Philosophy

Get to Know the Program

By choosing to study philosophy, you can learn valuable life skills to put to use in both your professional and personal lives. You will learn to communicate effectively. You will be able to think critically and logically. You will know how to grasp all angles of an argument and analyze it to get to the heart of an issue. This set of skills is vital to work in law, politics, business, government, and the academia.

Philosophy tackles the most fundamental questions. How should I live? Is there a God? What are my rights and responsibilities? Do I have free will? Studying philosophy will give you insight into such questions. It will help you develop the skills of analysis, argumentation, and clear expression. Philosophical questions underlie the theory and practice of every academic field.

At Acadia, we teach you to question. Our award-winning professors will challenge you to think critically. You will learn to debate and engage. No other department at Acadia matches the Philosophy Department in its focus on the pursuit of intellectual challenge for the intrinsic rewards it offers. We provide our students with an exceptional grounding in critical thinking. Through our rigorous program, our graduates go on to high academic achievement. In fact, philosophy graduates do better on standardized tests such as the LSAT and GRE than graduates in any other field.

Some recent graduates have won the prestigious Presidential Graduate Fellowship at MIT and gained admission to graduate schools at Brown, Carleton, Cornell, Dalhousie, Harvard, Indiana, McGill, Memorial, MIT, Ottawa, Princeton, Purdue, Queen’s, Simon Fraser, Toronto, UBC, Victoria, Western, and York. Others have gained admission to law school at Dalhousie, Osgoode Hall, Ottawa, Queen’s, and Wales. Still others have gained admission to medical school at Memorial. Our recent graduates have won graduate scholarships totalling well over $500,000. Philosophy prepares you for whatever career challenges you’ll face later in life.

Program advantages

Honours available
Enhance your degree and build towards future degrees with our Honours program option.

High salary and employment
Philosophy graduates have one of the highest salaries, and employment rates, among university graduates.

Generous financial support
The Department of Philosophy offers generous teaching and research assistantships, prizes, and awards.

First Year at a Glance

REQUIRED COURSES

  • 6 credit-hours (2 courses or 1 full-year course) in Philosophy at the 1000 level
ELECTIVES

  • Your choice of courses totalling 24 credit-hours. These courses can include some of your Arts Core requirements, such as the required English courses, or a science course, or something from the social sciences. You're welcome and encouraged to sample courses outside of Philosophy and the Arts Core in your first year.
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CAREER OPTIONS AFTER GRADUATION

  • Academia
  • Government
  • Journalism
  • Law
  • Medicine
  • Non-governmental organizations
  • Paralegal
  • Policy analysis
  • Policy research
  • Public relations
  • Teaching
 

Continue Exploring

Want to know more about what's in store? You're invited to continue exploring this field of study by visiting the website of this department to get a greater insight into its culture and dynamics.

Visit the Department of Philosophy

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You may also be interested in other Bachelor of Arts programs like:

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