Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

My local public library doesn't have a book on advanced logic design, for example. It favors a more 'general' collection, and thus books with heavy reliance on math tend to be omitted. Same with in-depth law books, they just aren't there.

Let me explain. There are subjects, say Philosophy or Physics, that are some of the more demanding undergraduate majors and yet have limited job markets. Simply getting through a Philosophy major signals that one is capable of deep thinking, abstract thought, the ability to read book after book of long complex argumentation and understand it in its historical context. Physics places similarly difficult (but differing) demands upon its students.

A major in Philosophy signals to potential employers that this person can read, write, and think clearly; a major in Physics does the same with an emphasis on math and science. Such employees can be valuable because they are almost certainly have high intelligence, they have demonstrated discipline, and have a good work ethic.

The downside is that it isn't entirely obvious of what use they are to an organization; they will require training and time to learn for many potential jobs. I would consider something like a Philosophy or Physics undergraduate degree combined with a Masters in CS to be a perfectly adequate, although drawn out, education for the job market.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gferowich

he appears to have done a bit of freelance writing and editing, but generally not gotten very far into a "real job" as most of us would understand it. this is not a criticism. he's very young and seems to be off to a reasonably good start for a career in writing.

that said, the author seems to have strongly emphasized his social media clout (twitter account mentions "most viewed philosophy/existentialism on Quora" or some other inane thing like that) as if that was some sort of accomplishment. maybe this is just a generation gap thing. I'm > 10 years older than this fellow and I really don't relate to that at all. Damn kid's today. Get off my lawn.

so what's my point? that Philosophy as a major seems roughly equivalent to ANY non-technical major you might take as an undergrad. that's to say, it doesn't fuckin matter. if you enjoy it and feel comfortable spending all that money on your degree for it, then go ahead, but as far as career goes it probably has no greater value than any other humanities major.

I know I know, sample size n=1. I'm not trying to generalize from this anecdote. My previous paragraph is meant as a statement of opinion only. Still, it is readily observed and I think many others would corroborate it. In other words I disagree with the point of the linked article. There is no good reason to study Philosophy in school. I say this as a person who dropped out of a philosophy major in school, spent years living in "fun-employment" (that means poverty if you didn't get it) and then went back to school for computer science and got a real job. I never lost my interest in philosophy. If anything I've read more, learned more, and had better discussions as a non-academic amateur enthusiast than I ever did while studying this stuff in school.

Studying philosophy is all well and good. In my opinion, in 2016 in America, it is probably no longer a good idea to do this in the academy. The benefits of this study (gaining deep insights that inform how we live) are available to anyone who can read and find a decent forum (online or meatspace) to participate in. The academy is no longer necessary and may now be an impediment to studying philosophy, because it's so unreasonably expensive, and our society has shifted towards expecting university education to be career/money/job skills oriented.

Yes, there are some good counter-arguments (such as the one the comic refers to), but in my mind they more indicate potential pitfalls that need to be discussed and worked around rather than completely destroying the theory.

Most of this stuff doesn't translate into real world scenarios effectively regardless, I look at it more as helping guide complex decisions which have to be made in a chaotic and fast moving world that is difficult or impossible to reduce down to pure data.