Philosophy Department

The study of philosophy at Covenant College is directed to helping students understand what philosophy is and how it has an inescapable relevance to their lives. The history of philosophy is an account of philosophers and thinkers making recommendations about how to conceive of or to interpret this or that element of human experience. One of the aims of philosophy is to examine these recommendations to see how they stand up under rigorous analysis. A further aim of philosophy is to bring together such interpretive ideas and concepts into a coherent framework or worldview. Distinctively Christian philosophy seeks to study the ideas and concepts that compose a given worldview from the standpoint of biblical presuppositions. The end of such activity is to assist students in developing a Christian worldview that enables them better to live in a way that pleases God and that consequently provides for a more meaningful life.

The study of philosophy provides an intellectual background in the history of human thought that equips students to have a better understanding of other academic disciplines. It also increases skill in the logical analysis of ideas.

 

 

Recent Senior Capstone Projects

• “Reader Oriented Translation”
• “Divine Command Theory & the Objection from Possible Evil”
• “A Critique of Wittgenstein’s ‘Meaning to Use’”
• “Leopold von Ranke, Herbert Baxter Adams, & the Development of Modern History”
• “Leo Strauss & Liberal Democracy”
• “Persons, Things, and Reciprocity: The Pertinence of I and Thou”
• “Hannah Arendt: Philosopher and Jew”

 

Recent Student Internships

• Writing assistant, Jasper Reynolds Public Relations
• Maclellan Foundation
• Harrison Center for the Arts
• United States District Court
• Fayette County District Attorney’s Office

 

 

Where Our Alumni Are

Graduate Schools

• Duquesne University
• University of Virginia
• University of Rochester
• Covenant Theological Seminary
• Case Western Reserve University School of Law
• College of William & Mary
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Job Outcomes for Philosophy Majors

• Research analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• Lead GIS developer, VSolvIT
• Humanities teacher, Oaks Academy
• Research assistant, Elevate Africa
• Postdoctoral fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, UVA
• Professor of philosophy, Erskine College
• Assistant youth pastor, New St. Peter's Presbyterian Church, Dallas
• Instructor of philosophy, Walters State Community College