In addition general philosophy major, the department also offer
the following concentrations:
It's sometimes difficult to determine whether philosophy is more respected or maligned. On the one hand, philosophy is respected as the ultimate repository of answers to such big questions as "What is the meaning of life?" and is considered to be the only repository available by those people no longer able to look to religion for the ultimate resolution to their existential crises. On the other hand, philosophy is maligned as a frivolous pursuit detached from the realities of the life whose meaning it purports to explain and interpret, rather more like a benign old alchemist pharmacist dispensing prescriptions to soothe troubled souls in the modern age. Such polarization of opinion is hardly surprising in light of the notorious difficulties surrounding attempts to define philosophy. The concepts of philosophy employed by philosophers and by non philosophers are equally impoverished because they bear so few points of contact with each other, but we may avoid gross injustice to either party by describing philosophy as the rigorous examination of issues which cannot be resolved through empirical procedures such as observation or experiment. This definition has the virtue of being broad enough to encompass both the narrowly technical work of professional philosophers and the sweeping philosophical concerns of non philosophers. Philosophy really is, in part, that inquiry whose special concern is to think seriously about such questions as "Is there a God?" "Are values objective?" and "Is your mind distinct from your brain?" It isn't a fund of final answers to these questions. It is, instead, a way of raising and answering them. By posing such questions, philosophy enables us to understand what we believe. By providing us with the intellectual tools necessary to tackle these questions, philosophy helps us to open our beliefs to scrutiny and teaches us how to reason well about issues that are important to us. By acquainting us with the variety of ways in which these questions are answered, philosophy helps us to formulate provisional positions on pressing issues, while stretching our capacity to tolerate uncertainty and live with the open-endedness of critical dialogue. In the final analysis, philosophy is neither alchemist nor pharmacist. It is, instead, the means by which we may prepare our own solutions to the puzzles of existence, and attain the balance of intellectual self-reliance and mental flexibility necessary to function in our increasingly complicated world. |
