Kalamazoo College

Humphrey House
2nd Floor
Phone: (269) 337-7043

The Kalamazoo College Philosophy program offers an intensive, historically grounded BA program in philosophy oriented to the study of contemporary research. The Philosophy Department has a long tradition of preparing students to gain admission to, and succeed within, First-rate graduate programs. While the majors program offers comprehensive and rigorous training for Ph.D. programs in philosophy, the department also offers specialized curricular tracks for students preparing for post-Baccalaureate studies in Law, Linguistics, Political Science, Public Policy, Theology, Psychology, and Cognitive Science. While not all philosophy students pursue graduate studies, the majors program is structured to cultivate skills essential to living thoughtfully, working effectively, and playing passionately.

The department is committed to a pluralistic approach to the discipline. The program offers courses in the Anglo-American and European-Continental traditions of philosophy, as well as courses devoted to the classical historical periods. More importantly, the program demands that students become familiar with, and carefully integrate, such different approaches to philosophy in order to engage in flexible and informed research into contemporary issues. Various courses within the department - in particular Senior Seminar - are specifically designed to demonstrate the commonalities, affinities, and mutual influences of the Anglo-American and European-Continental traditions. Most importantly, the program emphasizes that philosophy is a historically reflexive discipline committed to documenting its various learning stages.

The department is also committed to an interdisciplinary approach to philosophical inquiry. Contemporary research in philosophy with any claim to credibility can no longer insulate itself from the empirical natural and social sciences. Accordingly, we closely advise our students to take courses outside the major as necessary complements to their work in philosophy. Moreover, the department offers formalized supplementary units of interdisciplinary instruction within philosophy courses - called "Bridge Readings" -- that establish connections to Psychology, Political Science, Sociology, Literary Studies, History, Theology, and Biology.

The central objective of the program is to enable students to become independent thinkers (Objectives). Accordingly, the Junior and Senior years are directed to assisting students to complete rigorous, historically informed, original scholarship in the form of a "Senior Individualized Project." Students are asked to present their research at national conferences and to submit associated essays to scholarly competitions. Whenever possible, Honors students are installed in Teaching Assistantship positions in their areas of research specialization. The philosophy department comprehensive examinations are modeled on Masters program examinations, which prepares students to succeed in graduate programs.

Kalamazoo College Department of Philosophy
1200 Academy Street | Kalamazoo, MI 49006
269-337-7043
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Last Revised: June 4, 2004

SKILLS WE SEEK TO CULTIVATE:

Careful, open-minded, critical reading.
The differentiation of arguments from non-arguments.
The identifications of formal and informal fallacies in prose writing.
Clear, detailed, textually supported expository writing.
Cogent, logically structured, precise argumentative writing.
Narrative ability to historically situate important issues and questions.
Creative coordination of different disciplinary approaches to a single matter.
Articulate, interrogative verbal questioning.
Clear, respectful argumentative deliberation.
Cooperative, flexible, deliberation aiming at stabilizing dissensus within some overlapping consensus.
Organized, well-paced, audience-sensitive public presentations.
Professional comportment in conference settings.

OBJECTIVES:

To cultivate well-rounded, capable philosophers familiar with both the Anglo-American and European-Continental traditions of philosophy.
To cultivate a solid appreciation of the canonical periods of Western philosophy, emphasizing that contemporary research rests upon a critical appropriation of such traditions.
To enable the student to think clearly, systematically, and critically about philosophical issues.
To encourage students to develop their own autobiographically sensitive and socially responsible approach to philosophical inquiry.
To give students the opportunity to specialize in a particular area of philosophy and to develop this special area of interest in an interdisciplinary fashion.
To cultivate a student's ability to engage in original philosophical inquiry by offering intensive, closely directed tutorial instruction.
To supervise and support students in producing a scholarly manuscript documenting some degree of expertise and originality in a special area of contemporary research.
To cultivate an appreciation for aesthetic experience as a source of critical insight, existential flexibility, and life-orienting motivations necessary for the full reach and depth of philosophical sensitivity.
To mentor students in gaining professional comportment in formal conference settings.