Philosophy: Program Objectives

Philosophy graduates of the University of Portland should be able to:

Demonstrate proficiency in the content of the discipline.

• Adequately identify the arguments of important philosophers.
• Adequately understand the significant issues in the historical periods of Western Philosophy.

Engage in the art of dialogue.

• Know how to identify and critically evaluate the presuppositions underlying their own questions and those of others.
• Demonstrate an ability to recognize views that oppose the ones for which they are arguing and to evaluate them in light of the positions they are holding.

Write technically competent philosophical essays.

• Give a sustained and well-focused argument for their positions.
• Write papers demonstrating conceptual coherence.

Integrate diverse views in developing their positions on an issue.

• Demonstrate an understanding of a diversity of philosophical positions/issues.
• Take a position with respect to some philosophical positions/issues.
• Place their positions in the context of various philosophical positions/issues in the history of philosophy.

Demonstrate proficiency in the basic concepts of logic.

• Distinguish between arguments and non-arguments.
• Distinguish between deductive and inductive arguments.
• Evaluate arguments in terms of their soundness or cogency.
• Identify common formal and informal fallacies.
• Translate ordinary language statements into various systems of logic (e.g. categorical logic, propositional logic, and/or predicate logic).
• Use various systems of logic to check arguments for validity (e.g. the square of opposition, rules for categorical syllogisms, truth tables, natural deductions).

The Philosophy Major curriculum is intended to develop the skills embodied in these learning goals. The Capstone Project, completed in the senior year, is the primary means by which the Philosophy Department assesses whether students have met the first four of these learning goals. The exam at the end of the Logic course (PHL 421) is the primary means by which the Philosophy Department assesses whether students have met the fifth of these learning goals.