Philosophy

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Department of Philosophy
College of Arts and Sciences

Liberal Arts Building 23 ~ 260-481-6366 ~ ipfw.edu/phil

Philosophy is a traditional humanities and liberal arts program which pursues  normative questions that facts alone cannot answer, such as “what makes a statement true?” “what makes an argument valid?” “what makes an action morally good?” “what makes a society just?” “what makes a supernatural belief justified?”  History courses dealing with such questions are taught in a contextual spirit where philosophy shows as an integral part of the social, political, and intellectual fabric of its time, while topics courses are taught in a transdisciplinary spirit where philosophical inquiries are informed by facts and results of cognate disciplines and the sciences.  Programs in philosophy include a four-year bachelor of arts degree (BA), a minor in philosophy, a minor in professional and applied ethics as well as a certificate in medical ethics (both undergraduate and post-baccalaureate).  Our double focus on context and transdisciplinarity combined with our “Philosophy Plus Two”-option, which allows students to have their capstone work informed by disciplinary knowledge outside philosophy, makes it easy to double-major or to combine philosophy with other skills students deem relevant for their future.

The department also offers a minor in Religious Studies, which is multidisciplinary in approach and global in scope.  We provide students with a firm grounding in the academic study of religion through informed investigation of the phenomenon of religion in diverse historical, social, cultural, and political contexts. The acquisition of a broad scope of knowledge about the world’s religious traditions past and present is coupled with a critical apprehension of the methods and tools scholars use to study them.

Our programs thus serve as an excellent preparation for further study at the graduate level and furnish our students with highly valued skills and knowledge in career paths as varied as law, social work, the ministry, education, the nonprofit sector, or journalism, to name just a few.

For program descriptions, see Programs  of this Bulletin.

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