College of Arts & Sciences 

In addition to courses in the philosophy major, the Philosophy Department is (largely) responsible for three parts of the new curriculum. In keeping with our Jesuit intellectual tradition, each student at the University is required to take three courses in Philosophy, irrespective of his or her major. Under the new curriculum, those courses must be completed by satisfying requirements in each of the following three categories:

(1)  Every undergraduate will be required to take an introductory level course called “Moral Foundations,” typically in the first year.  The intent of this course is help students engage in a critical study of the various ways in which agents, actions, and social practices are evaluated from the moral point of view.  The course limits its focus to major Western moral theories, for example: consequentialism, naturalism (including the “natural law” theory which is at the core of Roman Catholic moral teaching), deontologism, and contractarianism.  Both classical and later or contemporary articulations of these theories can be found in the works of thinkers such as: Mill, Bentham, Singer; Aristotle, Aquinas, Finnis; Kant, Brandt, Korsgaard; Hobbes, Rawls, and Gauthier.  While the course is intended to have common content, individual faculty members are able to make choices of specific philosophical content consistent with their expertise and best judgment. 

(2)  In addition, each undergraduate will be required to select a course from among a set of courses offered in the content area entitled “Philosophical Anthropology.” While the title “philosophical anthropology” may not be familiar to all, the content of the courses in this area cover central issues in philosophy having to do with the place of human beings in the social and natural world: free will, personal identity, human consciousness, personal survival of death, self-alienation, etc. Some of the prospective titles for courses in this area include: Philosophical Anthropology:  Freedom and Responsibility;  Philosophical Anthropology: Death and the Meaning of Life; Philosophical Anthropology: the Alienated Self;   Philosophical Anthropology: Personal Identity and the Social Self;  Philosophical Anthropology: Evolutionary Psychology.  The intent of these courses is to help students understand at least some of the problems of human existence.  Criteria for satisfaction of course content-area are currently being developed by the department.  Individual faculty members may expect wide latitude in course-proposals for this topic area as is suitable to their areas of expertise.

(3)  Finally (though not necessarily third in order) every student will be required to take a course in the content area entitled “Faith and Reason.” (In principle, courses in these areas may be offered by faculty in various departments – for example: Physics, Theology, Psychology.  We assume, however, that the overwhelming majority of them will be offered by faculty in the Philosophy Department.  Moreover, the Philosophy Department will, almost exclusively, determine whether courses satisfy acceptable criteria for inclusion in this course area.)  Courses in this area are designed to help students think critically about both what reason and faith are (in and of themselves), but in addition to pursue a critical investigation of some of the central philosophical problems and topics that arise at their intersection.  Such problems and topics include, but are not limited to: the epistemological justification of religious belief; questions concerning the relationship between science and religion; atheism and religious belief; philosophy of evolutionary science; metaphysics and epistemology of cosmology. Some of the prospective titles for courses in this area include:  Faith and Reason: God in Recent Philosophy;  Faith and Reason: Atheism and the Problem of Evil;   Faith and Reason: Nature, Miracles and Divine Agency;   Faith and Reason: Philosophy of God in Aquinas;  Faith and Reason: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Religion;  Faith and Reason: Faith Reason and Religious Pluralism;  and  Faith and Reason: James, Dewey, and Whitehead on religious experience.  Again, individual faculty members may expect wide latitude in course-proposals for this topic area as is suitable to their areas of expertise.

A final note:   The new curriculum at SJU will also offer Philosophy faculty opportunities to teach First-Year Seminars on various topics, as well as courses that will allow students to satisfy requirements in Globalization, Diversity, and Ethics Intensive courses.