International Studies - Philosophy

International Studies majors are required to demonstrate basic proficiency in a modern foreign language. This can be accomplished in one of the following ways:

Language course may be taken for a letter grade or Pass/No Pass, students must earn either a C- or better or a Pass. All other courses for major requirements must be taken for a letter grade of C- or above.

• Completion of the fourth quarter college-level foreign language course
• Proficiency Exam
• AP Language or Literature Exam
• IB Language Exam
• SAT II Language Exam
• Graduation from high school outside of the United States

All lower division philosophy courses must be taken for a letter grade of C- or better.

• PHIL-010. Introduction to Logic

International Studies Core Courses (3 courses)

All courses are 4-units and must be taken for a letter grade of C- or better.

For Students Beginning the INTL Course Sequence in Fall 2024:

• INTL-100. Analysis, Argument, and Real World Problems 
• INTL-101. Culture and Society in International Perspective (Prerequisite: INTL-100)
• INTL-102. Economics, Politics, and International Change (Prerequisite: INTL-100)
  •  INTL-190 seminars with a regional/country focus may be taken to fulfill an ISP regional requirement.

INTL-102 may be taken before INTL-101.

For ISP Students who have already taken INTL-101 and/or INTL-102 by Spring 2024:

• INTL-101. Culture and Society in International Perspective
• INTL-102. Economics, Politics, and International Change
• INTL-190. Seminar in International Studies (Prerequisites: INTL-101 and INTL-102)

INTL-102 may be taken before INTL-101. Both INTL-101 and INTL-102 must be completed before INTL-190. The INTL core courses must be taken at UC San Diego.

You may not take INTL-100 instead of INTL-190.

Disclaimer: For IS-Philosophy majors whose first quarter at UCSD was prior to Fall 2023, please refer to the archived Fall 2018 - Summer 2023 Disciplinary Focus course list (see below) in addition to the following list. Courses accepted for the major on the archived list and the current list will be accepted for majors whose first quarter was before Fall 2023. 

All eight (8) courses must be 4 units, upper-division and taken for a letter grade of C- or better.

Course Cluster A - History of Philosophy:

• PHIL-100. Plato
• PHIL-101. Aristotle
• PHIL-102. Hellenistic Philosophy
• PHIL-107. Hegel
• PHIL-110. History of Philosophy: Ancient (Plato, Aristotle)
• PHIL-111. History of Philosophy: Early Modern (Descartes, Locke, Hume)
• PHIL-112. History of Philosophy: Late Modern (Kant, Hegel)
• PHIL-155. Mexican Philosophy (DEI Course)
• PHIL-156. Latinx Philosophy
• PHIL-158. Topics in Chinese Philosophy*
• PHIL-161. Topics in the History of Ethics (Confucius, Aristotle, Mill)
• PHIL-166. Classics in Political Philosophy (Plato, Marx, Arendt)
• PHIL-169. Feminism and Philosophy*
• PHIL-180. Phenomenology (Brentano, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty)

At least two (2) of the eight (8) upper-division courses must be selected from Course Cluster B.

Course Cluster B - Philosophical Topics in Contemporary International Studies:

• PHIL-132. Epistemology*
• PHIL-136. Philosophy of Mind*
• PHIL-137. Moral Psychology*
• PHIL-138. Responsibility*
• PHIL-134. Philosophy of Language
• PHIL-139. Global Justice
• PHIL-148. Philosophy and the Environment
• PHIL-160. Ethical Theory
• PHIL-162. Contemporary Moral Issues
• PHIL-163. Biomedical Ethics
• PHIL-164. Technology and Human Values
• PHIL-165. Freedom, Equality, and the Law (DEI Course)
• PHIL-167. Contemporary Political Philosophy
• PHIL-170. Philosophy and Race (DEI Course)
• PHIL-173. Topics in Bioethics

At least one (1) of the eight (8) upper-division courses must be selected from Course Cluster C.

Course Cluster C - Logic Requirement:

• PHIL-120. Symbolic Logic I
• PHIL-122. Advanced Topics in Logic
• PHIL-123. Philosophy of Logic

The remaining three (3) courses can be any upper-division philosophy courses listed in Clusters A, B and C.

All three (3) courses must be upper-division, 4 units and taken for a letter grade of C- or better.

• Courses must be selected from the approved Interdisciplinary Elective Course List.
  
  • • Note: All courses must be selected from departments outside of the disciplinary focus department.

Course Pre-requisites: Students are responsible for meeting all departmental pre-requisite courses.  Please refer to the General Catalog for additional information.

Three (3) of the eleven (11) Disciplinary Focus and Interdisciplinary Elective courses must focus on one region.

• Note: This requirement is an overlap requirement comprised of courses that count for both the Disciplinary Focus or Interdisciplinary Elective courses and the Regional Requirement.
• Regional Requirement courses may come all from within the Disciplinary Focus, Interdisciplinary Electives, or a combination of the two.
• Possible regions include: Africa, East Asia, Europe, Latin America or the Middle East.
• Regional Course List