Departments of the other Claremont Colleges and Claremont Graduate University are designed to cultivate critical thinking and to introduce the student to the history of philosophy, its traditional problems and subject areas and its connections with related subjects. In addition to preparing students for graduate work in philosophy, philosophy courses are a natural complement to the study of a wide variety of other subjects and can be relevant to preparation for careers in law, medicine and a number of fields involving the natural and social sciences and the humanities.
Pitzer Advisers: A. Alwishah, B. Keeley.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Students demonstrate knowledge of the major schools of philosophy and their doctrines.
- Students are acquainted with the main terms, concepts, and definitions that pertain to the different branches of philosophy.
- Students are acquainted with a variety of methods and approaches of philosophical inquiry.
- Students have the ability to identify different forms of argument.
- Students have the skill to evaluate the validity and the soundness of an argument.
- Students demonstrate knowledge of the main techniques employed in formal and informal logic.
- Students have the ability to state a clear and strong objection to an argument advanced by others; and to articulate counter-arguments to their own objection.
- Students demonstrate the ability to understand and appreciate the complexity of the philosophical theories and to examine these theories from different perspectives.
- Students demonstrate growth in their intellectual courage and curiosity by posing critical questions concerning the place and relevance of the philosophical theories in their lives.
- Students acquire the skills of writing a coherent, clear, and well-argued paper.
