This minor aims to offer students the opportunity to explore to a brief but substantial degree, the areas of philosophy and ethics, to gain familiarity with their aims and methods, to develop facility in engaging in the areas, and to learn how to analyze public affairs from philosophical and ethical perspectives.

Upon successful completion of this Minor, students should be able to:

1. Give a brief account of philosophy as an intellectual discipline and explain the major features of the method of philosophical analysis, particularly in regard to ethics.
2. Articulate and explain some of the central issues and questions arising from philosophical reflections on applied ethical problems and controversial issues of public affairs, and show how ethical theory can help sort out, make clear, and in many cases resolve difficulties. 
3. Explain how an understanding of the greater natural world inevitably is part of the project of ethical reflection. Show how an understanding of human evolution and psychology has shaped and informed our orientation, values and social ethics.
4. Enumerate major schools and traditions of philosophic ethics in both the West and the East and explain their different foundational assumptions and approaches to problems concerning human values, the meaning of life, the nature of human existence, and controversial issues in social life.
5. Develop an open mind, moral sensibility, and multiple points of view and construct philosophical arguments based on critical thinking, rational argument, and fair judgment. Assume greater individual and social responsibility and develop a capacity for lifelong learning.