Below are testimonials from former Philosophy students and notable Philosophers:
最好的“理想”大学, 最好的演讲大学, is probably still, after Plato’s, that found in John Henry Newman’s Idea of a University. 但不像纽曼的大学, I believe that it is practically impossible to obtain an education in the highest things in most existing universities. I do not say that especially loudly, and it is not necessarily a cry of despair. But the first thing one must notice about today’s schools, 如果他要开始的话, is that students have little real confrontation with the highest things, 包括启示的真理…….
I think in general that you can get a terrible education in the best and most expensive universities and that in fact most students do…. I likewise think that today some of the finest educations can be had at very small out-of-the-way places like Thomas Aquinas College in California, 或者达拉斯大学, 或者伊利诺斯州的惠顿学院, or the philosophy department at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Fr. 詹姆斯·沙尔(乔治敦大学), emeritus), 摘自《校际评论,” July 25, 2018.
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All during my 4 years at bet36365体育 as a premed student (KSC at that time), the courses that stood out above all others were found in the nascent Philosophy Department. Like mint Oreo cookies, but far healthier, I couldn’t stop at just taking one. 哲学教授, 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. I discovered that just as 我只能用语言表达 make sense, 我只能用语言表达, and many times would, make nonsense. It was a challenge to walk into the classroom and meet Socrates or Descartes, and face ideas heretofore unconsidered in my life. 是做个好人好，还是看起来好? Do I value something because it is valuable, or is it valuable because I value it? 我是醒着的，还是只是在做我醒着的梦? Is it better to suffer an injustice than commit one? 真有爱的哲学吗?
To converse with the ancient philosophers’ minds in the classroom under the tutelage of bet36365体育’s Philosophy Professors was no less equal than the gift of fire given by the mythic Prometheus. It had a profound, life-long impact on me as a person trying to be wise and virtuous, 作为一名努力治愈病人的医生. 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. 就像索尔仁尼琴笔下的老医生 Cancer Ward，这让我明白了
“the meaning of existence was to preserve unspoiled, undisturbed and undistorted the image of eternity with which each person is born.
就像一个银色的月亮在一个平静的池塘里.”
If you seek the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, go now and sign up for bet36365体育’s philosophy courses. 你会因此变得更好.
Craig Treptow, MD
Class of 1988
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我和博士一起上了哲学导论. Fendt after discussing with a good friend how I felt lost in my college journey and had no idea what my major should be. 学期末，我选好了我的专业, 找到了一个很棒的朋友和老师社区, 遇见了我未来的丈夫. Now, ten years later I use so much of what I learned in my undergraduate classes everyday raising our beautiful children.
卡蒂利亚·沃森，家庭主妇
Class of 2005
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Coming into college I had always been interested in thinking about the "big" questions of life but never found an avenue to pursue this. Taking philosophy classes at bet36365体育 gave me a chance to learn from some of the best thinkers in history concerning these questions, and this learning was largely facilitated by the department's excellent professors. They were always willing to help during office hours, and the amount of feedback they provided for written work in their classes has only been matched by my dissertation supervisor.
Damon Watson, Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy, lecturer, Marquette University
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, 根据我的高中成绩, excellent student. I quickly discovered that I was great at spewing back information but not so good at thinking. 我学会了阅读，真正的阅读...slowing and carefully...在我的第一节哲学课上. And, as a consequence, also discovered that I could learn a lot from novels. 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”. 同时教孩子们阅读, I also taught them how to think and examine their own actions in relation to the virtues present (or absent) in the main characters of our stories. I am an elementary school teacher who is so grateful, 无论是个人还是职业, 肯塔基大学哲学系.
凯尔(韦尔奇)·萨吉，教育家
Class of 1990
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I entered my first philosophy class expecting it to be like a standard lecture, 或者是教学大纲的介绍. Instead, Professor Fendt took the class through an engaging discussion. An argument was postulated and he challenged us to reach the outcome while playing devil's advocate and mentor concurrently. 下课的时候，我被迷住了.
I have worked a number of different jobs--teacher, corporate trainer, coach, supervisor, laborer--and the critical thinking and mental discipline I developed completing my Philosophy course work has aided me in each job that I have held. My time studying philosophy at bet36365体育 opened up a whole new world of ideas and outlooks, enriching my personal life in unquantifiable terms.
Jeff Volcheck,
Class of 1991
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作为一名即将到来的荣誉学生在2001年bet36365体育, I didn’t know what philosophy was or what to expect in a philosophy class. 《哲学导论. Martin fulfilled an honors requirement and a general studies requirement, though, so on a friend’s recommendation I decided to try it. 在那堂课和之后的很多课上, I had the opportunity to read the great books of the western philosophical tradition under the tutelage of professors who knew how to tease out the toughest questions and help us seek answers to them—the ones every human being should face: who am I? Where am I going? How should I live? 我该如何理解这一切 this?
在我学习哲学的过程中, I learned practical skills like critical thinking, argumentation, 如何把难读的课文写清楚, and a history of ideas. But these are mere byproducts of what our studies were really about: helping us become good, 有思想的人. The great books we studied are the foundation of a liberal arts education. A liberal arts education leads an individual to the freedom that is properly human: to develop the intellect over and against the world, seeking to understand the world and our place in it, 按照我们所理解的生活, 并思考什么是真实的, Good, and Beautiful.
