Penn State Penn State: College of the Liberal Arts

Philosophy B.S. Major

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Philosophy B.S. Major

Philosophy B.S. Major

The Philosophy B.S. option is intended for students who wish to study philosophy as part of a multiple major program with other B.S. degree programs, especially those connected to the life sciences, the physical sciences, mathematics, engineering, or technology. It allows such students to study the philosophical, critical, and ethical dimensions of pure and applied sciences, including the areas of philosophy foundational for such study. The focus is, then, on analytic and normative reasoning connected to reasoning and explanation; theory and practice; the nature and limits of human understanding; and the structure and knowability of the world it seeks to understand.

You are to choose 13 courses, equaling 39 credits, from the areas listed below.

PRESCRIBED COURSES (3 Credits)

PHIL 12: Logic [GQ]

ADDITIONAL COURSES (27 Credits)

Philosophical Foundations of Science (9 credits)

  • PHIL 11: Science and Truth
  • PHIL 13: Nature and Environment
  • PHIL 110: Philosophy of Science
  • PHIL 125: Epistemology
  • PHIL 126: Metaphysics
  • PHIL 127: Philosophy of Mind
  • PHIL 129: Philosophy of Language

Ethics and Science (6 credits)

  • PHIL 107: Philosophy of Technology
  • PHIL 118: Environmental Philosophy
  • PHIL 132: Bioethics
  • PHIL 133N: Climate Ethics
  • PHIL 134: Food Ethics

Advanced Topics (6 credits)

  • PHIL 403: Seminar in Environmental Philosophy
  • PHIL 407: Seminar in Philosophy of Technology
  • PHIL 410: Seminar in Philosophy of Science
  • PHIL 425: Seminar in Epistemology
  • PHIL 426: Seminar in Metaphysics
  • PHIL 427: Seminar in Philosophy of Mind
  • PHIL 432: Medical and Healthcare Ethics

Formal Reasoning (6 credits)

  • CMPSC 111: Logic for Computer Science
  • CMPSC 121: Introduction to Programming Techniques
  • CMPSC 131: Programming and Computation I: Fundamentals
  • CMPSC 360: Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science
  • CMPSC 441/442: Artificial Intelligence
  • CMPSC 464: Introduction to the Theory of Computation
  • ECON 306/90: Introduction to Econometrics
  • ECON 402: Decision Making and Strategy in Economics
  • ECON 411: Behavioral Economics
  • ECON 414: The Economic Way of Looking at Life
  • ECON 474: Experimental and Behavior Economics
  • IST 230: Language, Logic, and Discrete Mathematics
  • IST 240: Introduction to Computer Languages
  • MATH 315: Foundations of Mathematics
  • MATH 427: Foundations of Geometry
  • MATH 457: Introduction to Mathematical Logic
  • MATH 465: Number Theory
  • MATH 475: History of Mathematics
  • MATH 486: Mathematical Theory of Games
  • RM 301: Risk and Decision
  • SC 205N: Detecting Falsehood and Bias
  • SRA 231: Decision Theory and Analysis
  • STAT 318: Elementary Probability

SUPPORTING COURSES (9 Credits)

PHIL elective (3 credits)

Any PHIL course

Advanced Topics supporting program (6 credits)

Choose any two courses from Advanced Topics, Formal Reasoning, or by approval.

How to Declare

You can declare the Philosophy B.S. major through your Student Center in Lion PATH. Please make sure you meet with an adviser to ensure appropriate course selection.