Bachelor of Arts and Science - Philosophy & Chemistry (Optional Co-op)

The Faculty of Arts & Science offers programming leading to a Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BSc), or a Bachelor of Arts and Science (BSc). These degree options are tailored to students' specific areas of interest across three academic divisions, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. In addition to traditional degrees, many departments offer specialized programs or participate in the delivery of multi-disciplinary programs and majors.

For the Bachelor of Arts and Science, students must complete two majors: an Arts major, and a Science major.

Philosophy investigates fundamental questions about the nature of things; about the universe as a whole, about human beings, society, science, ethics and art.

Students will learn about the basic intellectual foundation for their political, social and legal systems, as well as their understanding of the principles of modern science and technology. They will explore deep theoretical, practical and moral issues that do not easily fit into more specialized disciplines.

Philosophy will challenge students with its reflective and critical approach to important, often puzzling, questions about the nature of right and wrong, time and space, perception, and the human mind.

Philosophy pays careful attention to its own long history, spanning more than 2,500 years. These early investigations are the focus of the department’s courses on ancient, early modern, late modern and 20th-century philosophers and philosophical movements.

There are numerous branches within the study of philosophy, touching virtually every topic; from questions about the existence of God, through to aesthetic principles, and the concepts of space and time:

• Justice and goodness: Investigates questions about right and wrong, or good and evil, such as biomedical ethics or environmental philosophy. • Truth and reality: Looks at truth and reality through areas such as logic, metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophy of science. • Social philosophical concerns: Delves into fundamental social philosophical issues addressed by political philosophy, ethics and the history of philosophy itself. • Scientific philosophical concerns: Focuses on the conditions under which enquiry produces genuine truth and accurate representations of objective reality. • Human creativity and artistic expression: Evaluates concepts like beauty in disciplines such as aesthetics and the philosophy of art.

Chemistry studies the elements that comprise all matter. There are five main branches of chemistry:

• analytical focuses on the detection and measurement of chemical species used in fields like forensics. • organic deals with carbon compounds, which are the main components of living matter. • inorganic delves into all the remaining elements, most of which are found in the mineral world. • physical looks at the study of the fundamental principles governing the behavior of matter. • theoretical starts by exploring basic physical theories like quantum mechanics in order to provide frameworks within which all chemical phenomena can be understood.

The primary focus of the program is to provide students with extensive theoretical knowledge in all five branches, in addition to enhancing their technical and practical skills with hands-on experience. Throughout the program, they will receive intensive laboratory instruction on the transformation and safe handling of chemical compounds, as well as hands-on training in advanced instrumental techniques such as elemental analysis, optical spectroscopy, magnetic resonance, X-ray diffraction and mass spectrometry.

Students will have access to state-of-the-art research facilities that provide the infrastructure to support the research interests of the University of Lethbridge's award-winning faculty, the instructors, as they investigate diverse areas of the chemical sciences including catalysis, nanomaterials and food chemistry.