Why a Philosophy Minor complements ANY Major
Philosophy is well-known for the meaning and satisfaction students derive from the
study of big, historically influential ideas and thinkers. Less well-known are the
practical benefits deriving from adding philosophy courses to your schedule – whether
for mere GenEd electives, a Minor, or a second Major. Consider three such practical
benefits (for further benefits of adding philosophy courses to your schedule, see
our “Why Study Philosophy” page):
Philosophy is arguably the most interdisciplinary of academic fields. The history of every other academic discipline traces back to philosophy. Whether
you're majoring in psychology, biology, physics, or whatnot, your discipline was founded
by philosophers working on specialized topics unique to (what has become) your field.
Part of the legacy of these philosophical origins is that scholars across all fields
continue to earn PhD degrees – “PhD” abbreviates “Philosophy Doctorate”. The philosophical
foundations underlying other disciplines makes the study of Philosophy particular
well-suited as Minor or a second Major. Many of our course titles are a tribute to
the interdisciplinarity of philosophy – such courses as “Philosophy of Biology”, “Philosophy
of Physics”, “Philosophy of Science”, “Philosophy of Social Science”, “Philosophy
of Mind”, “Philosophy of Language”, “Philosophy of Law”, “Philosophy of Literature”,
“Philosophy of Education”, “Philosophy of Art” . . . you get the idea. Bottom-line:
The study of Philosophy combines fantastically well with a Major in any other field. Adding a Philosophy Minor or second Major typically rewards students
with a deeper understanding of issues relevant to their first Major.
The study of Philosophy provides skills that will help you get into a better graduate
program. Philosophy students consistently outperform other students on standardized grad
school prep exams – e.g., GRE, LSAT, MCAT, GMAT. Those exams do not emphasize discipline-specific
knowledge; rather, they emphasize skills with logical reasoning and comprehension
of logic-rich texts. Why? The thinking is that if you are good with logical reasoning,
then we can train you! Philosophy students do fantastically well on these exams for
the simple reason that Philosophy courses focus on logical reasoning. Adding a Philosophy Minor or second Major will help improve
your prep exam scores, and that will likely get you into a better-ranked graduate
program.
The study of philosophy improves students' reading and writing skills. If mastery with creative writing (among other forms) is your goal, then English
courses are terrific. If instead, the goal is mastery of reading and writing skills
associated with academic, journal-style texts – i.e., writings rich in logical reasoning
– you can do no better than to take Philosophy courses. Indeed, recent data for the
GRE exam show that for the two portions of the exam associated with verbal and writing
skills, Philosophy students earned the very highest scores of any Major. (English
Majors also did well, though, in both categories, they came in second to Philosophy
Majors.) Adding a Philosophy Minor or second Major will improve your reading and writing
in your first Major, helping you to earn better grades.
The Philosophy Department offers three distinct Minors (explained below).
21 credit hours
The field of applied ethics consists in the analysis of ethical issues as they arise
in the management and resolution of real-world problems. Applied ethics promotes an
ongoing "conversation" between specific cases and pressing issues.
Learn More
18 credit hours
How does the mind work? How do our thoughts tell us about the world around us, and
are these thoughts accurate? These questions have been asked for thousands of years,
and it is against this background that the field of cognitive science emerged.
Learn More
18 credit hours
Philosophical inquiry encompasses a wide range of topics, across a wide range of disciplines,
including interrelations between disciplines. Nearly every academic discipline is
a historical outgrowth of philosophy.
Learn More
The field of applied ethics consists in the analysis of ethical issues as they arise
in the management and resolution of real-world problems. Applied (or as it is sometimes
called, practical) ethics promotes an ongoing “conversation” between specific cases and pressing issues, on the one hand, and theory and meta-theory on the other. Bioethics, business ethics,
and environmental ethics are but a few of the areas of applied ethics that have flourished
in recent years, and all three areas are well represented by the faculty at the University
of Utah.
In the Applied Ethics Minor, students will learn skills of ethical reasoning and analysis
in the context of their preferred area of study. Course work may include ethics, political philosophy, political thought or democratic
theory; courses applying ethical analysis to health care, business and the professions,
engineering and the environment, global or social justice, law and politics, or communication
and the media; and courses in these particular fields illustrating ethical issues.
No prerequisites are required. The minor will be of particular interest to students
planning careers in one of the subject matter areas who wish to be able to bring ethical
perspectives and skills to their field.
Work in applied ethics requires understanding of moral and political philosophy, a
grasp of how to apply basic principles to problems in specific areas, and familiarity
with the specific areas of application themselves. Accordingly, the minor is structured
according to three broad areas of course work: (I) Theory, (II) Applied Theory, and (III) Specific Areas of Practice. Here we acknowledge that the distinctions between these major categories are not
always clean; therefore, our model allows for the fact that certain courses may appear
in more than one place.
