哲学致力于解决所有反思性人都参与的基本问题，但是经验科学显然无法回答这些问题。它的主要子领域包括伦理学（解决道德，价值和正确行为的本质），政治哲学（解决正义，自由和国家），形而上学（解决现实的本质和结构），认识论（解决本质和局限）知识，逻辑，思维哲学（解决意识，认知和情感的本质）和语言哲学（解决意义和指称的本质）。哲学研究生课程为学生提供非正式的学习机会，并与该学院的工作紧密联系，该学院的工作已由领先的媒体和期刊出版。我们基本上是一个分析部门，但是我们当然没有正式的定位。师生之间紧密互动的结果是，我们最近
The Graduate Program in Philosophy has two objectives: to provide you, through course work, with the broad familiarity of a variety of philosophical subjects that you will need to be a well-rounded philosopher and an effective teacher, and to develop your potential as a researcher by giving you an opportunity to do supervised research, culminating in the writing of a doctoral dissertation. Our department is oriented towards analytic philosophy. We have strength in the core areas of: philosophy of language and of logic, philosophy of mind, ethics and political philosophy, epistemology, ancient philosophy, history of modern philosophy, and metaphysics. In sum, graduate students leave UCSB with exceptional teaching skills and a firm grounding in the core areas of philosophy.