Philosophy occupies a fundamental role within the liberal Arts and Sciences, not only due to its importance for developing the critical skills essential to all arts and sciences, but also because the perennial philosophical questions regarding the nature of reality, knowledge, truth, the self, mind and body, human nature, freedom and determinism, and moral and aesthetic value lie at the foundations of all academic disciplines.
Our aim is to build a Department of Philosophy that
(1) has a distinct strength in the study of cognition (perception, concepts and concept acquisition, consciousness, cognitive architecture, artificial intelligence, etc.) and the history of such study (especially in the early modern period);
(2) contributes to our students’ liberal arts education (by offering a number of courses that are essential to a liberal arts education such as Logic, Ethics, Introduction to Philosophy, Critical Thinking and Current Moral and Social Issues); and
(3) offers a major and a minor in Philosophy.