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International Studies - Philosophy

Program Overview

Lower Division Requirements

  • Fourth Quarter Language Proficiency
  • Lower Division Prerequisites (1 course)

Upper Division Requirements

  • International Studies Core (3 courses)
  • Philosophy Disciplinary Focus (8 courses)
  • Interdisciplinary Electives (3 courses)
  • International Studies Regional Requirement 

Major Requirements:

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.

Language Requirement

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

Lower Division Requirement (1 Course)

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

  • PHIL 10. Introduction to Logic

International Studies Core Courses (3 courses)

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

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. 

Disciplinary Focus (8 courses)

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.

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

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.

* Newly added course. Please send VAC message to ISP for degree audit update

Interdisciplinary Elective Courses (3 courses)

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

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

Regional Requirement

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.

Course Offerings:

Academic Advising Resources:

Archived International Studies - Philosophy Course Offerings

2022-2023 Academic Year

2021-2022 Academic Year

2020-2021 Academic Year

2019-2020 Academic Year

2018-2019 Academic Year

Archived International Studies - Philosophy Course List (Fall 2018 - Summer 2023)

Courses in bold that were taken prior to Fall 2023 will be honored as Disciplinary Focus coursework.

Course Cluster A - History of Philosophy:

  • PHIL 100. Plato
  • PHIL 101. Aristotle
  • PHIL 102. Hellenistic Philosophy
  • PHIL 104. The Rationalists (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz)
  • PHIL 105. The Empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, Hume)
  • PHIL 106. Kant
  • PHIL 107. Hegel
  • PHIL 108. 19th Century Philosophy (Schopenhauer, Marx, Nietzsche)
  • PHIL 109. History of Analytic Philosophy (Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Carnap)
  • 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 (Formally Topics in Asian Philosophy)
  • PHIL 161. Topics in the History of Ethics (Confucius, Aristotle, Mill)
  • PHIL 166. Classics in Political Philosophy (Plato, Marx, Arendt)
  • PHIL 180. Phenomenology (Brentano, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty)
  • PHIL 181. Existentialism (Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, De Beauvoir)
  • PHIL 183. Topics in Continental Philosophy (Frankfurt school, contemporary French)

Course Cluster B - Philosophical Topics in Contemporary International Studies:

  • PHIL 134. Philosophy of Language
  • PHIL 139. Global Justice
  • PHIL 148. Philosophy and the Environment
  • PHIL 152. Philosophy of Social Science
  • 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 168. Philosophy of Law
  • PHIL 170. Philosophy and Race (DEI Course)
  • PHIL 173. Topics in Bioethics

Course Cluster C - Logic Requirement:

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