Suggested 4-year Plan
- We encourage you to select your General Education (GE) and minor/second major/Themed Inquiry/Honors program around the plan below. Once you fill your GE classes around your major classes, you will have a better idea of space remaining each semester when choosing your Exploration Focus.
- To be enrolled full time, you must take at least 12 credits a semester.
- In order to graduate within 4 years, we recommend you take 30 credits a year.
- As a discipline, Philosophy has fewer courses with prerequisites, and there are many effective paths to satisfying the major requirements. The plan here embodies two pieces of advice that (though not essential) can help you to get the most out of your major experience:
- Satisfying the logic requirement early in your philosophy career is valuable since logic is an essential tool of philosophical inquiry.
- Satisfying the history requirement early will provide a useful historical perspective that can enrich your investigation of philosophical topics in later courses.
Year 1
Fall Semester (3 credits for major)
- PHIL 101 - Introduction to Philosophy (3 credits) or PHIL 102 Philosophy through Science Fiction (3 credits)
Spring Semester (3 credits for major)
- PHIL 104 - Introduction to Ethics (3 credits)
Year 2
Fall Semester (6 credits for major)
- PHIL 203 - Logic or PHIL 300 Symbolic Logic (3 credits)*
- PHIL 310 - Socrates to Aquinas (3 credits)
Spring Semester (6 credits for major)
- PHIL 311 - Descartes to Kirkegaard (3 credits)
- Upper-division elective (3 credits)
* PHIL 300 is a recommended course for students considering a Pre-Law track.
Year 3
Fall Semester (9 credits for major)
- Upper-division Metaphysics & Epistemology course (3 credits)
- Upper-division Ethics course (3 credits)
- Upper-division elective (3 credits)
Spring Semester (9 credits for major)
- PHIL 398 - Junior/Senior Seminar in Philosophy (3 credits)
- Upper-division Metaphysics & Epistemology course (3 credits)
- Upper-division Ethics course (3 credits)
Upper-division Courses
Metaphysics and Epistemology Courses
- PHIL 102 - Philosophy through Science Fiction 3 credits
- PHIL 125 - Philosophy of Religion (3 credits)
- PHIL 305 - Metaphysics (3 credits)
- PHIL 306 - Games and Decisions (3 credits)
- PHIL 307 - History of Twentieth Century Philosophy (3 credits)
- PHIL 309 - Religion, Knowledge and Evil (3 credits)
- PHIL 320 - Belief, Truth, and Knowledge (3 credits)
- PHIL 321 - Philosophy of Science (3 credits)
- PHIL 322a - Philosophical Theology (3 credits)
- PHIL 340 - Philosophy of Mind (3 credits)
- PHIL 350 - Philosophy of Quantum Theory (3 credits)
- PHIL 365 - Philosophy and Neuroscience of Free Will (3 credits)
Ethics Courses
- PHIL 104 - Introduction to Ethics (3 credits)
- PHIL 120 - Global Ethics and Religion (3 credits)
- PHIL 303 - Environmental Ethics (3 credits)
- PHIL 312 - Ethics Bowl (3 credits)
- PHIL 314 - Medical Ethics (3 credits)
- PHIL 316 - Business and Professional Ethics (3 credits)
- PHIL 318 - Political and Legal Philosophy (3 credits)
- PHIL 319 - Philosophy of Women/Women of Color (3 credits)
- PHIL 323 - Philosophy in Literature (3 credits)
- PHIL 324 - Philosophy of Law (3 credits)
- PHIL 327 - Global Justice (3 credits)
- PHIL 357 - Topics in Humanomics (3 credits)
Elective Courses
- PHIL 101 - Introduction to Philosophy (3 credits)
- PHIL 203 - Logic (3 credits)
- PHIL 300 - Symbolic Logic (3 credits)**
- PHIL 323 - Philosophy in Literature (3 credits)
- PHIL 325 - Albert Schweitzer: His Life and Thought (3 credits)
- PHIL 329 - Experimental Course (3 credits)
- PHIL 357 - Topics in Humanomics (3 credits)
- PHIL 398 - Jr/Sr. Seminar (3 credits)***
- PHIL 399 - Individual Study and Research (3 credits)
- PHIL 490 - Independent Research (3 credits)
** PHIL 300 is recommended for students considering a Pre-Law track.
*** PHIL 398 Jr/Sr. Seminar may count as an elective if taken more than once.
