Major Overview

Philosophy has long concerned itself with fundamental questions regarding existence, value, and truth—What is real? Why are we here? What is the nature of our moral obligations? To that end, our curriculum will use the history of philosophy to ground you in its major disciplines, including ethics and metaphysics, and will include an especial focus on Greek philosophy, the early modern and modern period, and 20th century continental philosophy. You will be introduced to the fundamental methods of philosophical inquiry with a historical overview of Western philosophy, from ancient to contemporary philosophical thought, which will allow you to develop your own philosophical interests within a broad range of topic-oriented courses across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The educational goals for this major are as follows:

  • Philosophical Analysis: you will identify, comprehend and differentiate philosophical concepts, definitions, theses, and arguments paying attention to their discursive organization via slow and careful reading.
  • Reflective Orientation: you will use conceptual analysis to articulate a problem or question that arises within an academic discipline or a social practice.
  • Historical Contextualization: you will sketch the historical context of a philosophy and position it accurately within the history of philosophy.
  • Interdisciplinary Imagination: you will gain the capacity to build bridges between philosophy and other academic disciplines, and to bring philosophy to bear on extra-philosophical objects.
  • Written Arguments: you will write a structured and persuasive analytic argument that develops an enquiry in the genre of an academic essay.
  • Lucid Speech: you will gain the capacity to clearly articulate and defend a philosophical position orally whilst maintaining correct syntax and an appropriate lexicon Analysis.

Learning Environment

Your core classes will cover the history of philosophy and philosophical logic, while also reinforcing your ability to articulate philosophy’s different disciplines. As you choose courses that focus on your philosophical disciplines of interest, including epistemology and aesthetics, and progress in your studies, our interdisciplinary curriculum will encourage you to take a comparative look at philosophy with another discipline or practice, like cinema or political economy. 

Major Components
Build Your Degree

With every single one of our majors, you’ll find a carefully curated medley of core courses and electives, which will provide you with the tools you need to establish an unshakeable foundation in the principles and concepts fundamental to your growth within your disciplines of choice. Many majors also enable you to specialize further within the broader area of study.

Core Courses

Core Courses

We aim to help you develop a range of skills, capacities, and modes of inquiry that will be crucial for your future since employers and graduate schools are looking for the critical thinking and innovative problem-solving skills that are associated with a liberal arts education, including sophisticated writing abilities, willingness to pose difficult questions, and an understanding of the historical and cultural contexts surrounding a topic or decision.  

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Electives

Electives

With the three class options that you choose from the “Exploring Your Questions” electives, you will concentrate on topics with which you will be able to engage during your time at AUP and afterwards, including philosophy’s historical inquiries into the nature of the body and the historical relationship between theater and philosophy.  

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Core Courses

We aim to help you develop a range of skills, capacities, and modes of inquiry that will be crucial for your future since employers and graduate schools are looking for the critical thinking and innovative problem-solving skills that are associated with a liberal arts education, including sophisticated writing abilities, willingness to pose difficult questions, and an understanding of the historical and cultural contexts surrounding a topic or decision.

 

PL1100 History Of Philosophy I: From Ancient To Medieval

This course offers an overview of ancient and medieval philosophy. Beginning with the earliest Greek philosophers and ending with the late medieval founding fathers of modern scientific thought, we will read and discuss various answers these thinkers gave to questions such as: 'What is a good life?' or 'How can I reconcile my faith with what reason tells me?' Readings include Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Seneca, Plotinus, Anselm, Avicenna, Abelard, Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas and Nicolaus of Autrecourt.

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PL1200 History Of Philosophy II: From Renaissance To Modern

Formerly PL2022. This course aims to provide a solid and comprehensive grounding in modern philosophy focusing on the main issues and theories of late Renaissance philosophy, modern Rationalism and Empiricism, philosophies of the Enlightenment, Critical philosophy, modern Idealism, Phenomenology and some questions of analytic philosophy. It offers an introduction to the works of the major figures of this tradition.

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PL1300 Knowing Why: Formal Logic And Causal Reasoning

You will understand better why you and why others hold the beliefs they do. The course combines a complete introduction to propositional and predicate logic with an overview of types of causal reasoning. You will apply these new skills to analyze and engage with natural language arguments about philosophical topics and other controversial themes of the day.

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PL4094 Thesis Workshop

Upon a successful thesis application students must complete the thesis workshop in which they develop their thesis proposal through the submission of a literature review, an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources, and a draft of the first chapter. Students will learn how to plan and execute a substantial research project with the professor's close supervision.

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PL4095 Senior Project

A Senior Project is an independent study representing a Major Capstone Project that needs to be registered using the Senior Project registration form. (Download: https://aupforms.formstack.com/workflows/senior_project)

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