A student with notes in front of class holding a binder with a projection on the wall that says Changing Lives.

Department of Philosophy News

The Department of Philosophy offers students a balanced curriculum of courses in the history of philosophy and in the most recent philosophical theories. Philosophy applies reasoning and rigorous argumentation to questions central to human life: What is ethical? What is just? What is art? What is knowledge? What is real?

Current Philosophy News

Students doing goat yoga on SRWC lawn.
Campus News |

Students examine what it means to live 'the good life.'

students in spring
Campus News |

News highlights starring 51ԹϺ students and faculty who made local and national headlines.

Amid a sea of red graduation caps, a 2023 tassel stands out in the crowd
Campus News |

51ԹϺ President Keith E. Whitfield honors six graduates for their unwavering commitment to excellence.

group of women pose while sitting in front of window
Campus News |

Program includes workshops, activities to awaken participants’ inner 'warrior queens.'

group of students stands behind the model they used as part of a presentation
Campus News |

LutumPotentia wins first place in business competition with their idea for making composting easier.

wild horse in Mt. Charleston Wilderness
Campus News |

From the problems of feeding wild horses to new pet store ordinances, students explore moral issues related to animals.

Philosophy In The News

Filosofie Magazine

There’s an intimacy in the way people experience borders,” says Amy Reed-Sandoval, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Borders help shape people’s identities . I once spoke to a woman who had traveled from Canada to New Mexico for an abortion. It was a horrible situation where the baby wouldn’t survive the birth. Because of the controversy surrounding abortion in the United States, she was afraid of being questioned at the border and sent back. She said afterward that the fear of the imaginary border agent had robbed her of the opportunity to grieve for her unborn child. The border changed this woman’s feelings and her life story.”

Las Vegas Review-Journal En Español

Combining the education of children with that of future professionals is the perfect combination for the practice of 51ԹϺ philosophy students who have a joint preschool program on campus where they encourage children under 5 years old to do or think about big questions and interact with the world around them daily.

San Bernardino Sun

In 1988, author and women’s studies professor Evelyn Torton Beck published an article entitled “The Politics of Jewish Invisibility” in which she lamented “the silence surrounding the recognition that anti-Semitism, whose shadow continues to fall on women’s lives, is, or ought to be, a feminist issue.”

PBS

There is a science to hope. We look at how this weighs into mental health, and the efforts to make Las Vegas a “hopeful” city. We then meet Egyptian author Ahmed Naji, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He shares his experiences being imprisoned for his writings, and how he found a new life at 51ԹϺ.

Nevada Independent

The invitation says no children, and where my children aren’t welcome, I’m not either.

KLAS-TV: 8 News Now

A wild horse from Mount Charleston was killed by federal officials this week. The horse was loved within the community and residents are demanding to know why the Bureau of Land Management did not take less aggressive means.

Philosophy Experts

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An expert in political philosophy, philosophy for children, and Latinx philosophies.

Recent Philosophy Accomplishments

Amy Reed-Sandoval's (Philosophy) paper, "Socially, Not Legally, Undocumented," was published in The Latinx Philosophy Reader (Routledge, 2025), edited by Lori Gallegos, Manuel Vargas, and Francisco Gallegos.
Amy Reed-Sandoval (Philosophy) published "The Transversal Spirit of the Feminist Strike" in Los Angeles Review of Books.
Cheryl Abbate delivered a keynote talk, "Spiritualizing Animal Rights Theory," at the 2025 Rice University Graduate Animal Ethics Conference.
Amy Reed-Sandoval (Philosophy) published "Immigration and Social Identity Formation" in The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Immigration, edited by Sahar Akhtar. 
Amy Reed-Sandoval (Philosophy) has been appointed to the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Hispanics/Latinxs.
Amy Reed-Sandoval (Philosophy) presented "How Mexico's Forensic Anthropologists Are Resisting Forensic Extractivism" as part of the panel "Social Philosophy in Mexico" organized by the North American Society for Social Philosophy for the Central Division annual conference of the American Philosophical Association.