Philosophy

Undergraduate Programs

Description

Our mission is to promote our students’ development as independent and critical thinkers, and to guide their reflective engagement with fundamental questions about the nature of knowledge and reasoning, of ethical and aesthetic values, and of mind and world.

Students in our programs develop strong critical thinking, research, and communication skills, which are essential for success in any career. Those skills provide philosophy majors with the flexibility to adapt and grow as technologies and economic markets change. Our graduates have gone on to careers in higher education, medicine, law, information technology, business, non-profit leadership, publishing, and government. 

Majors

 Program Locations Total Credits
Philosophy BA BA - Bachelor of Arts
  • Mankato
 120
Philosophy BA Honors in Philosophy BA - Bachelor of Arts
  • Mankato
 120
Philosophy BS BS - Bachelor of Science
  • Mankato
 120
Philosophy BS Honors in Philosophy BS - Bachelor of Science
  • Mankato
 120

Minors

 Program Locations Total Credits
Philosophy Minor 18

Policies & Faculty

Policies

Admission to Major is granted by the department. Minimum university admission requirements are:

  • a minimum of 32 earned semester credit hours.
  • a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.00 (“C”).

Contact the department for application procedures.

GPA Policy: None.

P/N Grading Policy: the P/N grading system applies to all courses, but majors and minors may take 300- or 400-level PHIL courses for P/N credit only with the consent of the department.

HONORS IN PHILOSOPHY 

The Honors in Philosophy option provides an enriched experience to the most capable Philosophy majors. Students pursuing Honors in Philosophy work closely with a Philosophy faculty member to write a thesis in the final year of study. This option is aimed especially at students who plan on graduate or professional study. 

Admission to Honors in Philosophy is granted by the department, and ordinarily happens in the junior year, but no later than the beginning of the final year of study. Participation in the University Honors Program is not required. Admission requirements include a 3.0 cumulative GPA and 3.5 in all PHIL courses taken, with a minimum of 4 PHIL courses completed. In order to graduate with Honors in Philosophy, a student must meet the minimum requirements for graduation with University Honors (3.3 cumulative GPA or better), have a 3.5 or better in all PHIL courses, and complete all program requirements, including the Philosophy Honors Thesis.

Further details and policies on Honors in Philosophy and the Honors Thesis are available from the Department of Philosophy.

Honors in Philosophy (BA) requirements:

Honors in Philosophy BA requirements: 

  • PHIL 495 Philosophy Honors Thesis I (3)
  • PHIL 496 Philosophy Honors Thesis II (3)
  • PHIL XXX Select 3 credits from the Major Unrestricted Electives 

Honors in Philosophy (BS) requirements:

  • PHIL 495 Philosophy Honors Thesis I (3)
  • PHIL 496 Philosophy Honors Thesis II (3)

Contact Information

227 Armstrong Hall

(507) 389-2012
http://www.mnsu.edu/philosophy/

Faculty

Chair
  • Brandon Cooke
Faculty

100 Level

Credits: 3

Introduction to the nature of philosophy and specific, basic problems.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 3

This course considers historical and contemporary analyses of the mind in relation to the body and the connection of the mind-body problem to other issues concerning both religion and science.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 3

Traditional syllogistic logic and an introduction to the elements of modern symbolic logic.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-02, GE-04

Credits: 3

This course explores what makes reasoning scientific as distinguished from non-scientific. Issues are inductive reasoning, causal reasoning, fallacies, hypothetico-deductive reasoning, falsifiability, and scientific knowledge.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-02, GE-04

Credits: 3

To what extent do the differences among races and between genders represent biological differences, and to what extent are they constructed by society? Is racism best conceptualized as an additional burden to sexism or as one different in kind?

