About

The Georgetown University Department of Philosophy offers both undergraduate and graduate programs of study.

Consistent with the educational mission of Georgetown University, each undergraduate takes two courses in Philosophy (either “Introduction to Philosophy” or “Introduction to Ethics”; as well as a second course chosen from an extensive range of philosophical topics). With these introductory courses, we provide a unique undergraduate experience that promotes Georgetown’s tradition as an American, Catholic, and Jesuit University, and our introductory offerings (collectively, if not individually) address the distinctively philosophical dimensions of problems of God and transcendence, freedom and intersubjectivity, personal morality and the moral significance of social institutions, and the virtues that are required to live well in a pluralistic democratic society. With the further courses that are required for the undergraduate major, we hope to produce liberally educated women and men who possess basic cultural literacy, who are capable of articulate and logical reflection on the fundamental problems of human existence, and who can take their place as citizens capable of critically evaluating arguments which bear on public affairs.

The Department also offers a PhD in Philosophy that is designed to produce careful, sophisticated, and broadly educated teachers and scholars. Our goal is to train our students to readily understand intelligent viewpoints that differ from their own, to see the value of various approaches to Philosophy, and to have the technical skills (logical, linguistic, exegetical, and phenomenological) that will allow them to solve complex problems and to make important contributions to Philosophy as an academic discipline.