<p>Anyone major in philosophy at UM or have some info about the program?</p>
<p>Yep! What do you want to know?</p>
<p>Here’s some general information: 10 classes are required for a major in philosophy. We have quite a few well known philosophers in the department, perhaps most notably Colin McGinn. The professors have a wide variety of specialties, including philosophy of science and physics, logic and metalogic, ethics, philosophy of language, existentialism, Kant, and quite a lot more.</p>
<p>I would just like to know if your happy with that particular major, and if the classes are both interesting and challenging. I also read something about a philosophy club at UM. I’m planning on taking philosophy because I think it will be a good major to choose if I plan on attending law school someday. Do you cover a lot of Latin in the philosophy of language course?</p>
<p>I’m very happy with philosophy. The courses are very interesting, and quite challenging. They force you to think - you can’t just breeze through most of the courses. The professors are also incredibly accessible. My professors have office hours, but typically I drop by their office at any reasonable time of day and they’re happy to see me.</p>
<p>Philosophy is perhaps the best major, I might argue, to have when applying to law schools. Philosophy prepares you for the type of thinking you’ll need to do in law, and, of course, Philosophy majors score higher on the LSAT than any other major.</p>
<p>Be sure, though, that you understand precisely what philosophy is. Lots of people come in declaring the major, and have their expectations completely reversed. </p>
<p>In philosophy of language, for example, you won’t learn a word of latin (or any other language for that matter). Perhaps you may see a few words used as examples of certain theories, but a course such as the philosophy of language is going to examine theories of what language is, what constitutes langauge, the influence that language on society, thought, and mental activities, whether its possible to think without language, whether animals have language, whether translation is every truly possible, what a word is, whether absolute communication is actually possible (that is, can I truly convey my thoughts to you in an accurate way, or will different interpretations of different words influence how my words are understood). I think philosophy of language in particular could be very interesting because words and language are how we frame the world, how we explain the things we see in the world, and, as a result, what, one might say, the world is.</p>
<p>Great info, thanks a lot. I was just curious about the philosophy of language because I thought it might cover a few Latin terms. I was going to take philosophy of law at Binghamton University and I would have had to take a few courses in Latin in order to graduate. Sounds like an interesting major though.</p>