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Philosophy is an attempt to understand knowledge, reasoning, morality and values, other religions and cultures, as well as our own. As a discipline, philosophy tries to understand the world and our relation to the world. Philosophy asks questions such as: What makes a person with moral stature? What makes someone the same person over time? Do we have freewill? Is there a God? Can we build machines that can think? What is the fundamental nature of right and wrong? Is it wrong to genetically modify crops or animals? In addition to trying to answer these questions and many more, philosophy provides training in basic methods of reasoning: both everyday critical thinking and formal symbolic logic. A major or minor in philosophy is useful background for a many careers including teaching philosophy or careers in business, cognitive science, law, theology and many more.

AREA OF EMPHASIS AT DELAWARE

The department offers courses in nearly every area of philosophy. We offer courses in each group of the General Education Program: Arts & Humanities, Culture and Institutions, Empirically-based study of Humans and their Environment, and the Study of Natural Phenomena through Experiment or Analysis. We offer courses in the traditional core areas of philosophy: aesthetics, American philosophy, epistemology, ethics, existentialism, logic, metaphysics, the history of philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and world religions. In addition, we offer courses in more specialized areas of philosophy: bioethics, business and engineering ethics, environmental and medical ethics, philosophy of biology, philosophy of mind, critical thinking, decision theory, Chinese Philosophy, Indian philosophy, Jewish philosophy and theology, women and religion, feminists theory, race, gender & science, philosophy of social science, and philosophy and technology. The department offers a major and minor in philosophy and a minor in religious studies. In addition, our faculty contribute to programs in: Biotechnology, Cognitive Science, Women’s Studies, Jewish Studies, The Center for Environmental Policy, the Masters in Business Administration, the Masters in Liberal Studies Program, the Medical Scholars Program, the Honors Program, and more.

Additional Keywords pre-law, prelaw, law