Comments on: Where A Philosophy Degree Gets You In Real Life

By: Hayden

Hayden — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:21:52 +0000

Meditations On First Philosophy.

By: Fabian Ascencio

Fabian Ascencio — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:34:37 +0000

I Feel that the graphic is right! Philosophy is not a carrier or profession, that is to narrow for a philosopher’s open mind. The graphic here lies on values of the labour economics, and the companies that hire the bulk of workers do not need leaders, they need technicians. Of course philosophy is not about learning doctrines or repeating same things again and again without wondering why we are doing what we do. And philosophy is about principles, not techniques, it is wide and creative and only big thinkers all capable of having faith in their own minds to achieve greater changes. Not everybody is capable of thinking this way, indeed, the vast majority of people contribute to changes but insignificantly. That’s the fallacy of democracy; a government by the people, unfortunately the majority are dumb and do not have an idea of what is going on beyond their noses aim. It is right, professionals and scientist cannot resolve social problems, the can only fix stuff, but not people. A philosopher don’t work for money or social status, to have such low expectations of life are for those who already giving up finding real authenticity. Just wonder why Einstein was expelled from the university when young. Don’t study philosophy if you can’t take it!

By: healingartsglobal

healingartsglobal — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:42:22 +0000

I am going into non-denominational/interdenominational ministry and spiritual counseling. A philosophy degree is very appropriate and welcomed in this field.

By: L

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:53:49 +0000

this is the plan.

By: theninjapenguin

theninjapenguin — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:13:48 +0000

For a final exam, a Philosophy prof. put a chair on his desk and told his students to convince him the chair wasn’t there. Every kid in the class spent 1-2.5 hours writing these elaborate arguments for why that chair didn’t exist, except one. His entire paper consisted of “What chair?” He made a perfect score.

the ‘proof of existence’ reminded me of this. and also Descartes…. But no one cares about dead crazy Frenchmen.

By: DPS

DPS — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:13:16 +0000

BS/MS environmental science and philosophy minor = get into law school easily …. for me

By: Miss Diotima

Miss Diotima — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:41:32 +0000

It’s lovely how you can uphold one American ideal while completely disregarding another, such as the first amendment. Besides that, I feel you are missing the point of the previous comment. There is no suggestion of throwing out immigrants, but merely a noting of the increased competition globally in the math and science fields. Relax.

As for the graph, it’s brilliant. It’s a really great commentary on how society today values critical thinking skills as a way of making money. As a PHL major getting ready to graduate, I chuckled through my tears at the sight of it.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:35:58 +0000

Hey – That last comment is not very nice or fair. The idea in America is to open the doors to allow all those in who want to be here and support the country. That’s kinda how we were founded… So I think a statement like that does not need to be made in a public place like a blog.

By: Smarter Than You

Smarter Than You — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:04:44 +0000

True…But…A philosophy degree is useful if you’re ambitious enough to go to Graduate School or Professional Schools like law school or business school. Unless youre a writer, you really can’t do anything in the discipline of philosophy. It does give you valuable tools though (Analytical Thinking, Critical Thinking, etc.), which help with certain careers, as well as probably the most valuable tool of all: the skill of rhetoric. If you’re a philosophy major (like me) I urge you to either switch majors, or be prepared to go beyond a BA in philosophy (maybe a double major, maybe a masters/phd, etc.).

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:35:38 +0000

Dear Math and Science Majors,
Have fun competing in this job market against the myriad of foreigners with your exact same degree and in many cases more determination.

By: Raphael

Raphael — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:40:07 +0000

Clearly, disliking philosophy has made him a terrible thinker.

By: Raphael

Raphael — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:28:20 +0000

Umm see… there is a different in “following a set method” as with science and engineering, versus being completely on your own and left to produce your own results. They’re very different kinds of thinking, and that’s why many philosophy students enter law. Forming a strong argument isn’t simply the result of studying laws.

By: dennis4king

dennis4king — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:33:08 +0000

Ca semble une bonne idee.
Pourquoi ca ne marce pas en Quebec?

Good idea. Why doesn’t that work in Quebec?

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:30:30 +0000

Oh, another thing you might want to consider developing is your mathematical concepts. They will tremendously help you in the real world. If you can barely multiply 9×9, then you’re not going to be able to calculate any sort of metric and won’t be anything more than a cleark, ever.

