B.A. Degree in Philosophy

The Philosophy program at SDSU aims to develop in the student an increasingly sophisticated, reflective, and comprehensive understanding of the historical, systematic, and applied dimensions of philosophy, both Western and non-Western. It further seeks to develop a commitment to pursue reflectively the most important questions of the three major fields of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, to reason soundly about them, to make meaningful and well-informed contributions to the dialogue concerning them, and to be able to apply that knowledge to social, political, global, environmental, ecological, scientific, and other "real world” contexts. Toward this end, the Philosophy program serves, supports, and challenges many diverse groups of students: philosophy majors, both graduate and undergraduate; those seeking careers in community colleges, technical writing, public administration, government service, the legal, para-legal, or medical professions; students training for advisory roles in health services, politics, the military, with an interest in ethics and leadership (including the campus minor in Leadership Development); those wishing to continue on to a Ph.D.; mature students transitioning to new career paths; students from all class standings (freshman-senior) and from a wide range of majors at SDSU, including ISCOR, business, communication studies, English, political science, social work, and sociology, seeking skills in argument analysis, logical thinking and persuasive writing. Career Opportunities: Out of all the majors in CAL (with the exception economics), Philosophy pays the highest mid-career salary. Philosophy graduates find careers in Tech Industry: computer and software design, Government and NGOs: politics and community service, Medical Industry: medicine and administration, Business: management and entrepreneurship and Publishing: technical and creative writing.