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I. Who We Are
The
Philosophy Department is a small unit of seven full-time professors who
excel in their discipline. We are dedicated teachers and accomplished
scholars who publish a prolific number of articles and books in
professional forums. As specialists in our fields, we are often invited
to give talks to audiences throughout the nation and around the world.
We are also practitioners involved in a wide variety of community
affairs and social causes, demonstrating the concrete meaning and value
of philosophy for society and the professions.
Despite our few numbers, we are remarkably pluralistic and offer training across a broad range of philosophical traditions and sub-disciplines. Our teaching and research is drawn from the most lively current debates both from within the major divisions of Continental and Analytic tradiations and the dialogue that has developed between adherents of those divisions. We also focus our work on other contemporary areas of interest such as Latin American Philosophy, Holocaust Studies, Philosophy of Mind, animal rights, and environmental ethics. Because of the unique background of many department members, our students can also learn about a wide variety of issues in the philosophy of science, including theories of knowledge and the scientific method, philosophy of biology and physics, and science and technology studies.
We also regularly offer the David Hall Memorial Lecture Series which continues to feature renowned and emerging scholars who speak from a variety of philosophical perspectives. Additionally, John Symons is editor of the prestigious journal, Synthese: An International Journal for the Methodology, Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, which is housed at UTEP and Jules Simon is Scientific Director for the Center for Science, Technology, Ethics, and Policy (CSTEP) which is formally associated with the Department of Philosophy.
In short, despite our small size, we are a significant intellectual presence in our discipline, on campus, and in our community.
II. Department Vision
The UTEP Philosophy Department aims to provide the best and most diverse training in philosophy a student can receive in the surrounding area of West Texas, Northern Mexico, and Southern New Mexico. In the Fall semester of 2008, we officially began a new phase in growth as a Department as we welcomed the first class of graduates to our M.A. in Philosophy program. That program highlights our strengths in Ethics and Philosophy of Science. In offering graduate-level training in philosophy, we express our commitment to providing students with the necessary skills and training needed to enter top PhD programs in the country and to excel in any career they choose. While benefiting a wide variety of students, we have the special opportunity to train the many Hispanic students of this area so that they can enter the philosophy profession and thereby enhance the diversity of the profession.
III. Mission Statement
The mission of the Philosophy Department is to provide comprehensive and balanced training in philosophy for its and students, majors, minors so that they can:
- become competitive applicants for top PhD programs anywhere in the country
- directly enter the job market to teach philosophy at the Community College level
- enter prestigious law, business, or medical schools with improved critical thinking skills
- move into any profession that requires disciplined training in critical thinking and writing
- become skilled in theoretical analysis, ethics and value thinking, and in the art of good citizenship
- acquire the passion for wisdom and see learning as a life-long adventure
As a discipline, philosophy preeminently is able to train students in logic, critical thinking, argumentation, value thinking, ethical sensitivity, and creative ways of wondering about the natural and social worlds. We seek to instill in our students a strong grasp of the history of philosophy in a multicultural context, such that they are acquainted with the major figures, traditions, schools of thought, and issues or problems in the main areas of inquiry: logic, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, value inquiry, and social and political theory.
We aim not only to further the professional training of students who intend to pursue a career in philosophy, but also to help students think and perform better in any career area, whether that is in medicine, business, or law. Besides broadening the mind and person, statistics show that training in philosophy has very pragmatic benefits in terms of performing on important tests scores. Over the past ten years philosophy majors as a group have had a higher mean score on the Graduate Record Examination Verbal Section than students in any other major. Only philosophy majors were 5% or more above the mean on all four of these tests: LSAT (Law), GMAT (Graduate Management), GRE Verbal, and GRE Quantitative.
The student who completes our program should not only be a sharper and more informed thinker, but also a better person and citizen, one who is more inquisitive, open-minded, cosmopolitan, aware of social and political issues, and more fully and critically engaged in the affairs of their community life.
As a department located on the U.S.-Mexico border, situated within an international setting, the UTEP Philosophy Department also has a specific purpose to address the needs and people in this region and to promote more diversity within the philosophy profession. According to the last available figures, only four Hispanic PhDs entered the national job market in 2001. In the past few years, the number of Hispanic Ph.D.s in philosophy barely reaches an average of 2% nationwide (see the American Philosophical Association website: http://www.udel.edu/apa).
The under-representation of Hispanics in a major academic field such as philosophy is a serious problem, and our department is uniquely positioned, literally, to help address this imbalance. This goal is consistent with -- indeed, demanded by -- the mission of the university. More broadly construed, by providing solid training in philosophy, the department will serve to educate students and enlighten members of this border community to think and act more critically and conscientiously in the multicultural and international environment of this world.
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