A student who, because the uses of philosophy have never been brought to his or her attention, graduates from college without taking a course in philosophy has been deprived of a valuable part of his or her intellectual heritage. Philosophy helps students understand and make reasoned choices of competing theories or points of view in a variety of controversies. Philosophy expands the student's horizons by enabling him or her to see beyond the world as it presently exists and develop a controlled but imaginative awareness of how things might be. Philosophy makes available to the student a significant portion of the world's great literature, by introducing him or her to the writings of such masters of philosophical thinking as Plato, Descartes, Mill, Marx, etc., and by making him or her aware of the extent to which scientists, artists, poets, statesmen, educators, and theologians have depended on the work of philosophers in the course of their own development. Many others go on to careers in law, medicine, computer science, publishing, etc.
Most students taking philosophy courses, however, have majors in other departments.
We make a particular effort to offer them courses that will illuminate the primary areas of their concern. Such courses as Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Moral Problems in Medicine, and others, are addressed explicitly to questions that are of fundamental importance to other disciplines. Our courses tend to be demanding, and it is a characteristic of our Department that the original work of students is subjected to critical scrutiny. The result is an increased level of competence in expository clarity, logical rigor, articulateness, and analytical skill. Faculty in the Philosophy Department are in general accessible to their students, committed to the teaching of undergraduates, concerned to elicit from each student the highest standard of performance of which he or she is capable.