Three Goals of the Philosophy Major

Our majors will:

Dare to wonder

Know their map

And

Build communities out of problems.

1. Successful majors will dare to wonder. They will have the capacity to dwell within other modes of thinking with enough curiosity to investigate, enough humility to consider, and enough confidence to question. So, they need:

· an ability to critically engage with their own and others’ beliefs and knowledge; and

· an attunement to how language frames worlds, realities, perceptions, and selves.

2. Successful majors will know their map. They will be able to orient themselves in the history of philosophy and to find their place in the ongoing discourse about philosophical issues. So, they need:

· a fluency in philosophical knowledge; and

· the ability to expand one’s philosophical understanding through interacting with other thinkers.

3. Successful majors will build communities out of shared problems. So, they need:

· a fluency in argumentation as sustainable discourse;

· a fluency in problem solving; and

· the ability and disposition to make reflective choices, to take responsibility, and to act with integrity and care toward all of our constitutive communities.

These goals frame the content of a new introductory level course (currently listed as PHL 170: Introduction to Philosophical Thinking), which will be devoted to introducing these skills to both majors and non-majors alike. In addition, they will situate the learning objectives of classes within the major.