BA in Philosophy

We are not currently recruiting new students to this program.

Ever wonder what the events of your life mean? Why governments are structured as they are? Why we haven’t succeeded in building real artificial intelligence? Or why women were historically oppressed? Then you’ve come to the right place.

Philosophy is an academic discipline that focuses on the systematic use of reason to understand and answer the fundamental questions about human life and the nature of reality. It asks questions like:

• What exists?
• What can we know?
• What does it mean to be human?
• What is the mind?
• Are we free?
• What is the right thing to do?
• What is the right form of government?

What Will I Learn?

At LAU, you can major or minor in philosophy. In the major you are required to complete 13 philosophy courses which will give you a philosophical foundation that you can then develop in graduate school or use in a non-academic career. The major also gives you eight free electives which you can use to further specialize in a particular area of philosophy, pursue a minor in a different subject, or acquire a teaching diploma to supplement your degree.

Your Career

Philosophy focuses on systematic critical skills and combines well with any field and helps you excel in it. Pursuing an academic career as a professor of philosophy through further studies is one option, but there are many other options. At LAU, you can take any of the following tracks without adding extra semesters:

• Become a teacher: The BA in Philosophy leaves you with enough credits to get a teaching diploma without extra semesters. You can also get a diploma in special teaching.
• Become a journalist, a media specialist, or a publisher: Add a minor in english, Arabic, or digital communication and you become the ideal candidate for journalism, media, or a publishing house.
• Work in social activism, politics, public policy, public relations, fundraising, and nonprofit work: Add one of the many minors offered by the Department of Social and Education Sciences to customize your exact area of expertise.
• Work in business and technology: Add a business minor, actuarial studies minor, or computer science minor, depending on your area of interest.
• Work in the arts or become an artist: Customize your art by adding one of the many minors in LAU’s School of Architecture and Design or by becoming a performance artist at LAU’s Department of Communication, Arts and Languages.
• Work in the sciences: Add one of the four science minors and ensure a career in one of those sciences.

What Does the World Say about Philosophy?

Below you can see some of the reasons for why philosophy is a valuable major in lots of fields. You can also see what LAU’s philosophy professor, Rami El Ali, has to say about philosophy for the future in this TEDxLAU talk.

• The Wall Street Journal 2020: Philosophy for a Time of Crisis
• Bachelor Studies 2018: Four reasons why philosophy is as relevant as ever
• Quartz 2017: Silicon Valley executives are hiring philosophers to teach them to question everything
• The Huffington Post 2017: The Unexpected Way Philosophy Majors Are Changing The World Of Business

Curriculum

The BA in Philosophy requires 92 credits:

• Core courses: 36 credits
• Liberal Arts Curriculum (LAC) requirements: 30 credits (ENG202 Advanced Academic English; COM203 Art of Public Communication, Arts and Humanities minimum 12 credits and maximum 15 credits, Sciences and Mathematics minimum 3 credits and maximum 6 credits and Social Sciences minimum 6 credits and maximum 9 credits)
• Computer Skills: 1 credit (CSC201 Computer Applications)
• Free elective courses: 25 credits

The philosophy courses are distributed across 7 areas of course work:

Logic Requirement: 3 credits from the following courses

Ethics Requirement: 3 credits from the following courses

History of Philosophy Requirement: 6 credits from the following courses

Theoretical Philosophy Requirement: 9 credits from the following

Individual Philosopher Requirement: 3 credits

Philosophy Electives: 9 credits from the following

Study Requirement (3 credits)