SWAG��Ƶ

What is morality? What is beauty? What is freedom? If you’ve ever caught yourself pondering some of life’s “big questions,” SWAG��Ƶ’s minor in Philosophy may be for you. Like no other academic discipline, philosophy directly and rigorously investigates questions like these, deepening your understanding of yourself and the world around you. A highly practical program, SWAG��Ƶ’s Philosophy minor offers courses that are designed to connect philosophical ideas to “real world” topics and challenges that we face in society today. Moreover, the program equips you with the intellectual skills you need to evaluate, discuss, debate, and write about a wide variety of information and ideas, making it the perfect complement to any academic major and potentially increasing employability in practically any career field.

Unlike many academic disciplines that require navigation of a sharp learning curve before you can truly engage in them in a hands-on manner, SWAG��Ƶ’s Philosophy minor is a program you can take part in right from day one. In fact, you’ve likely already been involved in philosophical pursuits, perhaps without even realizing it. By providing opportunities for skeptical and critical dialogue about ideas, our philosophy courses give you a better understanding of the force of ideas, or lack thereof, while actively engaging your imagination and analytic reasoning skills — all from the moment you walk in the classroom door.

Experiential Learning

Interdisciplinary Research and Projects

You can think of the philosophy classroom as a laboratory of ideas that range from politics and ethics to artificial intelligence, the environment, and so much more. By analyzing conceptual foundations and methodological assumptions of various intellectual disciplines, philosophy lends itself well to interdisciplinary projects, leading to novel and fruitful developments in different fields by reconceiving things that have been taken for granted or by shedding light on things that have been overlooked. Many philosophy minors have applied a philosophical approach to their major field of study in order to produce original research and projects that combine the two disciplines. Past projects have included:

• A thesis on the ethics of coastal adaptation strategies made necessary by global warming
• A project that explored how stoicism was incorporated into the lives and politics of the Founding Fathers
• A study of the simianization of racialized people
• A cross-cultural and historical investigation of the belief that the act of murder contaminates the killer

In-Class Activities

The Philosophy program at SWAG��Ƶ is designed for active student engagement in the philosophical process. Memorizing the theories of Plato, Descartes, Nietzsche, and Marx is not the goal. We want to coax out your inner philosopher by providing you the tools to formulate your own theories as well as challenge those of others. Classes are highly interactive, and you will engage with your classmates in debates, classroom discussions, and small group work on a regular basis.