Program Description

The Philosophy Program represents a rich spectrum of intellectual traditions, with an emphasis on the history of Western thought from ancient Greece to the modern world. Students are also strongly encouraged to include non-Western traditions in their coursework. The philosophy major is designed for:

1. students who seek the most comprehensive and rigorous preparation for careers that demand articulate intellectual flexibility and discipline (e.g., law, medicine, government, business, education, and journalism)
2. students who wish to pursue a professional career in philosophy and who plan to do postgraduate work in the field
3. students who who want, regardless of career objective, a liberal arts education and need a discipline to make sense of the welter of elective possibilities

Because of the art-related character of many programs at Purchase College, the Philosophy Program also offers courses for arts students and others that investigate the foundations of the arts. Coursework in the Philosophy Program frequently includes small seminars and intensive writing. Students may pursue topics of special interest through tutorials and directed independent studies.

Program Faculty

Requirements for the Major

• History of Philosophy I & II
• One elective course in the history of philosophy
• One philosophy seminar on a major figure or issue
• At least two additional philosophy courses
• Junior Seminar in Philosophy
• Senior Colloquium in Philosophy
• Senior Seminar in Philosophy
• Senior Project in Philosophy

Representative Courses

Chinese Philosophy
Classical Buddhist Philosophy
Existentialism
Fantasy, Film, and Reality
From Hegel to Nietzsche
Foucault, Habermas, Derrida
Gender and Power
Ideas of Good and Evil
Ideas of Human Nature
Knowledge and Imagination
Methods of Reasoning
Philosophy and Film
Philosophy and Literature
Philosophy of Art: From Plato to Postmodernism
Philosophy of Law
Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy of Religion
Philosophy of the Environment
Pragmatism and the Quest for Certainty
Seminars on Plato, Aristotle, James and Dewey, Heidegger/Arendt, Kant, Nietzsche, and Hegel
Theories of Sexuality

Representative Alumni

• Warren Frisina ’76, PhD, University of Chicago; dean of the Honors College and associate professor of religion, Hofstra University; author of The Unity of Knowledge and Action (2002)
• Amy Koritz ’79, PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; professor of English and director of the Center for Civic Engagement, Drew University; ; author, Culture Makers: Urban Performance and Literature in the 1920s (2009) and Gendering Bodies/Performing Art (1995)
• Ezra LeBank ’05, MFA, Smith College; head of movement and assistant professor, Department of Theatre Arts, California State University, Long Beach; artistic director, Curbside
• Philip Moustakis ’92, JD, New York University School of Law; staff attorney, New York Regional Office, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

For more information, visit the Philosophy site in Academic Programs.

Updated Sept. 10, 2011

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