Philosophy at Saint Mary's
How to Survive…
How to Thrive!
What is Philosophy?
Philosophy is a continuing endeavour in which thinkers attempt to fashion comprehensive and satisfying accounts of the things of the world and how they fit together. Its central method is argument: through many small arguments the philosopher constructs and presents her view of how things stand.
We ask philosophical questions, and use philosophical methods to address them, when the methods of arts and science begin to fail to produce answers. Philosophical problems arise when we experience tensions in our thinking, when we notice that two ideas, each of which on its own strikes us as plausible or sound, conflict with each other.
For instance, we think what we do is up to us, and we think that for anything that happens there is a sufficient cause. We think that God is the perfect creator of the world, and we notice that the world is far from perfect. We think that this animal's being a cat is an objective matter of fact, and we think that the concept “cat” is a human construct answering to our purposes. We think we have duties independently of what we might want or like, and we think that we are motivated to act only by what we want or like.
In thinking philosophically, we seek to resolve these tensions, either by rejecting one of the two ideas or by finding a way to interpret them such that no tension arises.
Why Take Philosophy Courses?
The best reason to take a philosophy course is that you are keen on philosophy. You feel tensions in your thinking that further positive inquiry will not resolve, and you want to resolve them. The difficult and perplexing matters with which philosophy deals matter to you.
Another good reason to take a philosophy course is that you desire to be well educated. You want to know what's happening in various disciplines throughout intellectual culture.
Another good reason to take a philosophy course is that thinking philosophically about art or literature or psychology or religion or science can help you to understand and to appreciate these fields better. That might be especially useful to you if one of them is your primary academic discipline.
Another good reason to take a philosophy course is that you want grapple seriously with the concrete ethical, social, and political issues of the day.
And another good reason to take a philosophy course is that you want to be a strong critical thinker, a person able to reason well about anything at all and someone not likely to fall prey to the bad reasoning of others.
Students who major in philosophy do better on average in graduate and professional school entrance examinations than do students from any other arts or humanities discipline. (Philosophy majors test as better readers and writers than English majors.) In the world of work, people with degrees in philosophy might start lower than people with degrees more relevant to the job, but they tend to climb faster and to retire higher than others do.
Courses in Philosophy
Each philosophy course is either a course on a problem in philosophy or a course in the history of philosophy–or both. Courses on problems in philosophy address philosophical issues directly. Students are challenged to resolve the issue as best they can. Courses in the history of philosophy ask how particular philosophers attempted to resolve the philosophical issues they discussed and how these philosophers influenced subsequent philosophers. Courses in the history of philosophy might also seek to understand how particular philosophers were shaped by and in turn shaped the world in which they lived.
Problems in philosophy can be roughly sorted into the categories metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, with ethics being the metaphysics and epistemology of value. Metaphysics attempts to describe how things are; epistemology attempts to distinguish knowledge or sound belief from ignorance in all its forms. Ethics is concerned with how things should be and how we should act, and with what it is to reason well about how things should be and about how we should act.
Every course in philosophy is a course in critical thinking–that is, every course in philosophy seeks to improve students' reasoning skills. As well, some philosophy courses are specifically critical thinking courses, beginning with PHIL 1200.
Undergraduate Programmes in Philosophy
1) Bachelor of Arts–Major in Philosophy. The Majors programme is for students who enjoy philosophy and want a good, all-round education but who don't anticipate applying to graduate school. Students can declare philosophy their major at the beginning of their second year at university and should do so before the end of their second year.
2) Bachelor of Arts–Honours in Philosophy. The Honours programme is for students who enjoy philosophy and who might decide to continue to study philosophy in a Masters of Arts programme. Students can apply for the Honours programme after having completed 18 credit hours (or the equivalent of 6 half-courses) in philosophy. Standardly, then, a student will apply to the Honours programme at the end of her second year at university.
