Department of Philosophy

“The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters” Francisco Goya

Mission Statement

The Philosophy Program

The Philosophy program promotes academic excellence by providing the highest quality undergraduate and graduate learning opportunities and by fostering the highest quality research and scholarship in philosophy. It is focused on equipping students with core knowledge and skills, while acquainting them with the range and diversity of traditions and orientations in philosophy. The program is committed to the relevance of its efforts, promoting meaningful institutional, professional, and community service, while emphasizing teaching and research attentive to the application of philosophical knowledge and skills. The philosophy program is dedicated to regular and ongoing scrutiny of all its efforts in teaching, research, and service. Informed by these commitments, the Department of Philosophy seeks to assist its multiple constituencies in appreciating the great intellectual conversations, in clarifying unexamined assumptions, in evaluating the ideas and norms that motivate intellectual inquiry, and in participating intelligently and responsibly in public debates.

Student Learning Outcomes

UNF Philosophy graduates should be able to:

Content/Disciplinary Knowledge & Skills

  • Understand the terms, methods, and procedures employed in the discipline of philosophy.
  • Understand the main developments, traditions, and/or topics in the discipline of philosophy, including theoretical, practical, and historical domains.

Critical Thinking Skills

  • Present arguments that are well reasoned, fallacy-free, with conclusions properly following from premises.
  • Understand the structure and evaluate the merit of arguments, recognizing forms of fallacious, invalid, and unsound reasoning. Read complex argumentative prose in a systematic, interpretive, and critical manner.

Communication Skills

  • Write in a reasoned, persuasive, and argumentatively effective manner.
  • Employ the verbal skills needed both for individual presentations and participation in group discussions.

The UNF Philosophy Department offers courses and programs in philosophy toward the Major in Philosophy (since 1991),toward several minors, toward the MA in Practical Philosophy and Applied Ethics, in support of UNF's General Education program (for which we offer three courses:  Introduction to Philosophy, Reasoning and Critical Thinking, and Contemporary Ethical Issues), in support of programs throughout the University (such as Criminal Justice, Educational Leadership, Health, Honors, Political Science, and Business Administration), and for students who seek elective courses in philosophy.

  • In 2007-2008, the Philosophy Department had (in a regional, comprehensive, state university of about 16,000 students):
  • Twelve tenured or tenure-earning faculty members,
  • Three visiting faculty members,
  • Approximately 60 Philosophy Majors,
  • Approximately 47 Philosophy courses and 19 Religious Studies courses listed in the UNF Undergraduate Catalog.
  • Approximately 25 Philosophy courses listed in the UNF Graduate Catalog.

The Philosophy Program at the University of North Florida has several qualities that make it special among philosophy programs around the country.

The Program is dedicated to undergraduate education. The quality of UNF's Philosophy Program rivals any of the dedicated four-year liberal arts programs in the country. Since the focus is on undergraduate education, class size is kept small -- lower division philosophy courses are capped at 35 students -- and professors are more available to students than they might be in large research universities. The professors in philosophy keep a minimum of five office hours a week.

Although the Program is dedicated to undergraduate education, the UNF Philosophy Program can draw on the resources of a university. This allows professors to devote part of their work to research. This translates into better informed, better prepared, more "cutting edge" instruction than might be possible in a non-university setting.

The UNF Philosophy Program is pluralistic, committed to working within and across a variety of philosophical orientations, including American pragmatism, analytic philosophy, continental philosophy, non-western traditions, and race and gendertheory.

The UNF Philosophy Program is small, yet rapidly growing. Because the Program is small, upper division classes have an excellent student-to-teacher ratio. This will not appreciably change even though we are adding majors because new faculty will be added as new majors come in. Furthermore, with the addition of new faculty comes the addition of many new courses, both as additions to the catalog and as additions to each semester's philosophy course offerings.