Philosophy studies many of humanity's fundamental questions: how should we live, what kind of society should we strive towards, what are the limits of human knowledge? What is truth? Justice? Beauty? These questions are central to our lives, because in much of what we do, we at least implicitly assume answers to them. Philosophy seeks to reflect on these questions and answer them in a systematic, explicit, and rigorous way—relying on careful argumentation, and drawing from outside fields as diverse as economics, literature, religion, law, mathematics, the physical sciences, and psychology. And while most of the tradition of philosophy is Western, we seek to connect with non-Western traditions like Islam and Buddhism, as well. Philosophy doesn't just operate at this most abstract of planes. We often investigate more specific issues in our classes.

Philosophy is offered as both a concentration and a secondary field.