In accordance with the mission of the philosophy department, it is expected that students graduating with a minor in philosophy will have gained both Knowledge Of and Knowledge How with respect to philosophy. The specific expectations are delineated as follows:

KNOWLEDGE OF:

As noted in the mission statement, the knowledge of philosophy is understood to consist of two distinct (though not necessarily mutually exclusive) subcategories: 1. Historical knowledge, 2. Topical knowledge. Owing to the nature of the philosophy program at Weber State University, it would be unreasonable to expect a strict uniformity of knowledge amongst our graduates; as such the following disjunctive breakdown is suggested:

1. Historical knowledge:

• Socrates
• Descartes   
• Plato
• Locke   
• Aristotle
• Berkeley
• Augustine
• Hume    
• Aquinas
• Kant

2. Topical knowledge:

• metaphysics medical ethics
• epistemology ethical theory
• philosophy of religion political theory
• philosophy of law existentialism

KNOWLEDGE HOW:

In contrast with students as they enter our program students should have a demonstrably increased capacity in the following three areas:

Critical thinking ability:

Reading comprehension:

Writing skills:

While these skills do not, perhaps, exhaust the list of things in which a properly trained philosophy student should improve, they are, we think, at the core of philosophical training.