Students are required to take two courses from each broad area and one additional course from area I or
II. We have selected practical areas to correspond to existing areas of faculty strength
and existing courses.
Select at least two courses from the following:
- PHIL 3500 Ethics (HF)
- PHIL 3700 Political Philosophy (HF)
- PHIL 5500 Contemporary Ethical Theory
- POLS 3010 Democratic Theory
- POLS 5010 Foundations of Political Thought: Late Modern
- POLS 5025 American Political Thought
- POLS 5035 Contemporary Political Thought
- POLS 5140 Feminist Political Theory
Select at least two courses from one of the following groups. Note that both of these courses must be
taken from the same group.
Group A: Bioethics
- COMM 5140 Communication and Aging
- HIST 4095 Governing Bodies
- PHIL 3520 Bioethics (HF)
- PHIL 5520 Advanced Bioethics
- POLS 5321 Health Policy
Group B: Business & Professional Ethics
- BUS 1050 Foundations of Business Thought (BF, HF)
- COMM 4170 Applied Organizational Communication (Prerequisite COMM 3170)
- COMM 5170 Contemporary Issues in Org. Comm (Prerequisite COMM 3170)
- COMM 5660 Media Ethics (Prerequisite COMM 1500)
- MGT 5600 Business Ethics
- PHIL 3510 Business and Professional Ethics (HF)
Group C: Engineering & Environmental Ethics
- PHIL 3510 Business and Professional Ethics (HF)
- PHIL 3530 Environmental Ethics (HF)
- PHIL 3730 Justice & International Affairs (IR)
- PHIL 4540 Engineering, Ethics, & Society (HF)
- POLS 5322 Environmental Policy
Group D: Global, Societal & Political Ethics
- LING 3470 Language and Culture (IR, HF)
- PHIL 3730 Justice and International Affairs (IR)
- POLS 5440 Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict
- POLS 5450 Political Violence/Terrorism
- SOC 3365 Ethnic Minorities in the United States (DV, BF)
- SOC 3380 Race/Ethnicity, Class and Gender (Prerequisite SOC 1010) (DV)
- SOC 3435 Sociology of Economic Development
Group E: Law, Politics and Ethics
- COMM 5300 Mass Communication Law (Prerequisite COMM 1500)
- COMM 5320 Freedom of Expression
- PHIL 3710 Philosophy of Law
- POLS 5120 Judicial Process (Prerequisite POLS 1100)
- POLS 5211 Constitutional Law
- POLS 5212 Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
- POLS 5240 Local Government Law
- POLS 5250 Corrections Administration
- POLS 5300 Administrative Theory ( Prerequisite POLS 1100 & 3300)
- POLS 5380 Public Budgeting and Finance ( Prerequisite ECON 1010, POLS 1100 & POLS
3300)
- POLS 5390 Administration in Local Government
Group F: Communication/Media Ethics
- COMM 3030 Communication and Social Responsibility (CW, HF)
- COMM 3070 Communication and Gender (DV)
- COMM 3170 Introduction to Organizational Communication
- COMM 3190 Intercultural Communication (DV)
- COMM 3415 Intro to Cultural Studies
- COMM 5000 Studies in Communication
- COMM 5660 Media Ethics (Prerequisite COMM 3505)
- LING 3600 Cross-Cultural Communication (DV, HF)
The student must take at least two courses, to be approved by Leslie Francis, from
any fields where applied ethics are treated. To fulfill this requirement, students
are encouraged to take courses in their major which also have an emphasis on ethics.
Students must take one additional course, to be selected from either Area I or Area
II (please see above). This will permit students either 1) to deepen their understanding
of (meta)-theory; or 2) to select an applied theory course from an area other than
that chosen already for emphasis, thus allowing for comparative theoretical analysis
and application.
For information about declaring the Applied Ethics Minor, please contact Professor
Leslie Francis or the academic advisor, Connie Corbett.
What is Cognitive Science?
Ever since we could ponder, humans have wondered about the mind. How does the mind
work? How do our thoughts tell us about the world around us, and are these thoughts
accurate? These questions have been asked for thousands of years, and it is against
this background that the field of cognitive science emerged 35 years ago.
With twentieth century developments in mathematics, logic, computing, and artificial
intelligence, theorists from a variety of scientific and theoretical fields began
to develop an intriguing thesis: the mind is a kind of computer. Most simply, when new information comes in to the mind, that information is processed
according to a set of rules and by drawing upon relevant information from stored memory,
all to deliver some kind of output. This was the basis of early modern computing,
and applying these concepts to the study of the mind has proved a fruitful and exciting
research agenda.
