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Philosophy Major

A major in Philosophy consists of at least 10 courses (with a minimum of 30 points), as follows:

1. One course in ancient or early medieval philosophy:
  • PHIL UN2101 History of Philosophy I: Pre-Socratics through Augustine
  • PHIL UN3121 Plato
  • PHIL UN3131 Aristotle
  • PHIL GU4090 Early Greek Philosophy
2. One course in late medieval or early modern philosophy:
  • PHIL UN2201 History of Philosophy II: Aquinas through Kant
  • PHIL UN3237 Late Medieval and Modern Philosophy
  • PHIL UN3251 Kant 
3. One course in logic:
  • PHIL UN3411 Introduction to Symbolic Logic
  • PHIL UN1401 Introduction to Logic
4. One course in ethics or social and political philosophy:
  • PHIL UN3701 Ethics
  • PHIL UN3716 Topics in Ethics
  • PHIL UN3353 European Social Philosophy
  • PHIL UN3751 Political Philosophy
5. One course in metaphysics and epistemology, broadly construed:
  • PHIL UN2685 Philosophy of Language
  • PHIL UN3551 Philosophy of Science
  • PHIL UN3601 Metaphysics
  • PHIL UN3651 Philosophy of Mind
  • PHIL UN3960 Epistemology
6. The Senior Seminar
  •  PHIL BC4050 Senior Seminar (required for all majors)

7. Capstone:

  • Either a Senior Thesis:
    -PHIL BC4051 Senior Essay (Fall)
    and
    -PHIL BC4052 Senior Essay (Spring)
  • Or:
    -One advanced seminar: a second section of PHIL BC4050 Senior Seminar, or a PHIL UN3912 Seminar, or a PHIL seminar above 4000
    and
    -One additional elective beyond the two stipulated in 8 (below).

8. Two electives in addition to the eight courses stipulated above.
('Elective' refers to any PHIL course not used to satisfy a major requirement.)
 

Note:

  • Only one of the two introductory courses offered at Barnard and Columbia (PHIL UN1001 and PHIL UN1010) may be counted towards the ten PHIL courses required by the major.
  • Only one of the two logic courses mentioned above (PHIL UN3411 and PHIL UN1401) may be counted towards the ten PHIL courses required by the major.
  • Other courses may be counted towards the distribution requirements, in certain cases, with the permission of the chair.  

If you want to count a transfer, study abroad, or summer course at another institution towards your Philosophy major requirements, please submit the Slate form. The form will be routed to the Chair of the Philosophy department for approval. Please note that the Chair will need to see the complete syllabus for the course in order to decide if the course can count; please upload the syllabus when you submit the Slate form.  

For transfer courses (taken before you enrolled at Barnard), please submit the Requirement Evaluation for Transfer Students form.

For non-Barnard summer courses, please submit the Summer Course Approval Form.

For study abroad courses, please submit the Study Abroad Course Approval Form.

Please note: a maximum of four courses taken at other institutions may be counted towards the Philosophy major.