Pre-Law Track
The Pre-Law Track in Philosophy is not a major. However, it is one way of selecting core and elective classes in such a way as to maximize the benefits of studying philosophy as a preparation for further study in law.
According to the American Bar Association:
An undergraduate should be aware that there is no particular course of study that is required or preferred by law schools. Accordingly, students from a variety of majors (e.g., philosophy, physics, political science, engineering, and business) are admitted to law schools each year. There is no true pre-law curriculum. Generally, a broad-based education that is rigorous and that stresses analytical and verbal communication skills will be useful.(Emphasis added)
If there is no true pre-law curriculum, why choose the Philosophy Pre-law Track? Since every student must select a major in order to graduate you should consider a number of different reasons why philosophy is an outstanding major for students who aspire to law school.
Philosophy, like the law, critically deals with arguments, reasons and ideas.
In law school you learn about court cases and the arguments lawyers use to make their cases and the reasons judges offer to support their opinions. These arguments and reasons contain ideas and terms that have to be precisely defined and carefully understood. The skills that one acquires in the study of philosophy are just the sort of skills that serve as excellent preparation for law school. Is it any wonder then that the greatest philosophers dealt with questions of law and public morality as part of their philosophical work? These philosophers include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Mill, Dewey, Habermas, and Rawls.
On the LawSchool Admissions Test (LSAT), philosophy majors score the best among humanities majors and second overall.
According to a 2006 article in the Journal of Economic Education, philosophy majors have consistently done extremely well on the LSAT. They rank the highest among humanities majors and second only to physics/math among the 29 major with over 400 students taking the exam.
Philosophical reasoning is indispensable in legal analysis.
One contemporary philosopher defines philosophy as "a second-order discipline that investigates other disciplines." What does that mean? First order disciplines are subjects like law, physics, politics, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and medicine. Philosophy is a discipline that concerns questions about these disciplines. When, for example, someone sees an injustice and says, "There ought to be a law," he or she is thinking like a philosopher of law. This is because the person making this judgment is appealing to something outside the law in order to suggest that the law ought to be changed. This person is appealing to an idea of justice, a philosophical notion that the person hopes will provide legislators a good reason to improve the law. Thus, philosophy encourages you to think in ways that get to the heart of issues, an indispensable skill in legal analysis
See the link below for requirements for a major in philosophy that follows the pre-law track.
Pre-law Track RequirementsPre-law Program
We encourage you to consider a Philosophy major if you are interested in law. Please contact Michael Beaty, Francis Beckwith or Todd Buras if you have any questions about our undergraduate offerings.
