy
PHIL214 Medieval Philosophy
PHIL224 Ancient Greek Philosophy
PHIL225 The Ground and Nature of Rights
Third year
PHIL321 History of Philosophy seminar
| Professor Claude Romano | German and French phenomenology |
| Professor Richard Colledge | Heidegger; Gadamer; Levinas; JL Nancy; Kant; Kierkegaard |
| Professor Robyn Horner | Marion; Lacoste; Derrida; Levinas; Lyotard |
| Dr Nick Trakakis | Nietzsche; Kierkegaard; religious existentialism, Camus; Sartre; De Beauvoir; Cioran |
| David Newheiser | Derrida; Agamben |
| Associate Professor Andrew Poe | Deleuze, Rancière, Derrida |
| Lexi Eikelboom | Merleau-Ponty; Agamben |
| Kishore Saval | German and French phenomenology |
| Associate Professor Matt Sharpe | Freud; Lacan; Klein; Zizek |
| Talia Morag | Freud |
| Professor Richard Colledge | Freud; Rank; existential psychotherapies |
| Dr James Dorahy | The Frankfurt School (1st, 2nd, 3rd generations); The Budapest School; Marxism and post-Marxist political philosophy; Zygmunt Bauman; Charles Taylor |
| Associate Professor Matt Sharpe | Max Horkheimer; Herbert Marcuse; Franz Neumann; Gyorgy Lukacs; Ernst Bloch |
| Associate Professor Andrew Poe | Benjamin, Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer, Honneth |
| Kishore Saval | From Hegel to Derrida |
| Dr Tyler Paytas | Plato; Epictetus |
| Professor Claude Romano | Greek philosophy |
| David Newheiser | Dionysius the Areopagite |
| Associate Professor Matt Sharpe | Plato; Aristotle, Stoicism; ancient philosophical institutions and practices; classical receptions |
| Benjamin DeSpain | Aquinas; Thomism |
| Professor Claude Romano | Renaissance philosophy |
| Associate Professor Matt Sharpe | Francis Bacon, Michel de Montaigne, experimental philosophy (Locke), Neostoicism, the enlightenment philosophies |
| Milicent Churcher | Adam Smith; moral sentiments |
| Professor Claude Romano | Philosophical romanticism |
| Dr Nevin Climenhaga | Early modern metaphysics and epistemology |
| Professor Claude Romano | Phenomenology and the Analytic tradition (from early Wittgenstein onward) |
We're available 9am–5pm AEDT,
Monday to Friday
If you’ve got a question, our AskACU team has you covered. You can search FAQs, text us, email, live chat, call – whatever works for you.