For the purposes of the Saint Louis University Core, philosophy is defined as both an academic as well as a lived, practical discipline. Philosophy aims at a comprehensive, reasoned understanding of ourselves, of the world around us, and of our relationship and obligations to each other. Philosophy thus poses and attempts to answer life’s most important, most fundamental questions: what is real? what is valuable? what can be known? how ought we to live?

To study philosophy, then, is to take up these kinds of questions and to examine and critically assess the various answers given them by thinkers both past and present. Studying philosophy also involves learning about the tools and approaches typically used by philosophers in exploring these big questions and applying what is learned to one's personal life.

While philosophy is a truth-seeking activity, it does not take as given any one answer to the questions it poses. The aim is rather to form students’ minds in the practice of pursuing answers to ultimate questions and of evaluating claims in answer to those questions. In this course, students are encouraged to develop a practice of thought that they can carry with them in their lives, careers, and vocations so that they never stop asking ultimate questions and are always refining their answers to them, in pursuit of what is true, good, and beautiful.