The Philosophy Department of UFOP was created in the first semester of 1994 in the Institute of Arts and Culture, renamed as Institute of Philosophy, Arts and Culture (Instituto de Filosofia, Artes e Cultura – IFAC) in the same year. It has a strong institutional presence both in the university, acting especially in research, and outside of it, through agreements, partnerships, and participation of its faculty in several inter-institutional research groups.
The Philosophy Graduate Program (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia – POSDEFIL) was implemented in March/2006. Initially, the program’s concentration area of Aesthetics and Art Philosophy was unique. It was an innate option, because of its insertion in the historical, cultural, and artistic tradition of Ouro Preto whose heritage is already an invitation to philosophical reflection about art. In September of 2017, the concentration area was officially expanded for Philosophy. The lines of research currently are: (1) Aesthetics and Art Philosophy, (2) Ethics and Political Philosophy, and (3) Metaphysics and Philosophy of Religion.
