Philosophy
Philosophy
The understanding of values and reality by reasoning.
Philosophy is the most ancient of the academic disciplines, with an unbroken history stretching back to the sixth century before the birth of Christ. At first glance, many of the traditional questions of philosophy, such as "Is there a physical world?" or "Do other people have minds?", seem odd. But upon closer examination, it turns out that these questions are important and surprisingly difficult to answer. There are no observations or experiments that can be used to decide these questions: the tool available to the philosopher is reasoning. Consequently, in order to investigate the problems that concern them, over the centuries philosophers have developed powerful techniques. These methods have been applied to a very wide range of questions such as:
• What is the difference between right and wrong or between good and evil?
• Is it possible to prove the existence of God?
• What is the nature of existence?
• What is the difference between mind and matter?
Students who study philosophy not only learn about the traditional problems of philosophy, but also learn the highly important skill of proficient analysis of arguments and positions.
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Important sources of information
RDC Calendar
Academic Advisors
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Room 3100
t: 403.342.3304 | e: ba@rdc.ab.ca
Head of Philosophy
Guillermo Barron
guillermo.barron@rdc.ab.ca