Undergraduate Overview
Philosophy studies, well, everything. It provides a set of methods that help you to rigorously develop and evaluate arguments. These tools help you productively engage with others, allowing you to clarify disagreements and come to new conclusions.
An undergraduate degree in philosophy will enhance these abilities while having you explore topics such as the nature of time, personal identity, rationality, knowledge, the meaning of life, morality, justice, and beauty. Engaging in this exploration will prepare you for investigating and developing ideas that shape our very lives.
Why Study Philosophy at UB?
Experience Thought-Provoking Courses
From Ancient Philosophy to Contemporary Moral Problems, UB’s Department of Philosophy offers a wide range of courses that will keep your schedule interesting. Try one out—you just might get hooked!
Focus on Your Interests
Our undergraduate programs have been designed to be incredibly flexible, allowing you to tailor your studies to your own interests and goals. Most of our courses fulfill pathways requirements, making a minor, or even a second major, a popular choice with our students.
Prepare for Your Future
A degree in philosophy is great preparation for graduate school, law school, and even business school. More generally, our programs will help expand your abilities to think critically, reason persuasively, write clearly, and work productively with others. These are all vital for your success in our highly competitive and rapidly changing society.
Degree Programs
Our Students & Alumni
Aaron Blumenthal
“This department does a wonderful job of giving its students the scaffolding required to learn how to think. The skills that you learn here are, I would argue, the most important skills that we can carry through life: learning how to critically read, critically think, reflect, understand arguments, and understand reason at the highest levels. I value these skills the most because they allow me to frame the world in many different ways, and that framing not only gives me confidence to move through the world but try to affect change in it. That’s something I really want to do. I am proud to have been a member of this department.”
- Aaron Blumenthal, BA'22
Alexis Buckner-Smerina
“I have always been someone who wants to enact change, especially in my communities. I feel that coming to this school and learning about philosophy has really opened my mind to exploring new ways to enact that change. I learned how to work with others when we each have different ways of attacking a problem and a situation. So it has definitely influenced me when I am connecting with people who might think differently than I do. I want to be able to help other people, even if we don’t understand each other. Being in philosophy, I am able to articulate my thoughts way better. I hope to use it in the future with law school and my future jobs, and even just being a citizen in my community, expressing myself, and talking to the people around me.”
- Alexis Buckner-Smerina, BA'22
Morounfoluwa Erinfolami
“Philosophy helped me understand that we all have our own views of the world. We are all different. Your path towards finding your “true meaning of life” is going to be different. It is okay to be different. Embrace that. It is perfect. A lot of people are trapped in their own social bubble, and broadening out of that is scary. It is comfortable to be in your own bubble. But if you are trying to enter the real world, you are going to interact with people that are just different from you. If I were to close myself off, we won’t ever be able to make any connections with people. For me, my passion is social justice. Through the philosophy department, I was able to gain more confidence tackling issues related to that.”
- Morounfoluwa Erinfolami, BA'22
Our Faculty
The department includes 14 full-time faculty. Their research interests cover a wide range of topics, allowing the department to offer undergraduate courses in many different areas within philosophy. Of particular note, the Department of Philosophy is a research hub for Applied Ontology and PPE (Philosophy, Politics & Economics). The faculty here are glad to mentor undergraduate research, supervise internships, or even have you assist them with a course!
Prof. Sarah Vincent presents a lecture on everyday aesthetics to her class
Specializations
- Artificial Intelligence
- Epistemology
- Ethics & Applied Ethics (including Bioethics)
- Experimental Philosophy
- Formal & Applied Ontology
- History of Philosophy (including Ancient, Modern, Nineteenth-Century & Twentieth-Century Philosophy)
- Logic
- Metaphysics
- Moral Psychology
- Ontology
- Philosophy of Language
- Philosophy of Mind
- Philosophy in Popular Culture
- Philosophy of Science
- Social & Political Philosophy
Contact Us
Donna Smith
Undergraduate Administrator; Graduate Administrator
Department of Philosophy
135A Park Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260-4150
Phone: (716) 645-2780; Fax: (716) 645-6139
Email: donnaobe@buffalo.edu
General Inquiry
Department of Philosophy
135 Park Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-4150
Voice: (716) 645-2444
Fax: (716) 645-6139
Email: phi-philosophy@buffalo.edu