Today's cognitive scientists don't all commit to the thesis that the mind is a computer,
but they do all commit to the same pursuit as early human thinkers, namely, figuring
out how the mind works. Cognitive science today is a richly interdisciplinary pursuit of knowledge, involving
anthropologists, computer scientists, engineers, linguists, philosophers, psychologists,
roboticists, and others. As a Cognitive Science minor, you will have the opportunity to engage in this exciting
new field, taking a variety of courses from each of the contributing disciplines,
and because this research is so young, you will have the rare opportunity to contribute
to those developments.
Requirements for Cognitive Science Minor in Philosophy
The Cognitive Science Minor in Philosophy calls for a minimum of 18 units of coursework
that meets the following four requirements:
Complete the following foundations course:
PHIL 3440 (Foundations of Cognitive Science)
Complete all four of the following requirements:
Computer Science:
COMP 1010 (Programming for All Level 1) (offered in fall only) - this class is intended for non-majors in Computer Science
OR
CS 1030 (Foundations of Computer Science) - this class is intended for majors in Computer
Science
Linguistics:
LING 4160 (Language and Cognition)
Philosophy:
PHIL 3400 (Mind, Language, and Reality)
Psychology:
PSY 3120 (Cognitive Psychology)
Take at least one course from the following recommended list:
Anthropology:
ANTH 4134 (Language, Thought, and Culture: The Anthropology of the Human Mind)
ANTH 4481 (Evolutionary Psychology)
Computer Science:
CS 1000 (Engineering Computing)
CS 4300 (Artificial Intelligence)
CS 5310 (Robotics)
CS 5650 (Visual Perception from a Computer Graphics and Visualization Perspective)
Linguistics:
LING 3190 (Language and Nature)
LING 4020 (Introduction to Syntax)
Philosophy:
PHIL 5350 (Philosophy of Science)
PHIL 5450 (Philosophy of Mind)
Psychology:
PSY 3140 (Cognitive Neuropsychology)
PSY 3150 (Sensation and Perception)
PSY 3190 (Psychology of Language)
PSY 4125 (Cognitive Science Seminar)
This electives list in not exhaustive. Other course may be substituted, on approval
from the Cognitive Science Advisor.
The Grade Requirement has three parts. First, only coursework taken for a letter grade
will contribute to the above requirements; CR/NC coursework will not count. Second,
no individual course receiving a grade lower than C- will count for any of the above
requirements. Third, the overall grade-point average (GPA) for courses meeting the
above requirements must be at least 2.00.
Various of the above requirements may, in special cases, and with approval, be satisfied
with transfer credit. Requirement 2 is an exception: in all cases, the Advanced Course
Requirement must be satisfied by course work completed at the University of Utah.
For information about declaring the cognitive science minor, please contact Dustin Stokes or Connie Corbett.
The degree requirements in philosophy allow students to tailor their course of study. A well-designed program is appropriate not only for students whose primary interest
is the study of philosophy, but for various pre-professional students (for example,
those planning on law school or medical school). Philosophy is also very popular as
a second Major, because philosophical study tends to reinforce a deep understanding
of the issues of interest to other disciplines.
Required coursework for philosophy students is organized around four main areas of
study: Ethics and Values; Metaphysics and Epistemology; History of Philosophy; Logic and
Formal Methods. The specific requirements are explained below.
Note that the requirements below supplement the University Baccalaureate Degree requirements.
Refer to the General Catalog for this information. You can obtain a copy of the General Catalog at the University of Utah Bookstore.The Minor in Philosophy calls for a minimum of 18 units of philosophy coursework that meets the following five requirements:
Students are to take courses from the four Areas in the summary table below, in the
quantities indicated:
| Areas |
Minimum |
Qualified Courses |
I
Ethics and
Value Theory
|
One
course
|
3011*, 3080, 3500, 3510, 3520, 3530, 3750, 3700, 3710
3730, 3740, 3750, 3790, 3800, 3820, 4540, 5130,
5191*, 5500, 5510, 5520, 5530, 5540, 5700, 5710, 5800
|
II
Metaphysics and
Epistemology
|
One
course
|
3012*, 3300, 3310, 3350, 3370, 3375, 3380,
3400, 3440, 3600, 4380, 4400, 4450, 4480, 5192*, 5300,
5350†, 5370†, 5375†, 5400*, 5450, 5480*
|
III
History of
Philosophy
|
One
course
|
3013*, 3810, 4110, 4115, 4120, 4130,
4140, 5040, 5060, 5110,
5120*, 5150*, 5193*, 5360
|
IV
Logic and
Formal Methods
|
One
course
|
1250, 3200, 3210, 5200,
5210, 5220
|
|
* These courses typically have variable content and may be taken multiple times, each time counting as a new
and separate course, so long as the course content is different.
