Philosophy is an effort to see how things not just objects and persons, but also ideas, concepts, principles, and values hang together. Philosophical questions explore the foundations and limits of human thought and experience.The philosophy major introduces students to central concepts, key figures, and classic texts so they may broaden and deepen their own understanding as they learn how others have approached foundational questions in the past. An education in philosophy also teaches students to think and write with clarity and precision intellectual resources essential to future study and rewarding professional lives.
Students graduating with a B.A. in philosophy will have acquired skills in critical thinking, conceptual analysis, argumentation, close reading of classic and contemporary philosophical texts, and composition of clear, cogent, and persuasive prose. More specifically, they will be able to:
Demonstrate their knowledge of major thinkers (such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant) and texts of the ancient and modern philosophical traditions,
Demonstrate their understanding of central problems and dominant theoretical traditions in moral theory (Kantianism, utilitarianism) and either epistemology (skepticism, other minds, the problem of induction, decision theory), metaphysics (the mind-body problem, free will and determinism, causation, the nature of space and time), or the philosophy of language,
Construct and evaluate deductive arguments using formal symbolic notation,
Discuss and reflect critically on difficult philosophical texts and outstanding problems in a seminar setting with their fellow majors.
