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Pennsylvania State University-University Park · Philosophy

5.7% of Pennsylvania State University-University Park's Philosophy course descriptions are framed from the left. Across all 100 schools' Philosophy departments, it is 2.7%.

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0%20%

Pennsylvania State University-University Park: 5.7% Philosophy at all 100 schools: 2.7% each other school in the comparison

Where Philosophy courses fall

0%Far left92–100

65%Left75–91

18%Center-left59–74

12%Center42–58

0%Center-right26–41

0%Right9–25

6%Far right0–8

17 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

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Framing Subject

Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.

Furthest-left subjects

PHIL 479 · Critical Theory86

Philosophy

In this course, the term Critical Theory refers to a distinctive approach to social, cultural, and political theory associated with the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, which was founded in 1923. Members of what…

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PHIL 204 · Twentieth Century Philosophy84

Philosophy

The 20th century can be characterized as a crisis of foundations, doubt about the ultimate grounding or demonstrability of our beliefs concerning the world and ourselves. So-called continental philosophy sought a ground of knowledge in…

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PHIL 13 · Nature and Environment83

Philosophy

What is nature, and what is the appropriate human relationship with it? What are our obligations toward non-human animals, endangered species, or ecosystems? Is contemporary industrial society alienated from nature, and, if so, what should…

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Furthest-right subjects

PHIL 485 · Heidegger8

Philosophy

Martin Heidegger's masterpiece, Being and Time, is among the fundamental philosophical texts of the 20th century, taking up questions of metaphysics, religion, temporality, ontology, the history of philosophy, language, technology, and…

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Why this number, in plain words

Share of courses described from the left. Percent of all courses in the group whose Framing reading is leftward: the description frames its subject one-sidedly to the left.

Counted: all courses in the group, including N and I. No interval is published for this number.

Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.

Details: exact rows, definitions and method

Name	Metric	Value	95% interval	n	scored
Pennsylvania State University-University Park · Philosophy	bias_left_share	5.7	—	88	—
Philosophy	bias_left_share	2.7	2.4 – 3.1	7,780	—

Formula: 100 * count(bias_cat = 'L') / n
Interval: Wilson score 95% (wilson_interval)
Model / prompt / snapshot: gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats: Right-framed courses are almost absent (33 of 124,290); this run cannot tell catalog reality from model sensitivity. Compare schools with adjusted_ratio, not this raw share, because department mix differs.

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