The Institute has been granted affiliation with the Philosophical Faculty (No. 932/95/2) and Theological Faculty (No. 164/99) of the Pontifical Urbaniana University by Decrees of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education.
A student who has completed the first four semesters of Philosophy with an average of at least 75%, and has written an essay of around 30 pages, and who has also completed the required number of core courses, elective courses and seminars, can be admitted to sit for the Bachelor Degree examination.
A student seeking the Bachelor of philosophy is obliged
to take one semester of Latin and obtain at least a pass grade;
to pay the fees required for the Bachelor examination.
A degree student should not fail two or more compulsory courses per academic year (see G. Academic Assessment no. 14).
NB. Those who do not fulfil the requirements to sit for the Bachelor Degree exam may take the written and oral comprehensive exams only.
Illustrate the different perspectives from which language is studied in contemporary thought and the various dimensions highlighted by such a study (syntax, semantics, pragmatics).
Explain the nature and value of the proposition as a statement that can be true or false.
What does the word syllogismos mean for Aristotle? What is the particular characteristic of a categorical syllogism? What are the criteria for distinguishing between the figures and modes of a categorical syllogism? How can one determine which modes are valid?
PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE
Give the general characteristics of becoming, in relation to the hylomorphic composition of corporeal substances; then explain the different types of becoming (increase and decrease, qualitative change, locomotion, substantial change) with particular reference to the treatment of substantial change (traditionally seen as generation and corruption) in relation to living and non-living substances.
Explain the notion of cause, with particular reference to the Aristotelian doctrine. Outline the particular role played by the final cause in natural processes. Finally, illustrate how modern mathematical/experimental sciences view the relationship between cause and effect.
Present the dimension of space and time in a philosophical perspective and place them within the composition of substance and its accidents. Give a synthetic presentation of the history of the concept of space and time from Newton to Einstein.
PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Examine critically the cultural, scientific and philosophical explanations of the origin and destiny of human life.
What is the fundamental philosophical problem associated with the freedom of the will? Outline the major phases in the history of this problem as well as the different concepts and conceptions of freedom.
Present synthetically the integral concept of person as a substantial unity and multidimensional totality, paying attention to the corporeal and the spiritual dimensions as well as to the immanence and transcendence of the human person. Discuss the ontological basis for absolute value of the human person.
PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE
Consider the nature of perception and explain what role it plays in our knowledge of reality?
Illustrate the Thomistic conception of truth as adequatio rei et intellectus and compare it with the various theories of truth proposed by some contemporary philosophers.
On what conditions is the certainty of judgment justified? In particular, on what conditions would the certainty of judgment be justified for someone to hold as truth what he has learned from another?
METAPHYSICS
Illustrate the nature, the object and the method of metaphysics, the science of being as being. In this perspective, present the analogy of being and the principle of non contradiction.
Outline the transcendental properties of being and their grades: the unity, the truth, the goodness and the beauty of being. Discuss the real composition of essence and the act of being as the fundamental metaphysical structure of finite beings.
Develop the following themes: participation and actuality; action and its foundation in being; the First Cause and the second causes.
PHILOSOPHY OF GOD
Present the outlines of philosophical theology, the fullness of theology. Discuss the possibility of the knowledge of God's existence, with special reference to St. Anselm's argument (and to its development in modern thought) and to the a posteriori "five ways" of St. Thomas Aquinas. Finally, explain the positions of traditionalism, fideism, agnosticism and atheism.
Present the knowledge of God's nature by analogy through affirmation, negation and eminence; the names of God; the ontological attributes of God (unity, truth, goodness, beauty, immensity, immutability, infinity and eternity).
Illustrate the following themes: divine action and its relationship with human freedom; the knowledge of God; creation out of nothing and the preservation of creatures in being; the cause of evil.
MORAL PHILOSOPHY
Give the general characteristics of human act, showing the role played in it by intelligence, will and the passions; then explain the process of the acquisition of habitus with regard to happiness and growth in freedom.
Illustrate the role and the relevance of virtues in ethical discourse, examining the Aristotelian definition (Nichomachean Ethics, VI, 2 [1139a, 22-26]); then give the distinction between dianoetic virtues and ethical virtues and show the essential features of the single cardinal virtues.
Present and discuss the relationship between natural inclinations, human rights and the moral law.
SPECIAL ETHICS
Present the principle of solidarity with reference to the social nature of man and as an alternative to individualism, collectivism and particularism.
Present the virtue of justice: its basis in law, commutative justice and the various theories concerning distributive justice.
Illustrate the essence of the family, its foundation in conjugal love, the social relevance of marriage, rights and duties in marriage.
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCES
Present the method of the mathematical and experimental sciences and the conditions for its applicability.
Present the relevance of Karl Popper's criterion of falsifiability. Explain Thomas Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions.
Illustrate the physiognomy of the epistemologies after Popper. Critically illustrate the relationship between such philosophical proposals and real practice of science.
HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Present the major Pre-Socratic philosophers, with emphasis on their search for the first principle of all things and the question about being. Then, illustrate the controversy between Socrates and the Sophists, highlighting the question concerning the essence of man.
Present Plato's thought, from the dialogues of his youth up until the Laws. Illustrate the "second navigation," the first clear affirmation of a transcendental and supersensible world.
Outline the thought of Aristotle, with particular reference to the following notions: act as ergon, energeia, entelecheia; the soul as entelecheia prima; God as "thought's Thought" and "eternal Life."
HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
The significance of the rediscovery of the works of Aristotle between the 12th and the 13th centuries: illustrate the theory of speculative sciences elaborated by the Latin thinkers and the exegetical and doctrinal circumstances of the meeting between the Christians and the Arab philosopher (especially Avicenna and Averroes).
The outlines of the Christian philosophy of the Schools: illustrate the fundamental theses of the doctrines of either Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio or John Duns Scotus.
The philosophy of language from Anselm of Aosta till William of Ockham: illustrate the reasons behind the conflict between the realists and the nominalists.
HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Outline briefly and compare critically the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
Present the thought of Descartes (the new conception of the world, the overcoming of doubt though the cogito and the rules for the direction of the mind; the passions of the soul and the necessity of provisional morals).
Present the philosophy of I. Kant: Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Judgment.
HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Present the thought of Hegel.
Present Husserl's philosophy (the phenomenological method and the intentional character of knowledge: the transcendental I as the basis of reality).
Present Wittgenstein's theory of representation in his early period (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) and his vision of philosophy in his later work, Philosophical Investiations.
AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY (only for the oral exam)
Since 70's the application of Philosophy to the African continent has raised up problems related to the definition of Philosophy, the philosophical requirements as well as to the philosophical methods. Explain that philosophical problematic focusing on the use of the symbolic expressions in a continent, wherein illiteracy characterised the major part of its habitants.
Nowadays writers speak of a History of African Philosophy comprising many trends. Present shortly the content of the most important ones, notably Egyptology (Cheik Anta Diop, T. Obenga, H. Olela), Ethno-philosophy (P. Tempels, J. Mbiti, A. Kagame, V. Mulago, Sédar Senghor, Aimé Césaire), Ideological Trend (African Personality, pan-Africanism, Consciencism, African Socialism, National Authenticity, African Humanism), Critical Trend (P. Hountoundji, M. Towa, Elungu P. Elungu), Hermeneutic Trend (Okolo) and Functional Philosophy.