Why Choose Philosophy?
The Education
Philosophy students learn to appreciate and engage in philosophical questions that arise around the world and across history. One of the great strengths of a philosophy education is that it develops your ability to ask important questions, like:
- What is the nature of the good life?
- What is justice?
- What can we know with certainty?
- How should we take care of each other?
By exposing you to a plurality of historical and contemporary responses to these questions, and training you in the analytic skills to examine them, we prepare you to engage these questions as they arise today. You will be well equipped to think critically about questions and problems that arise in areas such as law, emerging technology, disaster response, racism, environmentalism, caregiving, sexual relationships, friendships, business, film, literature, and art.
The Personalization
As a philosophy major or minor, you will get to choose from a variety of classes taught by excellent professors. You will be assigned a faculty adviser who will help you pick the classes that interest you, and make sure you meet all the major requirements. We crosslist a number of classes to make it easy to add a second major or a minor, if desired. If you are interested in a graduate or professional degree, you will also meet with a pre-health, pre-law, or graduate school adviser.
Should majors or minors wish to develop a focus, our faculty can support a range of concentrations and research. Conducting a research project with a faculty member is a great learning experience to have before graduation, especially if you are considering graduate school or a career in advocacy. Recent student projects include studies of political philosophy; Stoicism and psychology; art and Existentialism; and classical Asian philosophy. We also support internships for course credit. Recent internships include studying ethics at a social service agency and studying conceptions of happiness at an advertising agency. If you want to hone your critical thinking and communication skills in a supportive community, the department has an Ethics Bowl Debate Team and participates in the annual intercollegiate tournament. Other student activities include a chapter of Phi Sigma Tau, the international philosophy honor society.
The Professional Options
Philosophy prepares students to be citizens of the world and step into professional lives that utilize critical thinking and communication skills, a willingness to have one’s ideas challenged, and the ability to ask questions that change how people think. Philosophy majors have among the highest scores on tests like the GMAT, MCAT, LSAT, and have the highest earning potential of any field in the humanities.
Philosophy students enjoy successful careers in a wide variety of professions, including law, business, medicine, information technology, education, social work, and arts and entertainment. Movement leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Angela Davis were philosophy professors; Pope John Paul II, Rep. John Lewis, President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice David Souter, hedge fund manager George Soros, FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Flickr and Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield, and culture makers Stephen Colbert, Wes Anderson and Susan Sontag were all philosophy majors.
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