Philosophy for Pre-Law Students
Our courses explore philosophical issues that motivate the formulation and application of laws including:
- Ethics
- Justice
- The nature of the state
- The best form of government
- Relations between moral and legal obligation
- The nature of law itself
Our department helps to develop skills that that, according to an American Bar Association article , are essential for working in law. This includes developing the ability to:
- Learn to read difficult and closely argued material
- Extract and evaluate theories and arguments from the material
- Formulate new theories and arguments
- Speak and write clearly and precisely
This skill development has clearly paid off when it comes to applying to law school. The University’s acceptance rate to law school is 95 percent, which is 20 percent higher than the national average.
Majoring in Philosophy
The Department of Philosophy offers both a major in philosophy and a more specialized major in philosophy with emphasis on law and ethics.
Both programs are very flexible, easily allowing students to dual major in another area, like political science, economics, or history.
Students can also minor or take a cluster in philosophy with courses the focus on law and ethics.
Courses of Special Interest to Pre-Law Students
Pre-law students might be especially interested in:
- PHIL 102: Ethics
- PHIL 103: Contemporary Moral Problems
- PHIL 105: Reason and Argument
- PHIL 110: Intro Logic
- PHIL 118: Business Ethics
- PHIL 220: Recent Ethical Theory
- PHIL 223: Social and Political Philosophy
- PHIL 224: History of Ethics
- PHIL 225: Ethical Decisions in Medicine
- PHIL 226: Philosophy of Law
- PHIL 230: Environmental Justice