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One of the many small surprises of the recession has been a significant growth in the number of philosophy majors ... it also is a tool (like history and religious studies) for thinking about everything else, and every profession from law and medicine to motorcycle maintenance. ... Philosophy majors also score highest among disciplines in verbal reasoning and analytical writing on the GRE aptitude test. ... In one survey, working conditions for philosophers outranked some other prestigious fields like aerospace engineering and astronomy. ... This doesn't mean we should replace humanities-bashing with humanities chauvinism. But it does suggest looking beyond the stereotypes.
<p>The bane of the practical minded majority may not be a whimsical waste of tuition after all? Who knows, maybe art history and poetry classes will become the hot majors for those seeking gainful employment after college. I am glad to see some good news for people not blessed with the ability to solve recondite mathematical problems.</p>
<p>My husband got his BA in philosophy and M.Phil about 30 years ago. He is one of the best people I know at reasoning and researching solutions to problems of all kinds - household, health, technology, etc. - and that includes my engineer father. It taught him critical thinking and how to analyze an issue. Of course, he can only put an empty plastic bottle on the counter and not in the recycling container about 6" below it, but I can live with that.</p>
<p>S is a philosophy major. He hopes to become a priest. We hope that if he changes his mind here is some other path to a future plan. Otherwise we are the long term meal plan :(.</p>
<p>Anyway, in the spirit of philosophy, my objections to the article:</p>
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<p>Non-sequitur. I have NEVER heard of a department that advertised itself as “for the dumb kids.” </p>
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<p>First of all, this seems to imply that:
The human factor is negligible, in that the average person majoring in Philosophy is naturally only as smart as the average person majoring in anything else. In all likelihood, this is false. Infact, the previous claim implies that this is untrue.
By not mentioning other achievements of Philosophy majors in the same paragraph, this seems to imply that the greatest achievement of Philosophy majors is that they do well on the GRE.
If the GRE is really an important metric, then it’s worth noting that the average Physics major gets the best overall score, and there are other majors between Physics and Philosophy by GRE score (math, some engineering disciplines for instance). </p>
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<p>Then what metric is Philosophy the most practical major? What is the algorithm the author used to determine this? Or was he just hypothesizing?</p>
<p>The article makes the claim that philosophy majors make the highest scores on verbal reasoning and analytical writing. That math and physics majors score highest on math is, d’oh, not surprising.</p>
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<p>By any metric that does not value money as the sine qua non as a metric of a successful life.</p>
<p>French majors tend to know French and English better than everyone else, as one would expect. Bright quantitative thinkers going to university in America are generally well versed in English, the common language. Philosophy majors are not necessarily as mathematically literate since high level math skills are not required, and math is not common language for those attending U.S. universities. </p>
<p>Are you seriously asserting that there is no other metric for measuring a successful life other than money? How about the life of helping others that provides sufficiently for one’s family? How about the life of ideas that often leads professors to middle class to upper middle class existences? At least you have clearly identified the danger of quantitative thinking divorced from qualitative thinking - calculate the odds and morality be damned seems a grim way to proceed through life.</p>
<p>Re No. 11: Because philosophy majors tend to study and debate questions involving human values, including justice, rather than focusing solely on numerical values. I am in no way putting down math majors, physicists, etc. who are some of the most brilliant people on the planet, and are often polymaths who are as talented in language, philosophy, etc. as those who specialize in those areas. However, a narrow focus on math may cause a lack of understanding of emotional, or broader societal, issues (of course, a narrow focus on any specialized subject can result in a narrow range of intellectual competence - a mind that is an inch wide but a mile deep).</p>
<p>Go up a few posts. S wants to be a priest. Last I knew that was hardly a job rolling in dough. Whatever his motives and however we feel about that, it isn’t about money and it isn’t about recognition.</p>
<p>I was thinking about majoring in Philosophy many years ago, and when I told my advisor that I didn’t want to major in Philosophy because I wouldn’t make enough money - he retorted, “Ahh, but if you are a Philosopher you realize that there are more important things in this world than money!”</p>
<p>Cut to 30 years in the future - I am a Full Professor at a University - (not teaching Philosophy) and my advisor was right!</p>
<p>Why is this surprising? Philosophy encourages ways of thinking that may not be used much in other humanities subjects, including (but not limited to) logical thinking similar to that commonly used in quantitative subjects.</p>
<p>Perhaps that is also why, in the admittedly limited career survey data available, philosophy majors usually do better than other humanities majors in seeking jobs after graduation. They are also the best scoring not-obviously-quantitative major (i.e. not math, physics, economics, or engineering) in LSAT scores.</p>
<p>Math and Philosophy do go hand in hand- a historic look at mathematicians who were also philosophers (and vice versa of course) shows this. Math major son took several philosophy courses- the required logical thinking appeals to him (btw- math isn’t arithmetic/numbers, higher level courses especially are much more abstract). Son added a computer science major for its practicality (he added the courses he didn’t take just for interest/overlap with math).</p>