Bachelor of Arts Program
Program Code: BA-AS
Major Code: PHI

Philosophy Department
Buckham B221
(716) 878-5136
philosophy.buffalostate.edu/

The Philosophy Major at Buffalo State College is built around four guiding principles designed to make you a more versatile professional, a more valuable employee, and a more successful person throughout your life.  Each of them can be found in every course we offer, but some of them are especially prominent in particular courses. As a philosophy major, you’ll learn to:

• Comprehend texts, particularly philosophical texts.
• Understand and clearly articulate concepts, particularly “fundamental and powerful concepts” (e.g., truth, knowledge, justification, evidence, respect, justice, good, right, value, argument, reason, validity, soundness).
• Form, evaluate, justify, defend, and apply positions on complicated, everyday issues in written and oral form.
• Prioritize wisdom over trivialities
  • Appreciate the importance of truth to rational inquiry.
  • Recognize the conceptions and perspectives of others and their foundations.
  • Accept and apply critical feedback on philosophical work.

Major Requirements

The major is 30 credits in total. For each of the principles above, you must successfully complete a course that puts special emphasis on that principle. Since logical reasoning is at the core of everything we do, you are also required to successfully complete one of the logic courses. Finally, a seminar course will help to polish the skills you’ve learned throughout your study and bring it all together before you graduate.

Program Requirements

Students will:

• Recognize theses and supporting arguments
• Communicate through reading, comprehending, and summarizing conceptually difficult material
• Understand concepts, particularly “fundamental and powerful concepts” (e.g., truth, knowledge, justification, evidence, respect, justice, good, right, value, argument, reason, validity, soundness).
• Defend positions on complicated, everyday issues in written and oral form.
• Recognize the contributions and perspectives of a plurality of intellectual traditions
• Apply critical feedback on philosophical work.