Department of Philosophy
"By virtue of its concentration on fundamental questions philosophy transcends disciplinary boundaries."
- Philosophy is commonly regarded as the oldest of the intellectual disciplines, challenged for that title only by mathematics. Philosophy also gave rise to many of the other disciplines now studied in colleges and universities. Philosophers study fundamental questions, such as: What is knowledge? How does knowledge differ from mere belief? What is the best form of political order? What is justice? What is the good life for human beings? By virtue of its concentration on fundamental questions philosophy transcends disciplinary boundaries.
- UM's Philosophy Department is of moderate size, both in terms of faculty positions and student enrollments. Classes are generally rather small and students are given a good deal of individual attention. The Department is distinguished both in its scholarship, including persons of international reputation, like Albert Borgmann, and in its teaching, with several of its members having won campus awards for outstanding teaching.
- Philosophy offers both the B.A. and M.A. degrees. Its graduates go on to a wide range of careers and further education. Graduates have gone on to advanced degree and professional programs at such institutions as Oxford (as Rhodes Scholars), Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon. The Department plays a significant role in UM's general education program.
- Philosophy programs tend to be identified with one school of thought within the field, especially with Anglo-American analytic philosophy or Continental Philosophy (Existentialism, Phenomenology). Defying this common pattern, our program is well-balanced and representative. It is also historically based.
Undergraduate Student Marianne Blaue
Marianne Blaue
I got into philosophy for what you might call all the wrong reasons—I wanted to debate God’s existence and question the nature of reality. What I found was that there are many reasons to be a philosophy major that have nothing to do with debating esoterica, but everything to do with what philosophy actually is: learning how to think. This aspect of the major made getting a philosophy degree by far the most important step I could have taken in the process of educating myself. And the value of emerging from intellectual immaturity is an emphasis of UM philosophy professors: they show why philosophy is relevant to our lives in our time and how it can be applied. Far from being limited to the irrelevant or impractical, philosophy equips students as able questioners, thinkers and problem solvers. No better preparation for making one’s way in the world can be had.
