Below are testimonials from former Philosophy students and notable Philosophers:
The best “ideal” university, the best university in speech, is probably still, after Plato’s, 约翰·亨利·纽曼的《大学观. But unlike Newman’s university, 我认为，在现有的大多数大学里，要接受最高水平的教育几乎是不可能的. I do not say that especially loudly, and it is not necessarily a cry of despair. 但是关于今天的学校，我们必须注意的第一件事是, if he is to begin at all, 是学生很少与最高的事物真正对抗吗, including the truths of revelation….
我认为，总的来说，你在最好、最贵的大学里接受的教育可能很糟糕，事实上，大多数学生都是这样……. 我同样认为，今天一些最好的教育可以在非常偏僻的地方得到，比如加州的托马斯·阿奎那学院, or the University of Dallas, or Wheaton College in Illinois, 或者bet36365体育投注哲学系.
Fr. James Schall (Georgetown University, emeritus), quoted from “The Intercollegiate Review,” July 25, 2018.
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所有这些都发生在我作为医学预科生在bet36365体育(当时是KSC)的4年里。, the courses that stood out above all others were found in the nascent Philosophy Department. 就像薄荷奥利奥饼干一样，但更健康，我不能只吃一块. The Philosophy Professor, like Prometheus of old, not only helped me to understand the powers and limitations of language but also my mind’s ability to grasp itself. 我发现，就像只有语言能让我理解一样, there was only language in which I could, and many times would, make nonsense. 走进教室，见到苏格拉底或笛卡尔是一个挑战, 面对我生命中从未考虑过的想法. Is it better to be good, or seem good? Do I value something because it is valuable, or is it valuable because I value it? Am I awake, or merely dreaming that I’m awake? 忍受不公平的待遇比犯下不公平的行为好吗? Is there really a philosophy of love?
在bet36365体育哲学教授的指导下，在课堂上与古代哲学家的心灵交谈，不亚于神话中的普罗米修斯给予的火的礼物. It had a profound, 对我一生的影响，使我成为一个努力变得聪明和有道德的人, and as a physician striving to heal patients. It has encouraged me to look into the eyes of my patients and speak to them soul to soul. It has compelled me to examine whether it is my mind that is doing the steering of my life, or my appetites, emotions, and fears. It has helped me to eschew the obfuscation of the nonsensical and politically correct. And like the Old Doctor in Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward, it has clarified for me that
“生存的意义在于不被破坏, undisturbed and undistorted the image of eternity with which each person is born.
Like a silver moon in a calm, still pond.”
If you seek the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, go now and sign up for bet36365体育’s philosophy courses. You will be the better for it.
Craig Treptow, MD
Class of 1988
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I took Intro to Philosophy with Dr. 在和一位好朋友讨论了我在大学之旅中是如何迷失的，不知道我应该学什么专业后，我说. At the end of the semester I had picked my major, found a great community of friends and teachers, and met my future husband. Now, 十年后，我每天都用我在本科课堂上学到的很多东西来抚养我们漂亮的孩子.
Katillia Watson, Homemaker
Class of 2005
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进入大学时，我一直对思考生活中的“大”问题很感兴趣，但从来没有找到一个途径去追求它. 在bet36365体育上哲学课让我有机会向一些历史上最优秀的思想家学习这些问题, and this learning was largely facilitated by the department's excellent professors. 他们总是愿意在办公时间帮忙, 他们在课堂上提供的书面作业反馈的数量只有我的论文导师能与之匹敌.
Damon Watson, Ph.D. 哲学候选人，讲师，马奎特大学
Class of 2005
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I entered the bet36365体育 philosophy department in 1986 as a near-professional speed-reader , memorizer, and, according to my high school grades, excellent student. I quickly discovered that I was great at spewing back information but not so good at thinking. I learned to read, really read...slowing and carefully...in my first philosophy class. 因此，我也发现我可以从小说中学到很多东西. By examining the lives of characters in great literature, I learned to examine my own. And I was able to transfer that into my elementary classroom as “character education”. While teaching kids to read, 我还教他们如何根据故事中主要人物身上存在(或不存在)的美德来思考和审视自己的行为. 我是一名非常感恩的小学老师, both personally and professionally, for the bet36365体育 philosophy department.
