As an academic discipline in the Western world, philosophy is essentially the strategic
and disciplined pursuit of wisdom, particularly wisdom about the most fundamental
features of the world and human life. We ask the really hard questions and we develop
methods for pursuing answers.
What's real?
Metaphysics: Space, time, God, immortality of the soul, freedom of will, the nature of existence,
the existence of nature, etc.
What is good?
Value Theory: Morality, aesthetics, political and social justice, the value of lives and ways
of living, etc.
What is it to know?
Epistemology: Ways of knowing, possible objects of knowledge, certainty and fallibility, consensus
and dissent, etc.
By what methods can I become wise?
(See epistemology!)
Logic: Sentential and predicate logic, multivariate and fuzzy logics, non-deductive inference,
fallacies and biases, etc.
Narrative: Storytelling, first person perspective-taking, immersive imagination and fantasy.
Thought experiments: Controlled experiments in thought when we physically or morally can't do the experiment
in reality, e.g. the trolley problem, Mary's room.
Sometimes we make genuine progress on very hard problems. When we make enough progress,
new academic disciplines like physics, biology, and psychology spin off from philosophy.
We maintain a strong connection with these disciplines through specialties like philosophy
of the arts, philosophy of science, and philosophy of law.
As an activity, philosophy involves critical reflection, conceptual framework and
theory development, and analysis of the reasons for or against a position.
Our topics in philosophy focus on conceptual and normative issues that cannot be addressed
through empirical means, that is, questions that cannot be answered by experimenting,
making an observation, or taking a survey. It's one thing to find out what most people
believe is the right thing to do, and another thing to find out what's actually the
right thing to do.
Eastern philosophy encompasses the same range of foundational questions as western philosophy, but focuses more on transformative methods and less on adversarial methods of reflection
and evaluation. We offer courses in both!
Here are a few fun videos to help round out your understanding of philosophy:
Our Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Philosophy helps students develop professional skills
that are in high demand across a wide variety of fields:
Critical reasoning
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Writing and communication skills
Ethical and cultural literacy
Graduates of our program have founded companies and gone on to graduate school in
philosophy, law, communications, education, and other fields. We've recently placed
our graduates in PhD programs at UCLA, USC, Columbia University, the University of
British Columbia, Fordham University, the University of Kansas and other excellent
universities, sometimes with full funding for 5-7 years.
Over the past twenty years, every one of our majors applying to law school has been accepted. Indeed, during this period several of our
graduates have attended law school at Harvard and Cornell. Others have pursued their
J.D. at Notre Dame, UC Berkeley, the University of Iowa, Baylor University, American
University, Rutgers University, the University of Denver, Washburn University, and
the University of Kansas.
What can you do with a philosophy degree?
With a philosophy degree you can do just about anything you want. According to business
and industry leaders, two of the most important qualities successful executives must
possess are:
The ability to learn in new situations, and;
The ability to analyze, interpret and evaluate information (Malnig & Malnig, What
Can I Do With a Major In...?, p. 147).
As the philosophy alumni testimonials demonstrate, these are abilities that are acquired through the careful study of philosophy.
Philosophers are employed as specialists in tech companies, as ethicists on hospital
ethics boards and interneral review boards for human subjects research, as philosohical
counselors, and in many other fields.
Philosophy majors can acquire:
Critical Thinking Skills: the ability to quickly and accurately discern what is relevant (and what peripheral)
to an issue or problem; the ability to identify commonalities within a set of data;
the ability to interpret difficult material accurately; the ability to understand
difficult, sophisticated material; the ability to draw fine discriminations.
Logical Reasoning Skills: the ability to determine precisely what follows from a set of premises or an evidence
base; the ability to construct logically valid arguments in support of a conclusion;
the ability to recognize the strengths and weaknesses in a position, proposal, or
prospectus; the ability to evaluate the validity of a position, proposal or argument.
Communication Skills: the ability to organize points into a persuasive, compelling presentation; the ability
to write and speak clearly and effectively.
Research Skills: the ability to independently determine what information is relevant, find it, and
organize it.
Management Skills: The ability to analyze complicated processes, problems and procedures into constituent
elements; to devise strategies for addressing problems; to assess progress and evaluate
performance and progress objectively.
Given the array of skills developed through the study of philosophy, it is not surprising
that corporate executives believe that philosophy graduates “tend to learn fast and
advance quickly” (Careers for Philosophers, American Philosophical Association).
Who studies philosophy?
Take a look at what the American Philosophical Association has to say.
Several of our philosophy majors have gone on to successful careers in a wide variety
of fields after graduating from WSU. Here is what some of our former students have
to say about the benefits of a degree in philosophy.
Image Credit: American Philosophical Association