Philosophy

• Philosophy will help you reflect on your own identity and beliefs, will expose you to the wisdom of the past and of diverse cultures, and will equip you with the logical and emotional skills to have difficult, productive, and respectful conversations with others regarding some of life’s most sensitive and important topics (ethics, religion, politics, art).
• Philosophy majors, with their training in analytic and creative thinking, are in high demand by the technology and business sectors.
• We offer small class sizes, customized and unique courses, student research opportunities, and many connections to other academic fields.
• Our students frequently get to present original work at conferences or as part of one-on-one independent studies with a professor.
• Philosophy majors outperform most other majors on standardized tests for grad school admission, including the GRE (for most graduate studies) and the LSAT (for law school).

The skills that our Philosophy students learn will help them thrive in many different pursuits, both on and off campus. Philosophy majors have participated in internships and have presented papers at local and regional conferences on topics such as the philosophy of art, moral psychology, and popular culture.

Recent majors have been awarded grant funding from organizations such as the Humanities Council SC and the South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities for original research. A majority of Philosophy students receive honors awards and scholarships at Converse.

Philosophy and YouTube

YouTube co-creator Brent Hurley spoke with the Converse Philosophy Club about his experience as a philosophy major and the applications he has found for philosophy in business and technology.

Study-Travel

The Philosophy department encourages study-travel and offers a variety of travel opportunities. Our students have traveled to Greece, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Spain, France and Italy.

During a study-travel opportunity, students and faculty traveled throughout the Netherlands and Germany, visiting historical sites associated with 16th and 17th-century philosophers whose ideas helped define the modern age. Students experienced firsthand where ideas including individuality of self, religious toleration, and the rise of scientific approaches to ethics and human nature were derived. During the 16th and 17th centuries the Netherlands burgeoned as an intellectual hub, being a relative “safe space” for writers and thinkers to be free from religious persecution.

Converse philosophy students take a variety of courses including core curricula in logic, ethics, and the history of philosophy. They also participate in a research-oriented senior capstone course in which they develop their own scholarly project on a philosophical topic.

The remaining courses for the degree offer wide flexibility to accommodate individual student interests and to keep with the interdisciplinary spirit of the field. For instance, while all philosophy majors will become knowledgeable about basic philosophical topics and methods, you may choose to take more courses focused on modern philosophical trends, while another might focus on issues in social and political philosophy (e.g. race, gender, economics, biomedicine, etc.).

Most philosophy courses emphasize critical engagement with classic texts, expressing and justifying one’s ideas in written and spoken form, considering and evaluating different perspectives logically and fairly, and finding connections between traditional philosophical questions and issues from other academic fields.

Sample Courses

• Heroes and Heroism
• Chinese Philosophy
• Philosophy and Mythology
• Philosophy of Monsters
• Biomedical Ethics
• Mind, Machines and Meaning
• Gender and Sexual Identity

View the BA in Philosophy Major requirements.

View the Philosophy Minor requirements.

Course Offerings & Academic Catalogs

What are Philosophy alumni doing?

Jobs

• Teachers
• Lawyers
• Social Workers
• Non-Profit Management
• The Red Cross
• Actors
• Journalists and Editors
• IT Specialists
• Marketing
• Entrepreneurs
• Higher Education Staff
• Counselors

Grad Schools

• Fully-funded Masters and PhD programs in philosophy at the University of Illinois, Georgia State University, Texas Tech University, Kent State University, and other research institutions
• Law Schools throughout the Southeast
• PhD and Masters programs in other fields as diverse as Clinical Psychology, Neuropsychology, International Affairs, Marriage & Family Therapy, Marine Biology, Creative Writing, Musicology, and Academic Affairs