I. OVERVIEW OF DEPARTMENTAL PURPOSE
A. Purpose and goals of our
undergraduate program
Philosophical reflection
on fundamental questions of reality, knowledge, and value is an essential
element of human culture and a liberal education. The Department of Philosophy
is committed to advancing and transmitting an understanding of these questions
and the history of struggles to answer them, and to developing analytical
and critical resources for engaging these questions as they arise in individual
and common experience. At the undergraduate level this commitment finds expression
in a broad spectrum of courses taught by a distinguished, internationally
recognized, faculty. From this rich offering students may either choose
electives or satisfy certain General College distribution requirements as
well as the Philosophical Perspective. These same courses also contribute
to a wide variety of interdisciplinary programs and curricula in the College
of Arts and Sciences. In addition, the department offers a substantial major
in philosophy which serves as an excellent foundation for more specialized
training in philosophy or other graduate and professional disciplines, such
as law, medicine, business and management. Philosophy may also be usefully
taken as a minor or, as is frequently done, as part of a double major.
II. THE CURRICULA
A. Educational goals and skills
acquisition
1. Areas of content knowledge students are expected to master
Students majoring in
philosophy must take at least eight courses. As part of their program they
are expected to have some knowledge of the significant figures in the history
of the discipline. Certain texts and issues have traditionally been of central
importance, affording philosophers of any orientation a means of common
discourse and communication even if they know little of one another's specific
traditions. These points of shared reference include the writings of certain
philosophers whose historical importance is beyond dispute, such as Plato,
Aristotle, Descartes, Hume and Kant. The majors are required to take at least
one course covering the important authors in ancient philosophy, beginning
with the pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle, and moving on to others, such
as the Epicureans and Stoics. They are required also to take at least one
course in modern philosophy including the period from René Descartes
through David Hume. The undergraduate major is also required to elect courses
that are organized around topics and problems in specific areas of philosophy,
such as ethics, the theory of knowledge, metaphysics and the philosophy of
mind. A course in logic is highly recommended as well, since it provides
specialized tools by which complex reasoning may be made more accessible to
critical understanding and evaluation. Beyond these general subjects, students
have a valuable opportunity to acquaint themselves with such areas of special
inquiry as social and political philosophy, the philosophy of science, language,
religion, art, Existentialism, and Phenomenology. A series of advanced courses
for undergraduates is provided, each carrying a one-course prerequisite entry
condition and satisfying the BA but not the General College Philosophical
Perspective requirement. These include History of Ethics, Contemporary Ethical
Theory, Reference and Meaning, Topics in the Philosophy of Mind, Political
Philosophy, Seminar in Selected Topics, and a Colloquium for Majors. Those
majoring in philosophy are encouraged to select courses from this relatively
advanced part of the curriculum in which major philosophical issues encountered
in the introductory courses are dealt with intensively.
2. Thinking, expression, and research skills students are
expected to acquire
Intellectual growth
in philosophy is fundamentally cumulative and integrative, and is not achieved
by a mere succession of isolated analyses of texts or issues. Knowledge of
ideas and texts has limited value without the capacity to use it in addressing
specific philosophical problems; and a capacity to use philosophical methods,
if isolated from knowledge of the history and problems of philosophy, can
be sterile in application. The major in philosophy emphasizes effective
and critical reading, writing, and speaking. The study of philosophy deals
with the interpretation of texts, the balanced exposition and examination
of issues, the construction and appraisal of arguments and explanations,
and the criticism of doctrines and things commonly taken for granted.
B. Curriculum
structure, degree requirements, and evaluation
1. Undergraduate curriculum structure
a. Course offerings and trends
The curriculum was last
revised in March of 1991. Numbers given to courses group them into the following
categories: 20s are general introductory courses, 30s are topical introductory
courses, 40-54 are ancillary and supporting courses, 55-69 are history of
philosophy courses, 70 to 99 are advanced courses for undergraduates and
(with 58) require at least one prior philosophy course. 100A and 100B are
for honors candidates. Courses from 101 to 199, which are open to both upperclass
undergraduates and graduate students, have prerequisites of at least one
and more often two prior philosophy courses. See the Appendix (IV.B below)
for descriptions of current undergraduate courses. Information concerning
enrollments in each course over the past five years is not available to
us.
