2025 Summer Philosophy Academy
The Summer Philosophy Academy at Washington University in St. Louis is a free one-week intensive philosophy course for high school students, taught by a team of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students from WashU. We introduce students to classic philosophical questions, learn how philosophers approach these questions and how they think about the world, and study critical strategies for analyzing and representing philosophical reasoning. No prior familiarity with philosophy will be presupposed – the only prerequisite is curiosity about philosophy!
The 2024 Summer Philosophy Academy was held July 22-26 on WashU's Danforth Campus, where we hosted students from Clayton High School, University City High School, and the Rosati-Kain Academy. Our 2024 course focused on a selection of topics in applied philosophy: the ethics and aesthetics of monuments, personal identity and virtual reality, animal minds and ethics, the nature of education, and the meaning of life. If you are a student (or a parent) interested in the 2025 Summer Philosophy Academy, please email the program director, Allan Hazlett (ahazlett@wustl.edu), with any questions.
The 2025 Summer Philosophy Academy is made possible with the generous support of the Frick Initiative at Washington University in St. Louis.
Some snapshots from our 2024 program:
