History & Mission
History
The School of Philosophy was inaugurated in 1895, six years after The Catholic University of America first opened its doors. Like Clark University and Johns Hopkins University, Catholic University was initially conceived as a graduate institution exclusively. Consonant with the university's founding charter, the School of Philosophy has, since its inception, prepared graduates of its doctoral program to teach philosophy in universities, colleges and seminaries in the U.S. and abroad. To date, we have accepted nearly five hundred doctoral dissertations, on topics in every philosophical discipline and in dialogue with every major figure in the history of philosophy.
In 1904, the School admitted its first undergraduate students. In the years since, our undergraduate offerings have grown in tandem with our graduate program. With some a hundred and twenty majors or so in any given year, the undergraduate program in philosophy at Catholic University is, per capita, one of the largest and most successful in the country. The Faculty of the School of Philosophy are also involved in undergraduate education at the university more generally, since every undergraduate at the university will take some courses in philosophy.
Mission
Specific to the Catholic intellectual tradition is an abiding concern for the relation between faith and reason, the intelligibility of nature, the reality of organic form or soul, the inquiry into causal hierarchies, and the possibility of an ethics and political philosophy based on rational insight into human nature. Accordingly, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas form a basic framework in relation to which Neoplatonism, the Islamic contribution, the ferment of late Scholasticism, the emergence of early modern philosophy and natural science, the attempts at a synthesis of the natural and the human within German idealism, the impact of Nietzsche, and the analytical and phenomenological movements are studied.
Despite its richness and diversity, philosophy in the modern era has sometimes been marked by certain anti-philosophical tendencies. The skepticism widespread in our day concerning the very possibility of philosophy as search for truth about the human good and about the ultimate principles of reality more generally has paradoxical roots in philosophical modernity, as does the disregard, common in our day, for the place of prudence or practical wisdom in non-philosophical life. Cultivation of an intellectual awareness adequate to this situation is a principal goal of the School of Philosophy.
Degree Programs
As an ecclesiastical faculty, authorized by the Holy See, and as civilly accredited, the School of Philosophy is able to offer both ecclesiastical and civil degrees. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs leading to the ecclesiastical degrees Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph.B.), Licentiate in Philosophy (Ph.L.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) as well as the civil degrees Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Master of Arts (M.A.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).
Non-Degree Programs
The School of Philosophy offers a non-degree certificate program in Pre-theological Studies for Roman Catholic seminarians.