It is thinking clearly and logically about deep questions: Who am I? What is a person? What ought I to do? Is genuinely free choice or action possible? How can I distinguish truth from falsehood, reality from illusion? What is reality? What is truth? What is knowledge? How is it distinguished from mere true belief? How is it best acquired? What is beauty? How should society be organized? How ought people to act toward one another? What, if anything, is the meaning of my life?
In philosophy courses at Union, we study the best efforts that people have made to answer such questions. But not just to answer them. We are especially interested in examining the reasons people have given in favor of their answers. In philosophy, as opposed to religion or mysticism, we test proposed answers by bringing them before the bar of reason. Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Whether or not that's so, in our courses we aim not only to test others' answers, but to provide you with the motivation and skills you need to critically and imaginatively examine your own.
Although you may not know it, you already have a philosophy! Everyone does. However, you may not have a philosophy that you've thought about carefully. Few do. The reason we know that you already have a philosophy is that everyone's thought and actions occur against the backdrop of assumptions about nature, human life, and themselves. However, having a philosophy is not the same as living an examined life. Living an examined life requires uncovering and then critically assessing these hidden assumptions. Philosophy at Union will help you to do this.
