Why Choose Ashland for Philosophy?
Philosophy: Love of Wisdom. Get some!
You will develop the necessary intellectual tools to analyze information and the beliefs of others and yourself, to think creatively, and to make critical, positive judgments. Studying Philosophy will enhance and expand your communication skills and problem solving abilities, which will help you succeed in a wide range of occupations or in graduate school.
The Philosophy major requires only 24 hours, so you have the opportunity to add a double major or a minor and enhance your learning and career prospects. Philosophy is a program that adds significant qualitative value to your educational experience.
The AU Philosophy Department consists of full-time, tenured, and research-experienced faculty who are completely hands-on in the classroom.
Our department has a unique, thorough sequence in the history of philosophy, focused on primary texts, designed to empower students with the most significant ideas of the past and present.
Our department is one of the few programs of its size to offer comprehensive study both in analytical philosophy—with the emphasis on logic, reasoning, and analysis—and continental philosophy—with its emphasis on aesthetics and literary approaches to thought.
Philosophy students can elect to take exciting and rigorous team-taught classes that combine disciplines such as Chemistry, Geology, Religion, and English with Philosophy.
Philosophy Club – Provides student intellectual and social enrichment through monthly meetings, pizza and movie nights, public Socrates Café discussions, and invited speakers.
Thought & Belief — Examine claims that people make about God, God's existence, evil, faith, and other religious issues, and assess the conceptual grounds upon which these claims stand. Evaluate the facts and theories available for and against certain religious claims––facts and theories that are available to any rational person, whether religious or not.
Ethics — Why be moral, and what ought I do to live a happy life? Come away with a greater ability both to apply moral theories in everyday contexts, and learn to defend your most deeply held moral beliefs with university level arguments. Study major classical figures in western moral philosophy, including Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Mill and Nietzsche.
Practical Thinking — The key to good practical thinking is being able to distinguish between good arguments and bad arguments. The general aim of this course is to enable you to recognize, reconstruct, and evaluate most forms of deductive and inductive reasoning. You will examine issues of meaning, definitions, and common formal and informal fallacies of thinking.
When you send in your enrollment application, our staff automatically submits your name for all awards for which you may be eligible. In the meantime, you can calculate your academic scholarship award on our website 24/7. Visit www.ashland.edu/financial-aid to see just how affordable Ashland will be for you next year.
The department of Philosophy is housed in the Bixler Center for the Humanities, along with the departments of English, Foreign Language, the Writing Center and the AU Center for Non-Violence.