By: Patrick White

Patrick White — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:42:07 +0000

Philosophy degrees are very employable. Its an entire subject dedicated to critical thinking, argument articulation and clarity of expression.

By: hoggleboggle

hoggleboggle — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:13:31 +0000

you are stupid. that’s all I really wanted to say.

By: name

name — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:52:14 +0000

While these people may have or had succesful lives, their philosophy degrees have no impact on their future careers

By: chris

chris — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:56:50 +0000

Language isn’t tangible. Nice try though! Better luck next time.

By: Nunya

Nunya — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:16:45 +0000

Take THAT, Steve Barron!! I have a BA in Linguistics and that is SO much better than Philosophy any day. At least I studied something tangible.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:09:45 +0000

I have a liberal arts degree… would you like fries with that?

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:22:27 +0000

Sure as shoot hasn’t helped me.

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:21:19 +0000

Both, and many others.

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:20:30 +0000

“But I do agree that just having a degree will open up so many job opportunities, regardless of what you studied in college.”

I’m going to have to strongly disagree with that. Jobs are not abundant these days. I have a philosophy degree from NYU – graduated cum laude – and I now work part time in a frigging retail store. It’s the only thing I could so much as get an interview for.

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:12:02 +0000

If you think of philosophy as putting off the real world, I think you’re doing it wrong.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:10:34 +0000

Government, Politics, and Law: Thomas Jefferson (U.S. President), David Souter (Supreme Court Justice), Robert MacNamara (Secretary of Defense and Head of the World Bank), William Bennett (Secretary of Education and best-selling author), Patrick Buchanan (presidential candidate and political columnist), Jerry Brown (former governor of California and presidential candidate), Raisa Gorbachev (former first lady of the Soviet Union).

Business: J. Paul Getty, Carl Icahn (CEO, TWA Airlines), Gerald Levin (CEO, Time Warner, Inc.), George Soros (financier), Lachlan Murdoch (son of Rupert Murdoch, media magnate), Carleton Fiorina (CEO Hewlett-Packard).

Religion: Pope John Paul II, Martin Luther King, Jr., Madelyn Murray O’Hair (famous atheist).

Contemporary Writers: T. S. Eliot, Christopher Hitchens, James Michener, Iris Murdoch, Alexander Solzhenitsin, Umberto Eco, M. Scott Peck, Ken Follett, Susan Sontag, David Foster Wallace, Elie Wiesel.

Performers and Broadcasters: Harrison Ford, Susan Sarandon, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, George Carlin, Jay Leno, Dennis Miller, Kim Thayill (Soundgarden), Stone Phillips, John Chancellor, Alex Trebek, Gene Siskel, Willard Scott, Jimmy Kimmel.

Sports: Bruce Lee, Phil Jackson, Michael McKaskey (Owner, Chicago Bears), Aaron Talylor (OT, Notre Dame and the Green Bay Packers).

By: Waverly

Waverly — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:04:45 +0000

Late to the party but will throw in this: philosophy, history, art, English majors, etc, are all actually pretty good at writing. If you can write, you can be hired into lots of different fields. When I was in business school I was floored to find that most of my fellow accountants couldn’t write very well. Writing counts!

Of course, in this economy maybe being able to write really well won’t help either.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:26:25 +0000

Haha that’s so cool – I did the Philosophy and Computing Science degrees as well, and I’m a Software Development Manager now. My computing science degree tells me what they’re doing wrong, and my Philosophy degree tells me why.

By: kamizilla

kamizilla — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:22:10 +0000

If you want to work for Scholastic, you should consider going to China. It’s a burgeoning market, and they need people there.

By: seriously?

seriously? — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:53:18 +0000

You posit the following:
1) That thinking analytically and writing persuasively is strictly under the purview of philosophy?
2) That several fortune 500 CEOs were philosophy majors.

I would respond with:
1) Many other degree programs stress the ability to analyze, hypothesize, experiment and articulate. Science and engineering degrees come to mind. The difference is that these alternate courses of study also place an emphasis on results, and thus put a premium on both intellectual creativity as well commercially valuable skills.

2) Where is the proof for this? This is not a fact that I’ve encountered before, and the school I currently attend has a top 5 business school.

By: fdshgh

fdshgh — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:43:07 +0000

But if it is getting you nowhere then nowhere becomes a place, it is getting you somewhere just somewhere that is not useful.

By: Jocasta

Jocasta — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:30:03 +0000

Not really. You can go to grad school or take some other kind of post secondary training (like I intend to)…

Oh, wait, you mean just with that degree? Never mind, point conceded.

