Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy

The B.A. program centers on the principles of knowledge, responsibility and society. It provides students with opportunities to investigate the connections between intellectual pursuits and moral and public virtue. Questions to be investigated in courses include: Grappling with such questions is of the utmost importance in a world too often characterized by interpersonal violence, cross-cultural misunderstandings, rapid technological development, and environmental crises. Indeed, these are arguably among the most pressing questions of the new millennium. The Philosophy program aims to provide students with the theoretical skills and knowledge to engage with the complex issues of our time. As Lorraine Code said: Epistemic responsibility... is to be found in intellectual virtue and in... A certain orientation to the world and one's knowledge-seeking self as part of the world. An intellectually virtuous person would value knowing and understanding how things 'really' are, to the extent this is possible, renouncing both the temptation to live with partial explanations when fuller ones are attainable, and the temptation to live in fantasy or illusion. Such a person would consider it better to know, despite the comfortable complacency that a life indiscriminately governed by fantasy, and illusion, might offer.