Philosophy
The goal of the Philosophy Department is to work with students to develop the skills of critical analysis, powerful speaking, and clear writing, skills alumni find of singular practical use in a wide variety of careers, and indispensable to their work as responsible citizens. We emphasize the value of philosophical examination for understanding broad issues that concern us all.
The Senior Program
Philosophy concentrators take the senior seminar, 550, in the fall of their senior year. In collaboration with others in a small course section, students in 550 complete a clear and focused piece of philosophical writing or project that they present publicly. The written and oral work should show that students have developed the philosophical skills that merit a degree in philosophy at Hamilton College.
Recent Senior Thesis projects include:
- Debating Free Will: Why Bother?
- The Illusion of School Choice
- Is it Morally Permissible to Change Disability?
- Should One Idle: An Exploration of Idleness
- Philosophy as Conversation
- Philosophies of Love: Approaching Underrepresentation through Pedagogy
- Kripkenstein: The Kryptonite to Legal Formalism & Originalism? Towards a Principled Approach to American Constitutional Law
- A Constructive Response to Black Nihilism: Sunshine in the Night, a rap EP
- A Warning Against Celebrity-like Relationships on Identity-Based Social Media
- Governed Happiness: A Study of Happiness Under Different Political Structures
- Non-Therapeutic Infant Male Circumcision: The Ethical Issues
- Atrocities on Camera: On The Moral Responsibility of Filmmakers Who Include Atrocities in their Work
- The Subject Side of Respect: Why and How to be a Respecter
- Sexual Healing: Does Language Preclude Authenticity?
- Working Towards Happiness: An Exposition of Epicureanism and Guidelines to Happiness
- Metaphysical Realism: The Door Not the Window
- Why Climb Mountains? An Investigation into What Mountain Climbing Can Teach Us About the Self
- On the Rationality & Moral Permissibility of Physician-Assisted Suicide in Light of the Theoretical Nature of Suicide as an Action
- Truth Pluralism without Realism
- The Epistemic Value of Art and Emotions
- Loosening the Grip of Subjectifying Social Conventions Holistically
- Epoché and Pyrrhonian Discourse
- Meaning in Life
- The Limits of the Market: Aristotle and Sandel on Commodification
- From Ideal to Institution: Is Punishment Justified?
- Violence: Covert Violence and Education in the U. S.
- Famine, Common Morality, and the Punishability Distinction
- Science Fiction as Thought Experiment on the Question of Personal Identity
- Thoreau’s Moral-Epistemological Attunement Regarding the Sustainability of Nature
- Rethinking Urban Violence
Contact
Department Name
Philosophy Department
Contact Name
Russell Marcus, Chair
Clinton, NY 13323
