The UC Irvine Department of Logic & Philosophy of Science faculty have earned top honors in the latest Philosophical Gourmet Report, with UC Irvine ranking #1 in five specialties and placing among the top five in every area of research emphasis within the department. The peer rankings are based on survey responses of 239 international philosophers who assessed the quality and reputation of current philosophy department faculty rosters in 31 specialties. 

"The Philosophical Gourmet is widely acknowledged as the leading reputational ranking for philosophy Ph.D. programs in the English-speaking world,” says James Weatherall, UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor and department chair for logic & philosophy of science. “Our first-rate showing reflects how LPS is perceived by philosophers at the best universities in the world.” 

For the purposes of these rankings, the LPS faculty are considered together with faculty in the Department of Philosophy within the School of Humanities and affiliated faculty in other departments.  In some areas, the high rankings reflect the research strengths of both LPS and philosophy.

UCI’s rankings include:

• 1st in General Philosophy of Science
• 1st in Philosophy of Physics
• 1st in Philosophy of Social Science*
• 1st in Philosophy of Biology
• 1st in History of Analytic Philosophy*
• 2nd in Game Theory, Decision Theory, and Rational Choice
• 2nd in Philosophy of Mathematics
• 3rd in Epistemology (including Formal Epistemology)*
• 5th in Mathematical Logic

*key areas where both the Department of Logic & Philosophy of Science and Department of Philosophy have great strength

UCI’s LPS department includes 12 faculty members with research expertise strongly integrated within the natural and social sciences and in mathematics. Using methods from philosophy, logic, and the sciences themselves, they investigate what we are able to know about the world through science, and precisely how it is that science enables us to know it.  Topics of inquiry explored within the department include the history of philosophy since the early modern period; the history of science and mathematics; methodological, conceptual and foundational issues in contemporary mathematics, statistics, linguistics, psychology, biology, physics, and elsewhere; and naturalized approaches to many other areas of philosophy, such as ethics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and social and political philosophy.

Together with the Department of Philosophy, LPS administers UCI’s Ph.D. in philosophy, focusing on the logic & philosophy of science track. Under this umbrella, faculty annually instruct and mentor a small, select group of graduate students who go on to teaching and research careers at top educational institutions around the world. Alumni from the department’s prestigious Ph.D. program are now established faculty in logic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mathematics at other top programs including Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh, Oxford University, Notre Dame, and the London School of Economics. The department also enjoys strong connections with many of UCI's science departments, including physics, biology, mathematics, economics, computer science, cognitive sciences, and language science.

Overall, UC Irvine ranked 21st among all U.S. based philosophy programs, tied with Columbia University, and 10th among public universities.  Worldwide, UCI ranked 25th among all English-speaking programs.

"The Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science is an international leader in the philosophy of science and mathematics,” says Weatherall. “I am delighted to see my colleagues' world-class academic work recognized with top rankings across every area in which LPS faculty specialize."

Learn more about the department online: https://www.lps.uci.edu/

 Review the full Philosophical Gourmet Report findings and methodology here: https://philosophicalgourmet.com/