Philosophy - BA

Studying philosophy at St. Kate’s helps students develop skills they can use to expose and question hidden assumptions, challenge perceived authorities and problematic traditions, and engage a wide range of perspectives on some of life’s most fundamental questions.

Our courses are women-centered. Our courses engage diverse philosophical perspectives. And our courses teach students how to apply philosophical thinking to their everyday lives.

The philosophy major helps prepare students for a career by developing skills in communication, critical thinking and creativity, leadership and collaboration, and ethics and social justice. Philosophy majors often get jobs in fields that involve things like sales, client support, human resources work, legal support, writing and language, insurance claims, hospitality and travel, journalism and broadcasting, youth and career counseling, research, clerical work, policy analysis and planning, and data analysis.

The philosophy major also helps prepare students well for graduate school. Recent studies show that philosophy majors tend to score very well on the Graduate Records Exam (GRE), the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) and the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) — these are all tests students take to get into graduate schools.

Everyone in the College for Women is welcome to become a philosophy major. Students take at least eight philosophy courses and two of them will be topics courses (one at the 2000 level and one at the 3000 level). Students get to choose the other six courses based on their interests.

Because our major is so flexible, lots of students decide to add philosophy as a double major.

This major is offered in the College for Women only. 

Curriculum

The philosophy major requires 32 credits.

Philosophy majors satisfy the Writing Requirement for Majors by completing PHIL 4850W Senior Seminar: Humanities Capstone. They complete the Liberal Arts and Sciences Core Writing Requirement with two other writing-intensive courses (CORE 1000W The Reflective Woman and CORE 3990W Global Search for Justice) and another writing-intensive course from Philosophy or another department.