… because the unexamined life is not worth living.
The Greek term “philosophy” often is translated as “love of wisdom.” Attaining wisdom is the pursuit of a lifetime Studying philosophy at Austin College will equip you for the quest.
What you will learn: Answers to life’s big questions.
Who Studies Philosophy?
A wide variety of people, including artists and entertainers (e.g., Lana Del Ray, Ricky Gervais, Matt Groening), business people (e.g., Damon Horowitz, Larry Sanger, Peter Theil), government leaders (e.g. Thomas Jefferson, Bill Clinton, David Souter), journalists (e.g., Chris Hayes, Tamar Keith, Stone Phillips), activists (e.g., Rev. Martin Luther King, Angela Davis), athletes (Arian Forster, Bruce Lee), writers (e.g., Mary Higgins Clark, Umberto Eco, Ayn Rand, David Foster Wallace), and more!
Students who study philosophy at Austin College are similarly diverse. They become lawyers, artists, business owners and entrepreneurs, nonprofit administrators, medical professionals, and professors, among other things.
Meet the Faculty:
Philosophy at its best is an on-going conversation. It is as much an activity or practice as it is a treasure chest of interesting ideas and valuable information. The courses that I teach explore life’s big questions along the lines just sketched. Great minds from the past give us our starting points. We study what important recent thinkers have added to the discussion, and we extend the conversation by joining it ourselves. This approach works well with just about every subject that I teach.
Mark Hebert has been a member of the Austin College faculty since 1990. His areas of interest are ethics, happiness and meaning, feminist thought, and philosophy of law. Watch his TEDxaustincollege talk on YouTube.
He can also rebuild nearly any small horsepower Briggs & Stratton engine (largely because he has significant experience ruining them).
After Austin College
Links of Interest
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias:
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Thinking, Reading, and Writing:
- Thinking: Fallacy Files
- Reading: Jim Pryor’s Guidelines
The Sophia Project - Writing: Paul Horban’s Guidelines
Jim Pryor’s Guidelines
Careers:
- Careers and Philosophy (Best Colleges)
- The Philosophy Major's Career Handbook (University of Florida)
- The Philosophical Gourmet
Philosophy Courses
