Philosophy, BA

Learning Outcomes

The Philosophy Department seeks to cultivate a unique virtue in its students and faculty. This intellectual virtue we have called the Philosophical Habit of Mind. It consists, at least, of the following abilities:

• SITUATE oneself in the Western philosophical tradition of ethical and metaphysical questions and reasoning.
• ACCOUNT to oneself and to others for the bases of one’s actions.
• RECKON with the consequences of one’s own and other’s practical reasoning in various contexts, both personal and political.
• RAISE metaphysical questions in various concrete, lived, literary and political contexts.
• DISTINGUISH and relate the architectonic questions of metaphysics from and to the specialized questions of the sciences and other disciplines.
• DISCERN the interconnection between various modes of ethical and political reflection and distinct metaphysical positions.
• POSE to oneself the questions raised by the claims of the Christian faith on one’s own ethical and metaphysical reasoning.
• READ new or contemporary works in the ongoing tradition of dialectical philosophy with all these abilities at one’s disposal.