Department of Philosophy - Salve Regina University

Chair: Lois Eveleth, Ph.D.

Seated from left to right: Dr. Khalil Habib, Elliot Montagano; Craig Buckley; Stefan Sigurdsson. (Disclosure: The three students, PHL majors, are sporting their new super-duper department t-shirts which say: WARNING: Philosophy has been known to cause thinking.)

Since the fifth century philosophy, which means "the love of wisdom," has been at the very heart of the liberal arts. It embraces a number of diverse traditions from the West and the East. Salve Regina's philosophy department draws on this enriching diversity while being sensitive to and supportive of the Roman Catholic heritage of the university's tradition.

Philosophy introduces students to representative philosophical issues in human life and cultivates in them a capacity to apply philosophical methods to intellectual, moral, and social problems.

Salve's philosophy department strives to encourage in each student a critical mind, a balance of analytic and interpretive abilities, a capacity for the imaginative development of abstract formulations and their concrete application in human society.

John Locke and the Problem of Toleration
By Lois Eveleth
Published in Contemporary Philosophy Vol. XXVIII, No.1&2

Solve This Week's Logic Puzzle and get the answer to last week's puzzle

What is philosophy?

Philosophy raises fundamental questions about human life, human experience, and what it means to be human, and then asks that you make these questions your own.

"Does life have a meaning?"
"Who am I?"
"Is 'rational' better than 'irrational'?"

These are just some of the many great philosophical questions.

Once you have caught this wonderful contagion called philosophizing, your quest leads you through some of the most exciting answers offered by the world's greatest thinkers. Knowing their responses to the great questions helps start you on your way.

Finally, philosophy demands that you bring what you have learned into society. You are challenged to apply insights and analytic and speculative methods to the social, moral, and intellectual problems of the real world.

Philosophy is not easy. It is exciting, it is hard, it is necessary. And it isn't for wimps

Students hoping to major or minor in Philosophy must have achieved a cumulative grade point average of 2.7 at the time of application to the department. Majors and minors are required to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in Philosophy courses and a cumulative grade point average of 2.7 overall.