Philosophy

Students often select majors based on career prospects, but sometimes students simply fall in love with a particular discipline, like philosophy. They feel the excitement of comparing different visions of the good life, or debating how to make sense of beauty or considering how much science can explain about human behavior. So they choose philosophy, sometimes as a second major, for the love of it.

Many who do double major find intriguing connections between the two.  Thus they develop culminating projects that incorporate philosophical insights related to their other major.  One student wrote a senior thesis on democracy that counted toward international relations and philosophy;  another’s thesis on the concept of moral responsibility will join neuroscience and philosophy. Sometimes students simply use philosophical insights and methods in other areas. One applied philosophical discussions of human rights in a thesis for international relations and Asian studies.

For those who have experienced the joys of philosophical reflection, none of this is surprising. As our Philosophy Mission proclaims, the Lake Forest College Philosophy Department seeks not only to develop the critical reasoning skills essential for most careers but to foster creativity so that students can develop their own insights and arguments.  Philosophical reflection plays central role in the liberal arts—and thus in human life.  But philosophy also has a subversive role, raising, as Socrates did long ago, essential questions that challenge complacency and encourage reflection on personal and community problems.