In the Department of Philosophy at St. John's University, we feel the study of philosophy is central to a strong liberal arts and sciences education. Philosophy translates literally to the love of wisdom and has come to encompass any intellectual pursuit that investigates the foundations of human thinking and reality. The rich intellectual culture of our program at St. John's encourages critical and reflective thought about such things as: the nature of knowledge and justification of belief (epistemology), the nature of reality and what can be said truly to exist (metaphysics), the conduct of life and what makes one moral (ethics), and the underlying structure of reasoning and language (logic). While these are the customary branches of philosophy, they are by no means the only ones. Today we see such fascinating offshoots as: the philosophy of science, which investigates the aims and methodologies of scientific theories and progress, the philosophy of law, which studies the authority and interpretation of the law, aesthetics, which asks questions about art and beauty, philosophy of literature, which examines the philosophical content of novels, plays, and poetry, and environmental ethics and social justice. The development of a philosophical perspective will guide you toward understanding how far the human mind has come in understanding God, nature, and the human person.