The Core is an opportunity to inquire into the fundamental aspects of being and our relationship with God, nature and our fellow human beings.
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In Plato’s Republic, Socrates argues that knowledge of the Good is the highest goal of a liberal education. The quest for this knowledge is twofold. On the one hand, it leads us through the world’s mysterious grandeur to its even more mysterious source. On the other, it leads us into the heart of our own lives, where we encounter the question of how to live well.
The Concentration in Metaphysics follows the first, more contemplative path. It culminates in the Philosophy Department’s senior-level course on Philosophy of God, which poses the question of an ultimate source and cause of being as a whole. The question of God inevitably raises the question of faith, and so the concentration also requires at least one upper-level course in Theology.
In rest of the concentration, students approach the question of first causes from a variety of directions. One possibility is to focus on the human encounter with being, in courses such as Philosophy of Language and Aesthetics. Another is to highlight the relation between reason and faith, through additional courses in Theology. Still other paths run through the physical sciences, the life sciences, and mathematics.
The Metaphysics Concentration can be tailored to the interests and needs of almost any student. The following are just a few examples; for a complete list of options, see the UD Bulletin. For questions, contact Dr. Christopher Mirus, the concentration director.
*A Computer Science major might replace Aesthetics and History & Philosophy of Mathematics with Philosophy of Language and Theory of Computation.
*A Chemistry major might substitute replace Quantum Physics and Astrophysics and Cosmology with Physical Chemistry I and Biochemistry I.
In the following plan, a Chemistry major might replace Quantum Physics and Astrophysics and Cosmology with Physical Chemistry I and Biochemistry I.
The Catholic intellectual tradition affirms the distinctive roles of theology, mathematics, and natural science in shaping and contextualizing the philosophic contemplation of being, or metaphysics. Within philosophy itself, moreover, reflection on human experience provides an essential context for the study of being as such. The Concentration in Metaphysics incorporates all these perspectives.
