United States Air Force Academy

Go to home page
Answering Life's Hardest Questions

PHILOSOPHY (MINOR)

Cadet walking past reflection pool.

Philosophy is an ancient and valuable sub-district within the vast marketplace of ideas. It is concerned with the most interesting questions in life—the questions that are fundamental and the least easy to answer or avoid.

All cadets are required to take a course in ethics, which is the discipline concerned with answering the questions: What is the life most worth living? What is a good act? What sort of person is the best person? What is truly valuable? By what principles should life be led?

Philosophy is not for everyone. It is not for those who want easy answers, nor is it for those who do not care about the deeper meanings of life or the purpose of their own lives. It is for those who wish to gain a more thorough understanding of themselves as rational, reflective beings inhabiting and working in a world that sometimes allows us to glimpse its deeper meanings.

Philosophy courses can often be used to fulfill major requirements in other disciplines, so the philosophy minor can sometimes be earned by taking only one or two additional courses.

Required Courses

Cadets will earn the minor by completing five courses (15 semester hours), in addition to the successful completion of Philos 310 (“C” or better):

One course in the history and topics series, unless the student has already completed Philos 390.
Philos 391 Ancient Western Philosophy
Philos 392 Western Medieval Philosophy
Philos 393 Modern Western Philosophy
Philos 394 Contemporary Topics in Philosophy
One of the following logic courses:
Philos 200 Introduction to Philosophy
Philos 370 Introduction to Symbolic Logic
Any philosophy course.
Any philosophy course or one of the following courses:
Management 411, Econ 440, Pol Sci 301, Pol Sci 451, or Pol Sci 463.

For full program requirements and course descriptions, download the current Course of Instruction Handbook.

CONTACT US

Dr. Rhonda Smith
Advisor-in-Charge
rhonda.smith@usafa.edu
(719) 333-8659