Welcome
Welcome to the University of Portland and to the Department of Philosophy!
Philosophy plays a central role in a liberal arts education, as an integrating discipline across the curriculum. Training in philosophy develops the student's ability to explore and critically reflect upon the most fundamental questions about human beings and society, the universe, and God. By focusing on its own history, philosophy both acquaints students with the intellectual foundations of Western civilization and provides an opportunity to question that tradition's assumptions. Our department also provides opportunities to encounter philosophy as it has been pursued in other times and places and seeks to expose students to the rich diversity that exists in philosophical method and focus. By enabling students to become reflective, critical and articulate about their own beliefs and values, philosophy makes an essential contribution to the education of individuals, whatever their vocational plans, and to the development of the community.
The major aims of the Department of Philosophy are:
- To contribute to the general education of students through our place in the core curriculum.
- To provide majors with a grounding in the history of philosophy, and a wide range of contemporary approaches and sub-disciplines, sufficient to prepare them for graduate studies.
- To be active and successful scholars whose work, both as teachers and researchers, commands the respect of our peers.
University of Portland is a particularly good place to study philosophy. Our Philosophy Department has nine full time faculty members. That is many more philosophy professors than you will find at many comparably sized colleges and universities. A larger faculty means that we can offer students exposure to a greater diversity of philosophical areas, styles, and perspectives. We have specialists in Asian philosophy, Native American philosophy, ancient philosophy, Medieval philosophy, modern philosophy, feminist philosophy, socio-political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of agency, philosophy of religion, and many other areas and perspectives. We also have faculty representing the Anglo-American tradition, the Continental tradition, the Latin American tradition, and the American Pragmatic tradition. Our faculty members have written books and articles on on bioethics, on embodied cognition, on decolonial themes, on feminist ethics, on climate crisis, on Asian philosophy, on Latin American philosophy, on C. S. Peirce, and more.
We work with students on independent studies and theses in their areas of interest in addition to teaching a wide range of classes. Philosophy classes are small enough that there can be a great deal of discussion and your professors will get to know you. Additionally, there is a lot of opportunity for philosophy outside of the classroom. The Philosophy Club and our chapter of Phi Sigma Tau, the international honor society for philosophy, regularly sponsor events for students. A number of our majors have presented at least once, and some more than once, at undergraduate philosophy conferences.
Our philosophy majors have gone on to graduate school in philosophy and other fields. The programs to which our graduates have gone include: Columbia, University of Hawaii, Saint Louis University, Georgia State University, Florida State University (Physics), Lewis & Clark Law; Princeton Theological Seminary, and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Philosophy graduates are also now working for business, the non-profit sector, K-12 education, and in the political realm.
More broadly, the department seeks to foster an appreciation for interdisciplinary study, as well as an understanding of and appreciation for the richness of human diversity. It contributes courses to the following interdisciplinary programs of study: Environmental Studies, Ethnic Studies, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, Hellenic Studies, Social Justice, and Neuroscience Studies. Members of the department also serve as faculty advisors for student clubs outside the department — Ethnic Studies Club, Feminist Discussion Group and Movimiento Estudiantil de Chicanos de Aztlan (M.E.Ch.A.), and Native American Alliance (NAA) — and have participated in and provided leadership for two faculty study groups: Latino/a Interdisciplinary Study Group and Faith and Intellectual Life Discussion Group.
We invite you to explore our programs, and to contact us if we can answer any further questions for you.
Sincerely,
Paddy McShane, PhD
Chair, Philosophy Department
mcshanep@up.edu