† These courses sometimes have variable content, in which case they may be taken multiple times. Check with
instructor for permission to take a second time.
|
| Full COURSE TITLES and DESCRIPTIONS at bottom of this page |
Students elect the particular courses (from each of the above Areas) that they wish
to take. Those who are just starting the degree should simply start taking courses
of interest, in each of the four areas, beginning with courses at the 3000 or 4000
- level. As for prerequisites, before taking any 5000-level course students must
have completed one 3000 or 4000-level course from that same Area; exceptions must
be aproved by the instructor of the 5000-level course. Be sure to talk with an advisor
if you would like any further guidance about which courses to take.
At least one course of the total 18 units must come from the 5000-level (or higher).
These advanced courses do at the same time satisfy an Area Requirement, as indicated
in the above table. (Note: the Advanced Course Requirement may not be satisfied by
"independent study" coursework.)
Additional courses may be needed to bring your total to 18 units. Every course the
philosophy department offers counts towards the Elective Requirement. Note that two
kinds of courses count only towards this requirement, not meeting any other requirement.
First, all lower division courses count as electives (i.e., 1000 level and 2000 level
courses). Second, the four specifically religion-oriented courses we offer: Phil 3610
(Religions of India), Phil 3620 (Religions of China and Japan), Phil 3630 (Buddhist
Thought), and Phil 3640 (World Religions). Since these courses are not primarily philosophical
in content, they do not count towards any of our specific philosophy requirements,
but they do count for the Elective Requirement. The historical explanation of why
the philosophy department offers these courses is that U of Utah does not have a Religion
Department, the natural home for such courses. Note that Phil 3600 (Philosophy of
Religion) is a philosophy course, and it meets the Area II requirement.
The Grade Requirement has three parts. First, only coursework taken for a letter grade
will contribute to the above requirements; CR/NC coursework will not count. Second,
no individual course receiving a grade lower than C- will count for any of the above
requirements. Third, the overall grade-point average (GPA) for courses meeting the
above requirements must be at least 2.00.
Various of the above requirements may, in special cases, and with approval, be satisfied
with transfer credit. Requirement 2 is an exception: in all cases, the Advanced Course
Requirement must be satisfied by course work completed at the University of Utah.
Course Titles
- 3011* Philosophy of _______
- 3080 Philosophy of Feminism
- 3500 Ethics
- 3510 Business Ethics
- 3520 Bioethics
- 3530 Environmental Ethics
- 3570 Research Ethics
- 3700 Political Philosophy
- 3710 Philosophy of Law
- 3720 Philosophy of Education
- 3730 Justice and International Affairs
- 3740 Drugs and Justice
- 3750 Philosophy of Literature
- 3790 Philosophy of Film
- 3800 Philosophy and the Arts
- 3820 The Meaning of Life
- 4540 Engineering, Ethics, and Society
- 5130 History of Ethical Theory
- 5191* Philosophy of _______
- 5500 Contemporary Ethical Theory
- 5510 Applied Ethics
- 5520 Advanced Bioethics
- 5530 Environmental Philosophy
- 5540 Hydrotopia: Water Rights and the Environment
- 5700 Advanced Political Philosophy
- 5710 International Human Rights
- 5800 Topics in Philosophy of Art
- 3012* Philosophy of _______
- 3300 Theory of Knowledge
- 3310 Science and Society
- 3350 History and Philosophy of Science
- 3370 Philosophy of Biology
- 3375 Philosophy of Social Science
- 3380 Feminist Philosophy of Science
- 3400 Mind, Language, and Reality
- 3440 Cognitive Science
- 3600 Philosophy of Religion
- 4380 Philosophy of Physics
- 4400 Metaphysics
- 4450 Philosophy of Mind
- 4480 Philosophy of Language
- 5192* Philosophy of _______
- 5300 Epistemology
- 5350† Topics of Philosophy of Science
- 5370† Philosophy of Biology
- 5375† Topics in Philosophy of Social Science
- 5400* Metaphysics
- 5450 Philosophy of Mind
- 5480* Philosophy of Language
- 3013* Philosophy of ______
- 3810 Existentialism
- 4110 Ancient Greek
- 4115 Medieval Philosophy
- 4120 Early Modern
- 4130 Nineteenth-Century
- 4140 Classical Chinese Philosophy
- 5040 Twentieth Century Analytic
- 5060 Twentieth Century Continental
- 5110 Issues in the History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
- 5120* Issues in the History of Modern and Recent Philosophy
- 5150* Topics in Classical Chinese Philosophy
- 5193* Philosophy of ______
- 5360 Topics in the History of Science
- 1250 Intro to Reasoning and Rational Decision [counts only for Minor]
- 3200 Deductive Logic
- 3210 Inductive Logic
- 5200 Advanced Deductive Logic
- 5210 Advanced Inductive Logic
- 5220 Rational Choice Theory