b. Perspectives courses
Nine courses in the
five Perspectives areas are required of all General College students, and
four more courses from the five Perspectives areas are required of Arts and
Sciences (B.A. Level) students. In addition, every student must fulfill a
Mathematical Sciences requirement and a Cultural Diversity requirement. Most
philosophy courses in the 20s and 30s count as General College Philosophical
Perspective courses. Most of our courses from 30 to 80, together with seven
above 100, are Arts and Sciences Philosophical Perspective courses. In addition,
our logic courses 21 and 71 fulfill the Mathematical Sciences requirement;
our 46 and 55 courses fulfill the Cultural Diversity requirement; and our
36 course fulfills a Social Sciences Perspective requirement.
c. General education courses
General education courses
are courses that can be used to satisfy the university’s General Education
requirements. The Department of Philosophy offers 40 such courses, most of
them Philosophical Perspective courses. General education courses can be
used in satisfying requirements for a major in philosophy, although majors
may also select from other more specialized or technical courses that are
numbered in the 90s and above. The department tries each semester to maximize
the number and variety of general education courses to the extent compatible
with its resources (faculty and graduate teaching assistant work loads, for
example) and other demands (graduate level course offerings, for example).
Construed as courses not specifically designed for philosophy majors, two
kinds of general education courses merit special mention. First, we offer
a number of freshman-sophomore and junior-senior honors courses, most often
as honors counterparts to many of our introductory high-enrollment courses.
These honors courses have relatively small enrollments made up of some of
the university’s most outstanding undergraduate non-majors. Second, we offer
15 interdisciplinary courses, cross-listed with other departments such as
Religion, Linguistics, Political Science, Women’s Studies, Afro-American Studies,
Physics, Comparative Literature, Physical Therapy, and Mathematics.
2. Structure and requirements of majors program
a. Courses: descriptions, enrollments,
trends
A major in philosophy
minimally requires eight philosophy courses, including 56 (Ancient Philosophy),
58 (Modern Philosophy), one numbered from 30 to 54, and one numbered from
70 to 99. At least one previous philosophy course is prerequisite for taking
58 and 70 to 99. Philosophy 21 (Introductory Symbolic Logic) is recommended.
Majors are encouraged to channel their remaining courses into a specific
area of philosophical concentration, such as culture (art, religion, literature),
epistemology and metaphysics, ethics, history, logic and language, political
theory, or science. The total number of majors has not increased significantly
over the past five years. In the Spring 1995 semester, there are a total
of 74 declared majors, 52 of whom have philosophy as their primary major
and 22 of whom have philosophy as their secondary major. From this total
of 74 majors, 53 are Seniors and Juniors, which compares with 49 in Spring
1990 and an average of 46.5 over the past five years. The remaining 21 majors
are in the Sophomore and Freshman classes, from whose ranks it is expected
that many more will declare a major in philosophy during the next year or
two.
b. Advising
The Director of Undergraduate
Studies is the official advisor for all philosophy majors, although most
of them also seek advice in various ways from other faculty members and graduate
students. Students whose primary major is in philosophy are encouraged
to stop by to get advice about the upcoming semester, to talk about matters
germane to their major and to their academic situation generally, and just
to talk. They are welcome to stop by for such talk and advice anytime. The
Director of Undergraduate Studies is Professor Jan Boxill. She has an office in
Caldwell Hall and can be reached either by email (by clicking on her name)
or by phone at 962-3317.
c. Honors: structure and requirements
A degree with Honors
(or Highest Honors) in philosophy minimally requires eight philosophy courses,
including 56 (Ancient Philosophy), 58 (Modern Philosophy), one numbered from
30 to 55, two numbered from 70 to 99, and 100A and 100B. Typically, a candidate
for Honors takes 10 to 13 philosophy courses. Between three and six honors
candidates per year have completed the program in recent times. Philosophy
100A and 100B are specifically Honors courses, taken in consecutive semesters
in a candidate’s senior year. In order to sign up for 100A, a candidate
needs the consent of someone on the faculty to serve as his or her honors
advisor, with whom the details of what is done in 100A and 100B are worked
out. Two other faculty members are chosen to comprise a three-person honors
committee, and the candidate is encouraged to seek guidance and support from
all three committee members. In addition, all honors candidates in a given
year meet periodically as a group, presenting to each other the results of
their research to date. The research work in 100A and 100B is to culminate
in the writing of an Honors Thesis, which will be read by the honors committee
members. They administer a written exam (customarily given at the end of
the 100A semester) and an oral exam (customarily confined to the honors thesis)
and, in light of all this, recommend either no honors, Honors, or Highest
Honors. The honors advisor gives a letter grade for both 100A and 100B.