Kimberly D. Heil, Ph.D. 达拉斯大学哲学系候选人
Class of 2006
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It would be hard to overstate the importance of the bet36365体育 philosophy program. It has shaped me so profoundly, I cannot imagine my life otherwise. An ancient philosopher once counseled: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, 只要是值得赞扬的, 如果有什么优点, 如果有什么值得称赞的, 想想这些事情.” The professors at bet36365体育 gave me the liberty and guidance needed to do just that, day after day, 在我人生最重要的岁月里. They modeled the habits of careful reading and reflection, of writing and expression that have served me well, 不仅在我的职业中[作为牧师], 而是生活的方方面面. 我不断地告诉学生们, 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, says the same thing no matter where one reads it: Harvard, Oxford, Sorbonne, or Leuven. What makes one’s literary journey significantly different from others’ is whether or not one can read a text with philosophers who have the capacity to unveil its ideas and demonstrate its depth. 如果钱花得明智的话, a philosophy department should consist of thinkers who have cultivated their ability to distinguish knowledge from sophistry, and who committed themselves to the idea of education as the revolution of soul. 没有他们的智力陪伴, the priceless core of Socratic teaching in the dialogue remains forever inaccessible to readers both in academia and beyond.
在美国学习和教授哲学之后.S., Europe, 和日本合作了14年, I am convinced that the bet36365体育 philosophy department consists of true philosophers who represent the gold standard of public education in America. I would encourage future students to invest their time and energy in pursuing self-knowledge under the guidance of these professors and to witness fellow students follow in their footsteps both on campus and across the world.
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, 我渴望追求真理, wisdom, and purpose. 诸如我是谁之类的问题, 我如何为社会做出贡献, and how do I respond to an ethical dilemma flooded my mind. I moved to Kearney and tried a winter semester of philosophy. In that first semester I was captivated by the rich reading of Aristotle, Plato, Wendell Berry, 约瑟夫·康拉德等等. 我不能只停留在一个学期. I continued my adventure in studying philosophy and did indeed obtain my philosophy degree. Everyday my philosophy degree is at work within me and the world around me. I returned to my previous career with the ability to recognize truth in a world clouded with deceptions. When others then ask what in the world I can do with my philosophy degree, I tell them the degree does something with me every single day.
Breanna (Plouzek) Hyatt, Dental Hygienist and Homemaker
Class of 2010
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Philosophy explores empathy and community for the sake of happiness and well being. I learned everything I could ever need for anything I might want to pursue in life right there at bet36365体育 with the impassioned professors and driven peers of the department, including the fact that I will never stop learning, and that all that I, or anyone else, 能指望的是把它做好吗. 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. The philosophy department at bet36365体育 claimed none of this, knowing that it wasn't an achievement at all but a forever continuing way of life. 我在这两个专业都获得了学位, and I can say that any information gained from another program was empty without the context of philosophical thought. Not only did philosophy enrich my other studies while in college, 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. 这就是它的本质. Philosophy, more specifically the professors taking on the position of midwife today that Socrates held in his time, teaches (or teach) me a reverence for language and learning, 即使有这样的崇敬, I find words inadequate for expressing the gratitude I feel toward them for giving me the capacity to set my life in order. For anyone who has seen the secret life of Walter Mitty, the professors in the philosophy department are the snow cats of education, beautiful because they don't ask to be appreciated. I sincerely believe these professors were the way Happiness reached me, and there is nothing more important in an education than that. I implore you to give yourself the same opportunity even when it feels unfashionable, painful, or even insurmountable. It is the noblest pursuit, the foundation of all education. I am forever grateful that these fantastic professors reached out to me in such an impressionable and vulnerable time of life.
卡莉·威廉姆斯，家庭主妇
Class of 2012
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I can legitimately and with a clear conscience say my time with the philosophy department at bet36365体育 was the most personally formative part of my education. Lessons on morality and rational thinking undoubtedly made me a better student, and I strive daily to apply them to both my personal and professional life. If there is a rating better than 5/5 stars, this department deserves it.
Ryan Dethlefsen, Agricultural Financial Consultant
Class of 2012
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如果你学习哲学，你会发现什么, 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! It’s ironically the most practical degree out there! Let me explain. 当我刚开始学习哲学的时候, 我没有学习的动力, 因为我要么想被部署, 或者马上去做一般劳动. I lacked a healthy amount of “ambition”, as well as curiosity. 我对高等教育相当冷漠, 假设是高中吧, college was just a more expensive flaming hoop to jump through before I could become a productive member of society. 在接触了亚里士多德之后, however I developed a deep desire to learn more about happiness and virtue. 在接触了柏拉图之后, 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. I currently enjoy working in a local family business, (Wendell Berry persuaded me on the merits of hard work, thrift, 支持当地经济), 我目前在陆军国民警卫队服役, (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?我会自信地回答, “这不是我要用它做什么, it’s about what kind of person that it’s going to influence me to become. 无论你选择什么学位, you’re going to need to learn a skill afterwards for employment purposes, as you most likely aren’t going to learn that specific skill with a bachelors degree (politician, lawyer, doctor, businessman, skilled tradesman, etc). 至少得有个哲学学位, 不管你从事什么样的工作, you’ll be equipped to be the best possible person in that occupation that you can be.” Be all you can be. Study philosophy!
达斯汀·雅各布斯，汽车销售部
Class of 2014
New breakthroughs
想象力的力量
Rich tradition. Bright future.
Taking care of business