By: kelly

kelly — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:09:42 +0000

AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

hoo! okay. haha. sigh….

By: Jefoid

Jefoid — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:03:34 +0000

I am unemployed, therefore I am…

By: varuna

varuna — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:42:20 +0000

Music, anyone? Though there was already a graph about that. lol

By: Sunshiner

Sunshiner — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:25:52 +0000

That’s hilarious! I might have to use that! Seriously, everyone expected me to become a doctor or professor or something, just because I graduated top of my class in high school. Art majors aren’t just those who couldn’t make it in the other fields. I’ve heard one guy actually say that! And they wonder why we’re so defensive.
You can imagine what my old-fashioned grandfather had to say about me majoring in art! (I’ve since changed it to art history, but he still thinks it’s impractical.)

By: Philosoraptor

Philosoraptor — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:10:01 +0000

If you think a philosophy education isn’t valuable, you’ve drastically misunderstood what philosophy is. I won’t get into the history (although it’s worth pointing out that both mathematics and the natural sciences spring from philosophy) but you can’t possibly think that the combined ability to think analytically and write persuasively is worthless.

Also there’s the fact that several Fortune 500 CEOs were philosophy majors.

The graph is funny, but I think it misrepresents a really important field of study, and it’s sad that the misconceptions concerning the value of a philosophy degree are so widespread.

By: yeah

yeah — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:44:13 +0000

They might have enjoyed the education, but they are not gonna be qualified for whatever work they will find. That’s part of the reason why there are not enough skilled professionals – half of the people doing their job studied something ‘exciting’ instead of educating… And then people complain about immigrants taking their job. Well I would rather do business with an educated hindu/chinese/etc than a philosophy student.

By: yeah

yeah — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:36:43 +0000

There’s enough unemployment for both to share

By: yeah

yeah — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:32:03 +0000

You actually didn’t realize it’s useless until after graduating? Impressive detachment from practical life!

By: podgirl

podgirl — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:28:21 +0000

um…let’s not give the sparse journalism jobs to philosophy majors. We journalism grads need those.

By: KaBooM

KaBooM — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:43:35 +0000

Sad thing is, this graph is wrong. It should be PSYCHOLOGY degree, not philosophy.

By: jackie31337

jackie31337 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:40:04 +0000

A friend of my family graduated with a philosophy degree. He’s had a variety of jobs entirely unrelated to philosophy, most recently forest ranger.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:44:42 +0000

“What are you going to do with an art degree?”

My friend was asked this so many times that he now answers: “”Well, I’ve been thinking about drawing, but I might try my hand at advanced brain surgery if the paint by numbers thing doesn’t work out.”

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:15:44 +0000

Ditto, Philosophy and Computer Science double major here.

By: Cpt H Bob

Cpt H Bob — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:47:05 +0000

I just graduated with a Philosophy degree and an English degree. Almost had a history degree. It was great until I realized it’s all useless. Nothing I’m interested in will ever find me work!!!

By: Crossfire905

Crossfire905 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:18:21 +0000

Yeah, here’s a classified ad you never see, right? “Now hiring — Philosophers, all shifts. Pay commensurate with karma. Send resume and proof of existence to…”

By: Lancer

Lancer — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:11:03 +0000

Well a Philosophy degree COULD get you into a good school if that wasn’t so self-fulfilling. It’s an interesting thing, though it’s rather true that there aren’t many jobs you can get with it.

By: lilacsigil

lilacsigil — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:07:00 +0000

Unless you’re French, in which case you will be a respected public intellectual and have best-selling books.

By: rawr

rawr — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:26:09 +0000

Yeah, a ton of prelaw students have some philosophy. Apparently it helps with the LSAT.

I did go Philo -> MD though, it’s a great route.

By: Sunshiner

Sunshiner — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:04:27 +0000

There was a guy in one of my classes majoring in Philosophy. When asked what he was going to do with it, he replied, “I’ll be thinking deep thoughts about unemployment.” I thought it was pretty funny.

You do have to have a sense of humor when majoring in something others feel is not “practical”. Or you deal with it through elitist attitudes, like us art majors. It’s a defense mechanism. I get tired of professors and family members constantly asking me, “What are you going to do with that, teach?” You’ve got to prove that the thing you love the most is worthwhile.

But I do agree that just having a degree will open up so many job opportunities, regardless of what you studied in college.