Philosophy is a discipline that encourages questioning and independent thought.
Your fundamental assumptions about ethics, beauty, truth, the mind, and meaning are exposed to careful scrutiny in philosophy classes. Whether taking a course on philosophy of film, ethics, feminist philosophy, logic, or philosophy of science, philosophy will leave you seeing the world anew. The first-year seminar offers an intensive introduction to philosophical problems and focuses on critical thinking and on writing skills. The history sequence is the department's principal comprehensive treatment of the major philosophers, and of the background and development of their thought. The ethics course develops the study of philosophy by examining moral frameworks and the conduct of life.