The Philosophy Department was one of the original programs on the UCCS campus. In 1966, one year after the university received the Cragmor acreage, philosophy was established as part of the Boulder department’s offerings under the leadership of Resident Dean Richard Francis. From its origins as a branch department, the UCCS Philosophy Program soon became an independent department offering the major in Philosophy.
The Philosophy Department has an exceptionally broad range of courses. We see ourselves as unique in the western states because of this. The program is historically-based with detailed courses in seven periods in the history of philosophy and full coverage of Eastern traditions. We offer courses in all traditional areas, such as Metaphysics, Ethics, and Epistemology, and many courses on the cutting edge of their disciplines, such as Theory of Film, War and Terrorism, Environmental Philosophy, and Feminism, Sexuality and Culture. We offer an undergraduate major, a minor and specialized tracks in Philosophy and Religions East and West, Law, Social Justice and Global Conflict, Analytic Philosophy, Computer Sciences, and Psychology, and Continental Philosophy, Cultural Studies and Humanities (for more information, see Program page) . The department requires of each of our majors the writing of an undergraduate thesis as the capstone of undergraduate experience.
Currently there are six tenure-track faculty. Fred Bender (Professor) specializes in Ecological Philosophy, the Asian Philosophical Traditions and East-West Comparative Philosophy, Critical Theory, Phenomenology and Existentialism. Mary Ann Cutter (Professor) specializes in Ethics, Philosophy of Medicine, Philosophy of Religion, and Epistemology. Dorothea Olkowski (Professor) specializes in Continental Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, and Philosophy of Science. Raphael Sassower (Professor) specializes in Postmodern Philosophy of Science, Social and Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of Art. Rex Welshon (Associate Professor) specializes in Philosophy of Mind, Analysis of Consciousness, and Logical Theory. Sonja Tanner (Assistant Professor) specializes in Ancient Greek Philosophy, History of Philosophy, and Ethics. Full-time instructors are Lorraine M. Arangno, who specializes in Logic and Ethics. Patrick Yarnell specializes in Ethical Theory and Analytic Philosophy. Chris Frakes specializes in Social and Political Philosophy. Mary Jane Sullivan specializes in History of Philosophy and Media Theory. Jeff Scholes specializes in ***. Darrell Arnold focuses on ***. (For contact information for any of these faculty members, click on Contact Us.)