Bachelor of Arts [B.A] [Philosophy] From Howard University

Defining philosophy as the self-reflection, foundation, and integration of the arts and sciences, the department concentrates on four traditional areas of philosophy: ontology, epistemology, axiology, and praxiology. It seeks to answer the questions covered under these four areas: what exists, how can we know it, what is its value, and how should we live our lives?

The department views philosophy as a game plan for a liberal arts education. It justifies the mandatory elements of the curriculum by showing the interdependence of intellectual cultures. Courses on these cultures are justified not because they make the student "well-rounded" or "liberally educated," but because each course depends on the others for its proper exposition.

Philosophy should raise the important questions of life in the hope that students will use their other courses in a compulsory liberal arts curriculum to help address these questions. Philosophy cannot engage in its work without the assistance of all other academic subjects. But the reciprocal is true. Without philosophy, research in other subjects cannot be ground breaking.