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Be part of the conversation

Studying Philosophy is joining one of the longest ongoing global conversations there is. After taking their first philosophy course, a student recently made the following comment: "I always thought Philosophy is first and foremost reading texts by grumpy old (and often white) men. I was glad and utterly excited to discover that I had been wrong."

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12 January, 2021 | 10 Mins read

After taking their first philosophy course, a student recently made the following comment: “I always thought Philosophy is first and foremost reading texts by grumpy old (and often white) men. I was glad and utterly excited to discover that I had been wrong.”

To study Philosophy is to explore and eventually join one of the largest and most exciting conversations humanity has known!

This venerable and (surprisingly) rigorous discipline covers questions concerning who we are, what we may, can, should and must do, and why. It touches upon questions regarding how we may know things, what knowledge is and reason, how reason and arguments work and what they must be like to be good and compelling.

It also tackles questions about the nature of all kinds of things large and small, abstract and concrete, of numbers, time, and space; of things, relations, properties, meanings, language, laws of nature, and rights; of truth, causes, thought and possibility; of will, perception, and action; of virtue, of happiness, of goodness, and of love and friendship… and really, that is just the beginning.  

Philosophy grapples with questions that frequently target assumptions that underlie and shape all other ways in which we try to understand the world (scientific thinking, religious and aesthetic thinking, etc.). Whether in the Indian, the Western, or other philosophical traditions, proposed answers to these questions have been rigorously debated and supported by arguments. Our courses offer a historically sensitive immersion in arguments especially from the Indian and Western philosophical traditions. Yet philosophy courses at Ashoka University aim to equip students to work beyond the parochialism of either the Indian or Western philosophical tradition to do philosophy without boundaries.

The philosophy major will equip students with critical reasoning and analytical problem-solving skills, expressive precision, and the intellectual spaciousness to appreciate and engage rationally and productively with arguments and points of view with which they profoundly disagree – which is a highly transferable skill. The Ashoka Philosophy graduate will be well prepared for higher studies in philosophy, but also for a career in e.g. media, law, business, or consulting.

On the website of Ashoka’s Philosophy Department you can navigate the tabs and explore the various programmes and credentials that the Department offers to its undergraduates and postgraduate students, or that it contributes to.

What makes a department what it is? First of all: its people! In the People tab you can find out more about our faculty – past, present, permanent and visiting, about our Teaching Fellows, our Teaching Assistants, our student representatives and also about student-run activities such as the Philosophy Helpdesk, the Philosophy Society, and the PhilCon.

What classes can you take with us and what floats our faculty members’ intellectual boats? In the Teaching and Research tabyou canlook at all the classes we have offered since the inception of the department, classes we do currently offer, and classes we will offer in the future, as well as what faculty members are working on and at what else the department may be up to in terms of research.

In the News and Events tab, you can find updates on, you guessed it, departmental news and events, look at the amazing line-up of guest speakers who helped us generate our Visiting Speaker Series, and find out what our students say about our programme, what Capstone theses they have worked on and with whom, and what they have gone on to do after graduating with some credential in Philosophy or other. (If the department is hiring, a job ad will be posted here as well.)

Finally, if you need to contact us, the Contactab gives you a couple of options. 

Study at Ashoka

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