Kael (Welch) Sagheer, Educator
Class of 1990
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I entered my first philosophy class expecting it to be like a standard lecture, or introduction of the syllabus. 相反，芬特教授通过一场引人入胜的讨论来带领课堂. 一场争论是假设的，他挑战我们达成结果，同时扮演魔鬼的倡导者和导师. At the end of class, I was hooked.
我做过很多不同的工作——老师, corporate trainer, coach, supervisor, 我在完成哲学课程时培养的批判性思维和精神纪律，对我从事的每一份工作都有帮助. My time studying philosophy at bet36365体育 opened up a whole new world of ideas and outlooks, 以不可量化的方式丰富了我的个人生活.
Jeff Volcheck,
Class of 1991
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As an incoming honors student at bet36365体育 in 2001, 我不知道哲学是什么，也不知道在哲学课上该期待些什么. Introduction to Philosophy with Dr. 马丁完成了荣誉课程和通识课程的要求, though, 所以在一个朋友的推荐下，我决定尝试一下. In that and the many classes that followed, 我有机会在教授的指导下阅读西方哲学传统的伟大著作，他们知道如何梳理出最棘手的问题，并帮助我们寻求答案——每个人都应该面对的问题:我是谁? Where am I going? How should I live? How am I to make sense of all this?
In the course of my philosophy studies, 我学到了一些实用技能，比如批判性思维, argumentation, how to write clearly about difficult texts, and a history of ideas. But these are mere byproducts of what our studies were really about: helping us become good, thoughtful human beings. 我们学习的名著是文科教育的基础. 博雅教育将个人引向人类应有的自由:在世界之上和世界之上发展智力, 试图了解这个世界以及我们在其中的位置, to live in accordance with what we understand, and to engage in contemplation of what is True, Good, and Beautiful.
Kimberly D. Heil, Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy, University of Dallas
Class of 2006
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很难夸大bet36365体育哲学项目的重要性. 它如此深刻地塑造了我，我无法想象我的生活不是这样. 一位古代哲学家曾忠告说:“只要是真的。, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” The professors at bet36365体育 gave me the liberty and guidance needed to do just that, day after day, during the most formative years of my life. 他们养成了仔细阅读和思考的习惯, 写作和表达对我很有帮助, not only in my vocation [as a pastor], but in all aspects of life. I am constantly telling students, parents, friends, and colleagues that they must take advantage of this rare gift we’ve been given right here in central Nebraska.
David Salyer, Pastor
Class of 2007
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The quality of education in the field of humanities has little to do with the amount of money that we spend on it. Plato’s Republic, for instance, 不管你在哪里读到的都是同一件事:哈佛, Oxford, Sorbonne, or Leuven. 一个人的文学之旅与其他人的文学之旅有显著不同的是，一个人是否能与哲学家一起阅读一篇文章，而哲学家有能力揭示其思想并展示其深度. If the money is spent wisely, 哲学系应该由培养了区分知识与诡辩能力的思想家组成, and who committed themselves to the idea of education as the revolution of soul. Without their intellectual companionship, 苏格拉底在对话中教导的无价核心永远是学术界和其他领域的读者无法触及的.
After studying and teaching philosophy in the U.S., Europe, and Japan for over 14 years, 我相信，bet36365体育哲学系由真正的哲学家组成，他们代表了美国公共教育的黄金标准. 我鼓励未来的学生在这些教授的指导下投入时间和精力追求自我认识，并见证校园和世界各地的同学跟随他们的脚步.
Takeshi Morisato, Ph.D. in Philosophy, Université catholique de Louvain, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Class of 2007
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In my mid-twenties, I left my career to become a student again and study philosophy. Although my co-workers, family, and friends snickered, I yearned to pursue truth, wisdom, and purpose. Questions such as who am I, how do I contribute to society, 以及我该如何应对充斥我脑海的道德困境. 我搬到了科尔尼，尝试了一个冬季学期的哲学课程. 在第一学期，我被亚里士多德丰富的阅读所吸引, Plato, Wendell Berry, and Joseph Conrad to name a few. I couldn’t just stop at one semester. I continued my adventure in studying philosophy and did indeed obtain my philosophy degree. 每天，我的哲学学位都在我和我周围的世界中发挥作用. I returned to my previous career with the ability to recognize truth in a world clouded with deceptions. 当别人问我，我的哲学学位到底能做什么时, 我告诉他们，这个学位每天都在影响着我.
