The revenge of the philosophy majors • Hacker News Board

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#71

Post by samrus » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:14 PM UTC

b450 wrote: post #66

Philosophy students tend to be understandably insecure about the value and prestige of their field, and study often ends up indirectly training students to defend philosophy. Impressive-sounding pontificating, problematizing, cranking out arguments and fallacies and refutations, deploying jargon and historical references. There's a whole toolkit used to dazzle, bewilder, and cow the untrained. Not to mention outright…

> The value of philosophy outside a self-referential intellectual game is extremely dubious

I wouldnt go that far. I think your clutching at straws a little bit. Its a real stretch from philosohers are insecure to they are useless. This is the sort of thing confident ignorance gets you, when you dont know how philophy impacts mpdern life so you assume it doesnt because you think you know everything

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#72

Post by sleepybrett » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:19 PM UTC

jipl104 wrote: post #18

"the demand for philosophers with A.I. training is, if anything, outstripping the supply right now. It’s an area I encourage students to go into"... There's about 20 philosophers employed by AI labs worldwide , vs 1000s of software engineers, product managers, designers, etc. There's probably more economists working in these labs than philosophers...

... and why would they train for a job where everything they say that seeks to curtail expansion would be ignored.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#73

Post by ElProlactin » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:23 PM UTC

OtherShrezzing wrote: post #62

appreciatorBus wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If service to others and to society mean anything to you, working in Starbucks or any fast food job will teach you more about humanity and human society than most college grads learn from a humanities degree.

It’s difficult to articulate the tedium and monotony of a Starbucks gig. There’s so little intellectual stimulation available in that setting. If you managed to learn more from your fast food than your humanities degree, then I think that’s on you for not paying attention at college (perhaps because you were exhausted from your job?).

> If you managed to learn more from your fast food than your humanities degree...

It's not about learning "more". It's that earning a degree is an academic undertaking whereas working at a coffee shop is "real life".

There is no need to treat one as more or less valuable/useful than the other. They're just different kinds of human experiences. Learning is possible from both.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#74

Post by mrhottakes » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:25 PM UTC

em500 wrote: post #19

This article seems high on vibes, low on metrics. > While a plain-vanilla philosophy degree remains as hard to monetize as ever, David Chalmers, a prominent philosopher of consciousness at N.Y.U., observes: “I think the demand for philosophers with A.I. training is, if anything, outstripping the supply right now. It’s an area I encourage students to go into. I think these issues with A.I. will be front and center for…

> This article seems high on vibes, low on metrics.

That's the in-house style for the WSJ

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#75

Post by mrhottakes » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

cgyvbunji wrote: post #27

In summary, AI has tricked a bunch of philosophy majors into not only thinking it's more than linear algebra but changing their entire life trajectories because of their confusion. AI seems to be a very alluring tar pit for the non-technical. The sad part is how this negative externality of AI is being actively encouraged for political ends.

To be fair, AI is also a very alluring tar pit for the technical.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#76

Post by missingrib » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

cgyvbunji wrote: post #27

In summary, AI has tricked a bunch of philosophy majors into not only thinking it's more than linear algebra but changing their entire life trajectories because of their confusion. AI seems to be a very alluring tar pit for the non-technical. The sad part is how this negative externality of AI is being actively encouraged for political ends.

Philosophers were discussing that question far before LLMs were around.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#77

Post by throw4847285 » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:31 PM UTC

lapcat wrote: post #63

throw4847285 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a common misunderstanding of Wittgenstein, and it's intellectually lazy.

Please read and respect the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html It's funny how many years I had to spend in philosophy grad school to become "intellectually lazy".

Sorry for the rudeness.

It is my understanding that early Wittgenstein of the Tractatus was mostly critical of logical positivism as opposed to philosophy as a whole, and that late Wittgenstein of the Investigations embraced philosophical inquiry, only abandoning the idea of language as a precise tool (and in fact embracing it).

I have heard that Kierkegaard was one of his favorite philosophers, which challenges the idea that people seem to have of Wittgenstein as a precise purely logical thinker who disdained ambiguity.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#78

Post by Izkata » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:32 PM UTC

fellowniusmonk wrote: post #23

em500 wrote: post #19

This article seems high on vibes, low on metrics. > While a plain-vanilla philosophy degree remains as hard to monetize as ever, David Chalmers, a prominent philosopher of consciousness at N.Y.U., observes: “I think the demand for philosophers with A.I. training is, if anything, outstripping the supply right now. It’s an area I encourage students to go into. I think these issues with A.I. will be front and center for…

The revenge of the _nearly a dozen_ philosophers.

Hey now, that might be infinite% growth compared to just a couple of years ago!

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#79

Post by MSkill1 » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

speak_plainly wrote: post #28

MSkill1 wrote: post #17

I would much rather hear that they were hiring theoretical logicians than philosophers.We could use more people exploring the limits of prepositional and propositional logic and set theory than we need philosophy. AI is never going to become conscious, at least not the kind we have right now.

You do realize that propositional logic, set theory, and mapping the limits of formal systems are philosophy, right? You're literally describing mathematical logic and philosophy of language.

I studied it getting my CS degree - you can literally write mathematical formulas using symbols and you can perform operations in logic. Very different from a philosophy class - excuse me if you were already aware.

Re: The revenge of the philosophy majors

#80

Post by julianeon » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:40 PM UTC

I've noticed that many famous billionaires want to be viewed as philosophers: Thiel obviously, Musk arguably.

For this they do need ideological coherency and the ability to order their arguments logically, ideally as part of a larger program. Since it is such a popular destination late in life, you'd think it would be a good choice for a major too.