The Department of Philosophy faculty at St. Edward’s University help prepare students to become innovative and logical thinkers with a wide range of marketable skills — from rational analysis and analytical thinking to critical inquiry and logical problem solving.

Through the in-depth study of life’s fundamental questions, students taking courses in the Department of Philosophy will grow as individuals while preparing for many professional fields. Our majors examine traditional areas of philosophy, such as logic, epistemology, political theory and religion. They may also explore ethics and debate moral dilemmas in medicine, business, the environment, public policy and law.

Graduates from our department often continue their education with graduate degrees in philosophy, law or medicine.

St. Edward's University

Two Things the Majors Need!

Your degree plan and how to get in touch with your instructor (see below).

And for more information, you can always contact Dr. Jack Musselman in Holy Cross Hall 414 or our Department Chair, Dr. Mark Cherry, in Holy Cross Hall 417.

Still want to learn more about truth and justice, right and wrong?

Talk to Dr. Peter A. Wake in Holy Cross Hall 418.

Why Study Philosophy?

Study philosophy to learn how to live, to get a top LSAT and GRE and GMAT score, and a great job, and outearn business and chemistry majors.

The importance of philosophy today: Don’t Dismiss the Humanities, by Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times

John Cleese:  Why Philosophy is Nothing to Laugh About

Philosophy's role in shaping leaders: How Philosophy Makes You a Better Leader, by David Brendel, The Harvard Business Review

How philosophy helps in business: The Unexpected Way Philosophy Majors Are Changing the World of Business, by Carolyn Gregoire, The Huffington Post

Even a magazine devoted to people studying psychology published an article that philosophy is a great major for getting great jobs!

And don't just take it from professors on campus! Philosophy is a Great Major spells out all the reasons to become a lover of wisdom right now!

Even the editorial page of Forbes magazine thinks philosophy majors are well worth it!

And here's a poster of famous philosophers to hang on your wall--unless you'd rather just read a long list of famous philosophy majors.

Skeptical about all these claims? Excellent! You're ready to be a philosophy major! And don't trust us just because we said all this. Ask St. Edward's Psychology professor Alan Swinkels, English professor (and lawyer) Drew Loewe, French professor (and Department Chair) Philippe Seminet, University Studies professor Cory Lock, and Associate Vice President of Admission Tracy Manier if their B.A. degrees in philosophy prepared them for life and work. They're bound to tell you it really helped them prepare for careers and more.

And your Philosophy Department is the only one on campus where each and every faculty member won the university's Distinguished Teaching Award: viz., Mark Cherry in 2003, Peter Wake in 2010, and Jack Musselman in 2018.

Internships

The four career counselors in the Career and Professional Development office (Moody Hall 134, phone 512-448-8530) can help you find an internship that works for you! Your skills as a philosophy major--i.e. critical and analytical reasoning to provide clear and compelling arguments--are in demand by non-profits, for-profits and government employers. So, go to Moody Hall 134 and talk to a career counselor to get an internship. After that, go talk to your philosophy faculty about how that internship can become a philosophy course under their supervision.

St. Edward's University

Scholarships

Juniors and seniors majoring in either Philosophy or Religious and Theological Studies may receive the Lillian Cervenka Scholarship and Arthur Kinsella Scholarship. These two departments alternate every other year giving this scholarship and recipients are selected by the faculty in Philosophy or the faculty in Religious and Theological Studies. Recipients are announced at St. Edward's University Honors Night.

Online Resources (including how to transfer from ACC to get a B.A. in Philosophy at St. Edward's)

Austin Community College: take two years of philosophy at ACC and then transfer to St. Edward's to get a B.A. in philosophy.

American Philosophical Association: the main U.S. organization for philosophers

Philosophy Matters: a Facebook page of articles, news, editorials and cartoons

Philosophy Now: a magazine of ideas

St. Edward's University Department of Philosophy Facebook page

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: professional philosophers share interesting articles

Alumni Graduate Studies and Professional Careers

Two alumni have been Fulbright scholars and many others have been admitted to graduate studies at American University, Baylor University, Boston College, Brandeis University, DePaul University, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris), École Normale Supérieure (ENS, Paris), Emory University, Harvard University, the University of Houston, the University of Kansas, Louisiana State University, Loyola Marymount University, the University of Missouri, Loyola University, the New School for Social Research, University of Northern Colorado, the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po, Paris), University of Pennsylvania, Purdue University, Stanford University, St. Mary's University, the University of Texas, Texas State University, Texas Tech University, Texas Women's University, University of the Arts (Berlin), Williams College and William and Mary.

Our alumni work as lawyers and police officers and philosophy professors and art history professors, as cultural critics and journalists and musicians and artists, as employees for Apple and Airbnb and as  K-12 teachers and social workers and as USDA Forest Service firefighters, and one of our alumni is the head brewer at Strap Tank Brewery in Utah. 

SEU To You

Associate Professor of Philosophy Jack Musselman explores the political, ethical and moral trade-offs of living greener in the 21st century in this overview of his Environmental Ethics course.