Studying Philosphy

[Stubb]

I took my first B.A. in Philosophy and Religious studies, and have found it invaluable, in both my work and everyday life. Like most four year liberal arts degrees, it'll get your foot in the door in most non-technical industries; i've worked in mental health/developmental services for close to ten years, and loved every minute of it. My second B.A. was in Counseling Psychology, and it is worth far less to me than the critical thinking skills I learned the first time around; and i already had the job.

But, philosophy most likely won't land you a job above lower middle class straight out college: you'll have to grind away and work your way up wherever you go. Frankly, based on the way the job market here is, i'd recommend every philosophy major pick up a business or accounting minor.

For the record, i'm going back again, for nursing. While i'll use and value my phil degree forever, i've got different professional goals than i did when i was 20.

The other option is to go on in the field and teach it. Not a terrible option, if you're teaching-inclined.

 

[pigpen02]

The other option is to go on in the field and teach it. Not a terrible option, if you're teaching-inclined.

I used to think that Basically, you have get the phd, get published, be regarded well in the mutual-appreciation society of phil dept. heads, then line up and wait for someone with tenure to die, and land the gig. Or teach community college/private/Catholic school.

Dbl major in a science and phil followed up by a specialized bioethics masters is a possibility: you can teach, do research, sit on a bioethics board somewhere's, publish....phil of mind/cognitive sci is a great dbl major for those seeking advanced degrees in the social sciences. there are interesting paths to pick out, but most require a good minor/dbl major, and grad school. I think possibly the best prep for law school is some marriage of philosophy and history.

 

[bkim]

This is the attitude of what Bertrand Russell calls "the practical man" (Problems of Philosophy, last chapter). Russell writes: "Even in the existing world, the goods of the mind are at least as important as the goods of the body. It is exclusively among the goods of the mind that the value of philosophy is to be found; and only those who are not indifferent ot these goods can be persuaded that the study of philosophy is not a waste of time."

In answer to an earlier query, I pay the bills by being a professor. (And I pay the bar tab by being a bassist.)

Do you have a concentration in anything? Ethics, logic, Metaphysics?

 

[mvw356]

do what you feel like you are most interested in. don't worry about later and what job and how much money you earn. if you are good at what you do things will fall into place. i have friends who studied philisophy and now they work for investment banks, law firms, marketing agencies and they are not cleaning these places.

it's never 'wrong' to study philosophy.

 

[IanStephenson]

I've got an engineering degree - but I did it because I wanted to. I now work at a university, and I find it disapointing that so many of the students are doing the a particular course because it's got a guaranteed job at the end. If you want to do a course for the sake of it then do it. Don't compromise - it's 3-5 years of your life. Do something you love.

Jobwise, I'd be the first to wind you up about it ("what do you say to a philosiphy graduate with a job? Can I have fries with that..."), but seriously a good degree will open doors for you, and while employers might not want a philosiphor, they do want someone with a degree in a recognised "real" subject.

Go to good Uni, do a subject you love, and get a good results: You'll do fine.

Ian

 

[MCBTunes]

Follow your bliss.

 

[Jeremy Crockett]

Dole Office Clerk: Occupation?
Comicus: Stand-up philosopher.
Dole Office Clerk: What?
Comicus: Stand-up philosopher. I coalesce the vapors of human existence into a viable and meaningful comprehension.
Dole Office Clerk: Oh, a bullsh** artist!
Comicus: Hmmmmmm...
Dole Office Clerk: Did you bullsh** last week?
Comicus: No.
Dole Office Clerk: Did you try to bullsh** last week?
Comicus: Yes!

Yes, that's about right.

 

[crispygoat]

But.. Then again I would make a degree in Philosophy and go to school for another 3 - 4 years in another subject?

 

[Stubb]

But.. Then again I would make a degree in Philosophy and go to school for another 3 - 4 years in another subject?

Well, if it's a graduate program, philosophy can give you a great basis for understanding not only the arguments, but also the meaning of the field and the historical contexts. For in times not so intellectually bankrupt as ours, philosophers were actually well-respected members of society, indespensible to the development of ideas. Philosophy can place the sciences, mathematics, the social sciences, and the humanities all in perspective, and help us understand why these things are all important.

EDIT: Another answer to your question is because you care about it, and it's important to your personal development. Good colleges are not job training. They are intellectual bootcamp. Even if I were a business major (busy-ness, as we call it around here - our school doesn't have a major in it), I would be infinitely poorer if I hadn't studied philosophy. Philosophy and other academic disciplines - even the hard sciences - can change us and our views on life in a way that studying accounting never can.

It all depends on what you think college is for - job training or self-cultivation. I'm sure others may come here and say that this is an abitrary distinction, but there is something to doing work in a tradition that is millenia old. It changes you.