Program Requirements

  • Total units required: 18 units
    • 9 units must be at the 3000 level
    • 3 units must be at the 4000 level
  • Grade Requirement: C– or better; Pass/No Pass grades do not count toward the minor requirements

Required Courses

Philosophy minors are required to complete 3 units from each of the following core areas:

  • Contemporary/Analytic
  • Historical Philosophy
  • Value Theory

​The courses that satisfy each core area are listed below. A course cannot count toward more than one core area requirement, and the courses must be taken at Washington University. 

Contemporary/Analytic (3 Units)

PHIL 3000Philosophy of Medicine3
PHIL 3020Philosophy of Language3
PHIL 3091Theory of Knowledge3
PHIL 3100Philosophy of Mind3
PHIL 3110Mind and Morals3
PHIL 3130Philosophy of Science3
PHIL 3140Philosophy of Biology3
PHIL 3150Philosophy of Religion3
PHIL 3250Introduction to Metaphysics3
PHIL 3310Philosophy of Emotions3
PHIL 3320Art and the Mind-Brain3

Historical Philosophy (3 Units)

CLASSICS 3800Ancient Greek and Roman Medicine3
PHIL 3240Ancient Philosophy3
PHIL 3260Descartes to Hume3
PHIL 3290Kant and 19th-Century Philosophy3
PHIL 3300Conceptual Foundations of Modern Science3
PHIL 3340Existentialism3

Value Theory (3 Units)

PHIL 3110Mind and Morals3
PHIL 3160Classical Ethical Theories3
PHIL 3170Feminist Philosophy3
PHIL 3190Philosophy of the Arts3
PHIL 3200Social and Political Philosophy3
PHIL 3220Issues in Applied Ethics:3
PHIL 3230Philosophy of Law3
PHIL 3310Philosophy of Emotions3
PHIL 3320Art and the Mind-Brain3

Upper-Level Requirement

Minors must take at least 3 units at the 4000 level. The list of courses below is not exhaustive, but it includes the majority of regular 4000-level offerings.

PHIL 4100Formal Methods for Philosophy3
PHIL 4120Advanced Epistemology3
PHIL 4130Advanced Metaphysics3
PHIL 4180Topics in Advanced Philosophy of Science:3
PHIL 4230Topics in Ethics3
PHIL 4240Metaethics3
PHIL 4250Normative Ethical Theory3
PHIL 4280Topics in the Philosophy of Feminism3
PHIL 4311Aesthetics3
PHIL 4321Advanced Social and Political Philosophy3
PHIL 4340Plato3
PHIL 4360Hellenistic Philosophy3
PHIL 4370Continental Rationalism3
PHIL 438017th & 18th Century British Philosophy3
PHIL 4420Kant's Critique of Pure Reason3
PHIL 4460Topics in the History of Philosophy3
PHIL 4490History of Analytic Philosophy3
PHIL 4500Topics in Analytic Philosophy3

Additional Information

  • No course can count toward more than one requirement. 
  • Summer courses do not count toward the major or minor, absent approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
  • Study abroad credits can count toward a philosophy minor with specific course-by-course approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. At most 3 credits from one semester abroad and 6 credits from two semesters abroad can count toward the minor. Of these approved courses, at most one can count toward the 3000-level distribution requirements. No courses taken abroad can count toward the 4000-level requirement.

Visit the Philosophy page
for additional information about this program.

Contact Info

Phone:314-935-6670
Email:philosophy@wustl.edu
Website:http://philosophy.artsci.wustl.edu