Department of Philosophy Mission Statement

Teaching

The Department of Philosophy aims to awaken in students a love for philosophical inquiry and help them discover resources for building a reasoned world-view. We provide tools for rigorous thinking and introduce students to distinguished philosophical work over the centuries and into our own time, enabling them to confront such over-arching questions as:

What am I?
What can I know?
What ought I do?
What can I hope?

In exploring such questions, the program pays careful attention to writings foundational to the Catholic intellectual tradition, particularly works by Aristotle and Aquinas. The program focuses on arguments that rely on reason and experience, not revelation. Committed to broad integration of our understanding of reality, the program engages a variety of philosophical traditions, including non-Western, and pursues philosophical questions prompted by the study of such subjects as the natural and social sciences, mathematics, medicine, business, law, theology, the fine arts, and literature.

The department offers two courses that correspond to the University's core of required courses. The first introduces students to basic tools of logic and to philosophical perspectives on human nature and personhood; the second introduces them to philosophical principles that underlie moral responsibility and to ways in which these principles apply to problems of the contemporary world.

Engaging the Profession

The Department of Philosophy commits itself to philosophical scholarship and to cultivation of the Catholic intellectual tradition.

Service

The Department of Philosophy undertakes service that strengthens our various communities--philosophical, academic, civic, and religious.