3) Bachelor of Arts–Minor in Philosophy. Students who enjoy philosophy but are in the Majors or Honours programme of a different discipline can do a minor in philosophy. Students can declare their minor in philosophy during their second year at university. If you are not a philosophy major or Honours student in philosophy, keep track of how many philosophy courses you take. You might find that you can easily accumulate enough credit hours for a minor in philosophy.
4) Bachelor of Arts–General (Concentration in Philosophy). This is a three-year (rather than four-year) Bachelor of Arts degree. Students who enjoy philosophy and are seeking just the General Bachelor degree can make philosophy one of their two concentrations. Students should declare philosophy one of their concentrations early in their second year at university.
The philosophy department offers a Pre-Law option for Philosophy Majors and Honours students who might consider law school or related professional training. And the department offers a Double Honours programme in Philosophy and Physics.
How to Survive
1) Know what is needed to complete your programme successfully. Number of courses required, number of courses at each of the year-levels, grade-point average–all that and lot of other important information besides is available in the Saint Mary's University Academic Calendar of Undergraduate Programs.
2) Be sure to take PHIL 1201–Introduction to Philosophy. If you have not taken Introduction to Philosophy by the time you declare your Major or Minor or Concentration, take it the very next time it's offered.
3) Be careful about taking courses above your year level. First-year students should take only first-year courses, second-year students in their first term should take only second-year courses, second-year students in their second term might take one or two third-year courses. Certainly don't enrol in a fourth-year course at least until you are in third year. At each level, courses in philosophy presuppose the experience and skills acquired at the prior level.
4) Don't hesitate to see the Undergraduate Advisor, Shelagh Crooks, for information and advice. The Undergraduate Advisor can interpret the philosophy pages of the Academic Calendar for you. She can check your transcript to make sure you are on track. She can help you to select philosophy courses.
5) Don't hesitate to see the Undergraduate Programmes Officer, at the office of the Dean of Arts. The Undergraduate Programmes Officer can make sure that you are fulfilling the requirements laid down by the Faculty of Arts for your degree.
(The author of this pamphlet will not insult you by noting that students who miss classes or who fail to submit work on time cannot hope to survive a philosophy course.)
How to Thrive
1) Read and understand “How to Survive.”
2) Take courses in many areas of philosophy. Take courses in metaphysics and in epistemology and in ethics. Take courses in abstract topics and in applied topics. Take courses in the history of philosophy and in problems of philosophy.
Whether you are in the Honours programme, or doing a Major, or doing a Minor, or doing a Concentration in philosophy, you will want to graduate with a good understanding of philosophy generally. When you get to graduate school you can begin to specialize.
3) Take courses with many different professors. If you are contemplating enrolling in your fourth course with your favourite professor, check whether there's a philosophy professor you haven't yet studied with and consider enrolling in one of his or her courses instead. Exposing yourself to different teaching styles and different conceptions of philosophy will aid your development as a philosopher.
4) Do not hesitate to meet with your professors during their office hours to discuss philosophy. If something in class or the readings is puzzling, see your professor about it. Before finishing your essay, bring your professor an outline or a draft of it or just talk to her about your ideas. After an essay has been returned to you, bring it to your professor to discuss her comments and to get advice about the next essay.
5) Talk with other students in your classes and with other philosophy students. Discuss the readings and the assignments with your classmates outside of class. Form study and work groups with other students.
6) Join the Philosophy Society and participate in its events. Get to know other philosophy students as friends.
7) Submit an essay to the Writing Competition held by the Writing Centre at Saint Mary's. Submit an essay to a student journal of philosophy. (See the Undergraduate Advisor for a list of journals.)
How Earning a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy Will Change You Forever (For the Better!)
1) You will be familiar with many of the problems, methods, and figures in philosophy and you will be competent to think about them and to discuss them.
2) You will be a sound critical thinker.
3) You will be able to write well.
4) You will have acquired a particular cast of mind: you will be intellectually honest, not a person who ignores difficulties in order to hold onto her favourite beliefs; you will be open minded, and not dogmatic; you will be keen to understand things, even as you acknowledge how little of them you will ever understand.
This page last modified Wednesday, 02-Nov-2011 09:22:36 ADT