BA-AS PHI
Philosophy Department
Bachelor of Arts (HEGIS 1509)
Buckham B221
(716) 878-5136
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.
As a foundational discipline, studying philosophy also helps with the study of other disciplines, which means that, at only 30 credit hours, philosophy is an excellent choice for a second major.
A departmental Honors program is also available. Students should contact the department chair for additional information.