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-07

Credits: 3

Discussion of theories of value and obligation.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Credits: 3

Survey of Asian philosophical traditions of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-08

Diverse Cultures: Purple

200 Level

Credits: 3

Discussion of the ways that a culture both creates human community and shapes self-identity. Exploration of similarities and differences between and interdependence among cultural traditions, and of vocabularies for assessing traditions.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-08

Credits: 3

Ethical perspectives relevant to issues such as euthanasia, genetic engineering, organ transplant, patients' rights, abortion, etc.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Credits: 3

Introduction to ethical theories and concepts and their application to specific cases in the world of business.V

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Credits: 3

Introduction to ethical theories and concepts and their application to specific cases in the world of business.V

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Credits: 3

Questions about human responsibilities to other animals and the environment gain urgency as environmental crises become more prevalent, and animal species continue to be eliminated. Learn about, critique, and apply the principles underlying evaluations of human environmental conduct.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09, GE-10

Credits: 3

Consideration of the basic philosophical approaches to the idea of justice and how this idea relates to other fundamental ideas in political philosophy, ethics, and law.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

300 Level

Credits: 3

Study of the elements of first order symbolic logic, i.e., the propositional calculus and the predicate calculus, and its applications to ordinary language and mathematics.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-02, GE-04

Credits: 3

Human rights and responsibilities in relation to the organization of society and government.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Credits: 3

Topics in normative, meta-ethical and applied ethical theory.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Credits: 3

This course will introduce students to important texts in moral and social philosophy that provide the foundation for modern economics. In addition, we will discuss philosophical accounts of rationality, well being, and freedom and their relevance to economic analysis.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Credits: 3

Philosophers of Ancient Greece, Rome and the early middle ages: The presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic and Roman philosophers, St. Augustine.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 3

Late Medieval Philosophy and its influence on the Renaissance, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz and Continental Rationalism, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and British Empiricism, and Kant.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 3

Philosophers and philosophies of the 19th century.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Credits: 3

Colonial times to the present.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Critical discussion of the topics chosen from the Asian philosophical traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-08

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Credits: 3

Structure and logic of religious belief. Problems such as the existence of God, evil, immortality, miracles, and religious language.

Prerequisites: none

400 Level

Credits: 3

This course will undertake a close reading and study of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and other texts.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

A study of the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Theories of meaning, speech acts and semantics, relation of language to the world.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Theories of knowledge and justification, skeptical attacks on the possibility of knowledge, and anti-skeptical defenses.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

An investigation of the most fundamental concepts of reality, including the nature of things, identity over time, modality, causation, free will, space and time, and universals and particulars.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Major philosophers and philosophies of the late 20th Century.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Discussion of philosophical issues in law by way of connecting legal problems to well-developed and traditional problems in philosophy, e.g., in ethics, political philosophy, and epistemology, and investigates the philosophical underpinnings of the development of law. The course takes an analytical approach to law (as opposed to historical sociological, political, or legalistic approaches) and devotes a substantial part of the semester to a major work on law written by a philosopher.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Study of philosophy done from a feminist perspective in areas such as metaphysics, epistemology or ethics.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 1-3

Intensive study of a single philosopher or topic.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

In-depth analysis of major European existentialists such as Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Aesthetic principles, theories, and the creative process. Theories of visual arts, music, literature, dance, etc.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

This course investigates some of the central philosophical issues in our thinking about film, including questions about narrative, ontology, ethical criticism of film, the role of artistic intentions in interpretation, artistic medium, and the art/entertainment distinction.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

The nature of consciousness, mind and body relations, freedom of action.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

This course examines the conceptual and philosophical complexities of efforts to understand the mind in science. Topics include the difference and similarities between humans and other animals, the nature of psychological explanation, and reductive strategies for explaining consciousness, intentionality and language. Fall

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Cognitive and epistemic issues surrounding sensory perception, including the nature of perception, its immediate objects, and its ability to deliver knowledge of the world.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Philosophical issues concerning the mental lives of non-human animals, with emphasis on consciousness, rationality, language, and implications for non-human animal ethics.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Nature of explanations, causality, theoretical entities, and selected problems.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

This course examines conceptual and philosophical issues in biology, the nature and scope of biological explanation and conflicts between evolutionary and religious explanations for the origin of life.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Examines the nature and methods of alternative strategies of theory construction in the social sciences and the metaphysical and epistemological assumptions and implications of such strategies. For example can people, their behavior and norms of rationality be understood in naturalistic terms or must they be understood only in culturally local terms.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 1-6

Special event of less than semester duration.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 1-6

.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 3

Restricted to Philosophy Honors students. Permission of department and instructor required.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 1

Restricted to Philosophy Honors students. Permission of department and instructor required.

Prerequisites: PHIL 495

Credits: 3

Restricted to Cognitive Science Majors in their final year.

Prerequisites: none

Credits: 1-6

Individual study of a philosopher or problem.

Prerequisites: none