Philosophy

About this programme

The word "philosophy" is derived from the Greek words for "love of wisdom" where wisdom was taken to mean living with an understanding of the ultimate nature of things. Such understanding emerges from grappling with enduring and fundamental questions about truth and knowledge, about the nature of goodness and what is right to do, and about beauty and human purposes and meaning. By engaging in a rigorous intellectual investigation of such fundamental questions students in philosophy develop analytical and problem-solving skills and the capacity for critical thinking and the clear expression of ideas. By encountering the historical attempts to answer these questions, students in philosophy gain a greater awareness of the richness and power of human ideas. By these two paths students cultivate their abilities to reason logically and to assess the assumptions underlying the sciences and humanities, as well as developing capacities to reflect on important questions involving moral, politica