Welcome from the Faculty
For many of us, our time in college is the only opportunity we will ever have to pause and think carefully about some of the questions which we all have as human beings:
- Is there a level of reality that cannot be known by the senses?
- Does God exist?
- Do our lives have more than an earthly meaning?
- Are there objective moral standards to which we are all responsible?
- Even if God or ethical standards do exist, is there any reason to think that we can have any certain knowledge about them?
These are basic human questions, and Philosophy is the discipline that addresses these questions in the most systematic and rigorous way. How we answer these questions will affect how we think about ourselves and our world for the rest of our lives.
Philosophy courses offer students these opportunities:
- To examine questions of human meaning in dialogue with classic texts of the Western philosophical tradition—and to engage non-Western and contemporary perspectives on these questions.
- To articulate the problems of the majors fields of philosophy and to develop one's one answers to these problems.
- To make contact with thinkers and issues that are of particular interest to the Catholic intellectual tradition.
- To apply critical philosophical reasoning to other courses of study and to matters of ethical, civic, and intellectual responsibility.
- To develop analytical and critical thinking, writing, reading, and speaking abilities.
The program accomplishes its goals for all students in the core curriculum: each Sacred Heart University student is required to take the foundational course - PH 101, Introduction to the Problems of Philosophy - and must choose at least one additional elective from either Religious Studies or Philosophy. In addition, students may explore these opportunities systematically by choosing a major or minor in Philosophy.
The Philosophy major or minor is an opportunity for you to address these questions over a sustained period of time with the assistance of your professors, your peers, and the works of those who have thought about them in the past. We encourage you to consider the opportunity our program offers you: to do the most challenging - and potentially the most rewarding - thinking you have done so far in your life. Any of the faculty in the program would be happy to talk with you more about what is involved in the study of Philosophy.