布里安娜(Plouzek) Hyatt，牙科保健师和家庭主妇
Class of 2010
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Philosophy explores empathy and community for the sake of happiness and well being. 我学到了我可能需要的一切，我可能想要在生活中追求的东西，就在bet36365体育那里与充满激情的教授和部门的同行, 包括我永远不会停止学习的事实, and that all that I, or anyone else, can hope for is to do it well. Philosophy makes me a better wife, a better homemaker, a better mother, and a better human. I went to school to achieve exactly this and found a program that claimed to do it in four years: family studies. bet36365体育大学哲学系并没有宣称这些, knowing that it wasn't an achievement at all but a forever continuing way of life. I graduated with a degree in both, 我可以说，如果没有哲学思想的背景，从其他节目中获得的任何信息都是空洞的. 哲学不仅丰富了我在大学期间的其他学习, it enriched all of the learning I had done in high school that had seemed so useless, and it continues to enrich any learning I am doing now or will do in the future. That's the nature of what it is. Philosophy, more specifically the professors taking on the position of midwife today that Socrates held in his time, 教会了我对语言和学习的敬畏, and even with this reverence, 我发现语言不足以表达我对他们的感激之情，因为他们给了我整顿生活的能力. 对于看过沃尔特·米蒂秘密生活的人来说, 哲学系的教授都是教育界的“雪猫”, 美丽是因为他们不要求被欣赏. 我真诚地相信，正是这些教授让我获得了幸福, 在教育中没有什么比这更重要的了. I implore you to give yourself the same opportunity even when it feels unfashionable, painful, or even insurmountable. 它是最崇高的追求，是一切教育的基础. 我永远感激这些了不起的教授在我生命中如此易受影响和脆弱的时候伸出援手.
Carly (Havener) Williams, Homemaker
Class of 2012
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我可以合法地，问心无愧地说，我在bet36365体育哲学系的时间是我的教育中最具个性的部分. Lessons on morality and rational thinking undoubtedly made me a better student, 我每天都在努力将它们应用到我的个人生活和职业生活中. 如果有高于5/5星的评价，这个部门值得拥有.
Ryan Dethlefsen，农业财务顾问
Class of 2012
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What you will find if you study philosophy, is something that you can’t find in a textbook; it won’t just teach you some new information that you’ll probably forget in a couple of years, it’ll change your life! 具有讽刺意味的是，这是最实用的学位! Let me explain. When I first started studying philosophy, I was not motivated to study, as I either wanted to get deployed, or go immediately to work in general labor. 我缺乏足够的“野心”和好奇心. I was pretty apathetic towards higher education, assuming that like high school, 在我成为对社会有贡献的一员之前，大学只是一个更昂贵的火焰圈. After being exposed to Aristotle, 然而，我产生了一种深深的渴望，想要更多地了解幸福和美德. After being exposed to Plato, I was inspired by dreams of being my own “philosopher king” in a business of my own. Most importantly, I learned a love of reading, which would have never happened without philosophy. To this day, I strive towards developing myself intellectually and to grow in virtue. 我目前喜欢在当地一家家族企业工作, 温德尔·贝里以努力工作的优点说服了我, thrift, and supporting the local economy), and I currently serve in the army national guard, (every philosopher that I’ve read has helped me be the best version of myself that I can be, as well as offer various ideas to overcome trials and sufferings of various kinds). Finally, all degrees run into the question, “what are you going to do with that?” In which I’d confidently reply, “it’s not about what I’m going to do with it, 重要的是它会影响我成为什么样的人. No matter what degree you choose, 为了就业，你需要学习一项技能, as you most likely aren’t going to learn that specific skill with a bachelors degree (politician, lawyer, doctor, businessman, skilled tradesman, etc). At least with a philosophy degree, no matter what kind of employment you enter into, you’ll be equipped to be the best possible person in that occupation that you can be.” Be all you can be. Study philosophy!
Dustin Jacobs, Automotive Sales
Class of 2014
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