Major in Philosophy
The Philosophy major at Boston College is designed to ground students in the core classical issues of philosophy and to give them the ability to engage with significant areas of contemporary concern in a way that moves forward our communal conversation and the path toward answers and solutions. The Philosophy major focuses and sharpens students’ abilities to critically evaluate arguments and issues, to understand the assumptions and backgrounds of contemporary views, practices, and controversies, with a view to enable them to use their insights and skills to contribute to dialogue, understanding, and positive action in their professions and communities, large and small.
Philosophy currently supports over 200 majors, almost half of which are 2nd or 3rd majors. Philosophy blends easily with other majors because it offers a great deal of flexibility and speaks to so many issues that are foundational to other disciplines and many career paths.
The Philosophy major serves students with different interests and career paths through different concentrations or tracks which have been designed to both give focus and direction to the Philosophy major while preserving the flexibility of the major.
Spring 2020 Undergraduate Philosophy Electives by Type
New Requirements for Philosophy Major beginning AY2018/2019:
All Philosophy Majors must take a total of 30 credits in Philosophy, as follows:
- Two Core courses in Philosophy (6 credits)
- Eight Philosophy electives (24 credits)
- History of Philosophy
- Knowledge & Reality
- Ethics & Value
- Free elective
- Kant & Lonergan (Byrne)
- Medieval (Solere)
- Platonic Dialogues (McCoy)
- Aristotelian Ethics (Madigan)
- Christian Faith/Greek Phil (Madigan)
- British Empiricists (Davenport}
- Hegel, Kierkegaard & Nietzsche (Rumble)
- Perspectives III, Horizon of the New Social Sciences
- Medieval (Solere)
- Mysticism (Kreeft)
- Space and Time (Stan)
- Phil of Language (Sweeney)
- Mind & Body (Tacelli)
- Does God Exist? (Tacelli)
- Phil of Imagination (Kearney)
- Mph of Ethics (Garcia)
- Spanish American Phil (Gurtler)
- Philosophy of Mental Illness (Rapier)
- Religion and Reason (Kreeft)
- Perspectives IV, New Scientific Visions
- Challenge of Justice (Snyder)
- The Holocaust (Bernauer)
- Ethics of Peace & War (Fried)
- The Idea of America (Fried)
- Hegel, Kierkegaard & Nietzsche (Rumble)
- Aristotelian Ethics (Madigan)
- What is Moral Knowledge (Lott)
- Freud & Philosophy (Bloechl)
- Readings in Phenomenology (Moran)
- Phil of Imagination (Kearney)
- Philosophy of the Strange (Kearney)
- Racial Injustice/Racial Remedy (Garcia)
- Metaphysics of Ethics (Garcia)
- Spanish American Phil (Gurtler)
- Toward Deep Subjectivity (Braman)
- Ethical Principles (Jiang)
- Ethics, Religion, Int’l Politics (Willard)
- Technology & Culture (Griffith)
- Buddhist Ethics: Ancient/Mod (Makransky)
- The Interior Life (Barrette)
- History, Truth & Authenticity (Romano)
- Perspectives II, Modernism and the Arts
Students wanting focus and direction for their elective choices may select a track within the major. Tracks are satisfied in consultation with the major advisor by completing two electives in one of the following areas:
- Science, Ethics & Humanities
- Law, Public Policy, & Economics
- Philosophy, Religion & the Arts