The basic philosophy curriculum includes courses in the history of philosophy covering the period which begins with the development of rational inquiry by the philosophers of ancient Greece and which concludes with the construction of the modern philosophical systems of the Enlightenment as well as courses in each of the major fields of philosophical study: ethics, which is concerned with the basis of morality; metaphysics, which explores different views about what fundamentally exists; epistemology, which examines the nature and limits of human knowledge; and logic, which studies general methods of reasoned argument and analysis.

Majors in Philosophy will be able to:

• Write clear and persuasive argumentative essays.
• Interpret complex philosophical texts.
• Critically explain major issues and positions in the history of philosophy, value theory, and metaphysics/epistemology.
• Analyze arguments using formal logic.
• Reason philosophically.