Degree:
B.A.
Division:
Humanities
Program Options:
Area of Concentration, Joint Concentration, Secondary Field

Philosophy explores human values, agency, and understanding of the world, through the critical examination of various theories and arguments about knowledge, language, logic, and minds; morality, justice, and freedom. Pursuing philosophy means questioning our ways of living, valuing, creating, and understanding, and developing rigorous intellectual tools. 

About the Philosophy Area of Concentration

Philosophy questions our ways of living, valuing, creating, and understanding. Sometimes it does this directly (as in ethics, political philosophy, and epistemology). Sometimes it does this indirectly (as in metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and again epistemology), as we strive to understand the nature of reality and of our relations to it.

Philosophy’s focus on critical examination, involving the relations between language, logic, and the world, and emphasizing analysis, clarity, and cogent reasoning, also makes the study of philosophy a great way to develop critical thinking skills that apply far beyond the classroom. Philosophy applies rigorous critical thought to matters of fundamental human concern while reaching across disciplinary boundaries.

The study of philosophy puts students in contact with its multiple historical traditions arising from the ancient eastern and western worlds, medieval and modern thought, and contemporary philosophical works, including approaches and techniques developed in the Analytic and the European Continental traditions of 20th- and 21st-century thought.

Recent courses

  • Agency, Autonomy, Freedom
  • Environmental Ethics
  • Early Modern Women Philosophers
  • Existentialist Themes
  • Formal Logic
  • Hegel and Marx
  • Introduction to Political Theory
  • Modern Philosophy
  • Philosophical and Utopian Literature
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Philosophy Proseminar
  • Theory of Knowledge
  • Topics in Feminist Philosophy
  • The Good Life

Career Pathways

  • Teaching
  • Technology
  • Law
  • Public Policy
  • Publishing

Contact Us

Humanities Division

Contact
Phone Number
Email Address
Location
Office
Ace Academic Center 116

Philosophy Faculty