Philosophy Department

Associate Professor of Philosophy Rebekah Rice meets with philosophy majors

Did you know?

When you major or minor in philosophy at SPU, you develop strong skills that are important to a wide variety of careers. Such skills include being a good critical thinker and problem solver; understanding connections across complex ideas; communicating and listening well; and weighing others' different values and points of view.

Such skills are among the characteristics most highly sought after by potential employers in tech, business, government, and non-profits. For a recent study, see: 

For more info on how philosophy majors do after college, see: Employment and earnings and Philosophy graduates' earnings better than all other humanities (also here). Philosophy students also outperform most other majors standardized tests, such as the GRE and the LSAT; philosophy graduates also have among the highest admission rates for law school. For more on the career value of studying philosophy, check out the following:

Many of our graduates also continue study in graduate school or law school: recently, at Harvard Divinity School, Princeton University, Oxford University, University of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Indiana University, and Villanova. Others enter careers in the tech industry, data analysis, data science, business consulting, ministry, teaching, and counseling. Here is a recent profile of one of our philosophy graduates who works in AI at Microsoft.

If you choose a major other than philosophy, consider studying philosophy as your second major. “Double-majoring” allows students to get the most of their university experience and brings out the connections between disciplines. Students interested in Philosophy also may be interested in SPU's Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) program, or SPU's Bioethics and Humanities minor.

Upcoming Events

Alicia Finch (Associate Professor of Philosophy, Northern Illinois University), will be giving our 2023 Layman Lecture on "The Terms of the Free Will Debate: Defining 'Free Will'," on Thursday, Jan. 12, at 4pm in Eaton 112.

For past visiting speakers, see here.

Computer and philosophy books

Philosophers in tech? Yes!

Our Philosophy: Tech Track is designed for a unique and rewarding career in Seattle's tech industry.