Undergraduate Study of Philosophy at SFSU

Traditionally, philosophy is defined as the love of wisdom, the ability to think well about the foundations of human action, the nature of reality, and the purposes and priorities of life. Here at SFSU, course requirements for a B.A. in Philosophy begin by covering the core philosophical disciplines, such as, Metaphysics (study of reality), Epistemology (study of knowledge), Ethics (study of the good life), and Logic (the study of good reasoning). These core areas are not only interesting in themselves, they are also useful in reflecting on other things that we do; as a result, we regularly offer courses on topics in other fields of inquiry and practices, such as, Philosophy of Natural Sciences, Mind and Psychology, Language, Law, Art, Applied Ethics (e.g., Bioethics, Ethics at Work, Ethical Issues: Science and Technology, etc.), etc. Of course, as you may know, philosophy is at least two and a half millennia old, so we have a number of courses that address its history (e.g., Ancient Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, and Modern Philosophy).  We also offer courses on various philosophers (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, etc.). Finally, SFSU is unique in also addressing the cross-cultural dimensions of philosophy: regularly offering courses on philosophy in the middle-east and the far-east (e.g., Islamic Philosophy, Islamic Mysticism, Chinese philosophy, Buddhism, etc.).

Along with the coursework, interested students should take note of the active research (i.e., tenure and tenure track) faculty within the SFSU Department of Philosophy.

ANATOLE BEN ANTON (1984), Professor of Philosophy; Ph.D. (1973), Stanford University. Areas of specialization: Social Philosophy, Marxism, and Ecology. Email: aanton@sfsu.edu

MOHAMMAD AZADPUR (2003), Assistant Professor of Philosophy; Ph.D. (1999), University of Virginia. Areas of specialization: Islamic Philosophy, Ethics, Aesthetics and the Sublime, New Wittgenstein, and Early Heidegger. Email: azad@sfsu.edu

JOHN J. GLANVILLE (1967), Professor of Philosophy; Ph.D. (1950), Notre Dame University. Areas of specialization: Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and philosophers. Email: glanjo@sfsu.edu

PAMELA HOOD (1998), Assistant Professor of Philosophy; Ph.D. (2001), Claremont Graduate University. Areas of specialization: Ancient Philosophy, Aristotle, Philosophy of Religion. Email: phood@sfsu.edu

JACOB NEEDLEMAN (1962), Professor of Philosophy; Ph.D. (1961), Yale University. Areas of specialization: Philosophy and Religion. Email: jneedle@sfsu.edu

PETER E. RADCLIFF , JR. (1963), Emeritus Professor of Philosophy; Ph.D. (1958) University of Washington. Areas of specialization: Ethics, Philosophy of Language and Mind. Email: peedra@sfsu.edu

JAMES R. ROYSE (1968), Professor of Philosophy; Ph.D. (1969), University of Chicago; Th.D. (1981), Graduate Theological Union. Areas of specialization: Logic, Modern Philosophy. Email: jimr@sfsu.edu

ANITA SILVERS (1967), Professor of Philosophy; Ph.D. (1967), The Johns Hopkins University. Areas of specialization: Aesthetics, Bioethics, Disability Studies, Ethics, Feminism, Justice Theory, Philosophy of Law, Social and Political Philosophy. Email: asilvers@sfsu.edu

ALICE SOWAAL (2005), Assistant Professor of Philosophy; Ph.D. (2001), University of California, Irvine. Areas of specialization: Early Modern Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, History of Feminist), Philosophy. Email: asowaal@sfsu.edu

ASTA SVEINSDOTTIR (2005), Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Ph.D. (2004) MIT. Areas of specialization: Metaphysics (broadly construed). Email: asta@sfsu.edu

JUSTIN TIWALD (2006), Assistant Professor of Philosophy, B.A. (1997); Ph.D. (2006), University of Chicago. Areas of specialization: Ethics, Chinese and Political Philosophy. Email: jtiwald@sfsu.edu

As you may have guessed, the major in philosophy has relevance to almost anything we can do; as a result, our students pursue many different career paths.  Some continue to advanced degrees in philosophy (MA and Ph.D) and become philosophy professors.  Many others go to law school and become lawyers and judges (we have a special major for these people – BA in Philosophy with an emphasis in Law).  Others pursue advanced degrees and careers in Religion or Classical Studies.  We have special degrees for them as well (BA in Philosophy and Religion and BA in Philosophy with an emphasis in Classics).  We also have pre-meds amongst our students.  They often opt to double major (Philosophy and Biology, etc.).  Journalism, Creative Writing, Anthropology, and Psychology are also often doubled up with Philosophy.  These students find the philosophical training to be very useful for clear thinking, deep analysis, and good writing.

Here are some interesting bits of information about Philosophy majors in studies undertaken by the US Department of Education:

• On the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), philosophy majors nationwide consistently achieve among the highest scores of all majors. Philosophy majors have as good a record as Political Science majors for admission to top law schools.
• Philosophy majors outperformed all other disciplines on the verbal portion of the GRE exam, and outside the natural sciences, only philosophy and economics majors significantly beat the national average on the quantitative portion of the GRE.
• As groups, only philosophy and biology majors performed significantly better than the national average on the LSAT and GRE exams, and the highest performers on the GMAT exam (for business school) were philosophy, mathematics, and engineering majors.

Consult our website (http://www.sfsu.edu/~phlsphr) for more information on the department and our programs and feel free to contact the department's academic coordinator with any questions.

Contact Information: phlsphr@sfsu.edu, (415) 338-1596.