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Philosophy

 

News & Events

Please check back for news on upcoming lectures.

Some guest speakers of recent years:
  • Dr. Alan Udoff (April, 2009)
    St. Francis College, Brooklyn
  • Dr. Michael Sells (November, 2008)
    The University of Chicago
  • Dr. Jean-Luc Marion (April, 2008)
    University of Paris
  • Dr. Sidney H. Griffith (October, 2007)
    The Catholic University of America
  • Dr. Margaret Nydell (September, 2007)
    Georgetown University

About Philosophy

The philosophy side of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies formally consists of three members: Michael Greene, Ph.D., Andrew Kelley, Ph.D., and Mihai Vlad Niculescu, Ph.D., Ph.D.. In addition, several of the members of the religious studies side of the department have either a background or a strong interest in philosophy. The foci of the department are the history of philosophy and continental philosophy. Even given the department’s emphasis on quality teaching, its members continue to be active in research and publication.

A major in philosophy requires the completion of 24 hours (8 courses), while 15 hours (5 courses) of class work is needed to complete a philosophy minor. Ideally, in his or her first year, the student will take one of the entry level courses—“Inquiry into Values,” “Ethics,” or “Logic”—and then proceed to the year-long “Proseminar” sequence in the second year. The Proseminar is designed to develop the reading, writing, and researching skills that every major should have by the end of their program of study. Once the student has completed these basic courses, he or she will move on to upper-level courses that are centered around the in-depth study of an important text or theme. The goal is to develop in each student, by the time of graduation, a deep knowledge of several classic texts in the history of philosophy. (Examples include: Plato’s Symposium, Descartes’ Meditations, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Heidegger’s Being and Time, and Lévinas’ Totality and Infinity) as well as an ability to write clearly and critically. The department strongly encourages its majors to develop a working knowledge of at least one foreign language.

The size of these courses tends to be small even by the University’s standards. As a result, we work closely with our majors and minors. Many of our student chose to take a second major, but this is not always the case. Our major and minors routinely go on to graduate school in many fields, but lately, we have many who have pursued graduate education in law, psychology, and sociology. Furthermore, the department has a strong record of placing its graduates into both master’s and doctoral programs in philosophy.