<p>I'm sorry if I don't know anything, I feel like this is the dumbest question anyone has ever asked on the thread. But all my life I have always been really deep, really into finding out the meaning of life and etc. Yet I don't know what I want to major in. I'm not passionate about anything, really, except just sitting, doing nothing, and thinking (sounds boring, I know). I'm a senior in high school so I still have time to figure it out, but it just hit me the other day when I was thinking about it. Is philosophy a major? Can I major in it? Is it difficult? What subjects are covered? What can you do as a career afterward? Is it a successful and reasonable career to pursue?</p>
<p>I also apologize for posting in this thread...I wasn't sure where this topic would go.</p>
<p>YES, you can major in philosophy. Yes, it is difficulty.It has lots of tough concepts and lots of papers. Reading books and article on philosophy can be very tough and time consuming. It develops good critical thinking skills and writing skills. You can teach Philosophy or you can do many things since it does hone a lot of skills. I loved the philosophy courses that I took and am sorry that I didn't take more of them.</p>
<p>Also, almost every major college has the ability to major in philosophy.</p>
<p>It sounds like something that I would really be interested in looking into. I don't know anyone who has majored in philosophy, hence myself not registering that the major even existed.
What kind of topics coexist with philosophy? For example, I took a psychology course last year (when I was trying to figure out what I want to major in), and I really liked it except for all the studying of the brain parts-not my cup of tea. Is there some concept like that with majoring in philosophy?</p>
<p>
[quote]
But all my life I have always been really deep, really into finding out the meaning of life and etc.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sorry, but what you are looking for is 'pseudo-philosophy'.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What kind of topics coexist with philosophy?
[/quote]
Philosophy of Physics
Philosophy of Biology
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of Mathematics
Logic
- Modal Logic
- Symbolic/Predicate Logic
- Mathematical Logic (Incompleteness and so forth)
- Set Theory and its Logic
Meta-Theory
Epistemology
Ethics
- Applied Ethics
- Normative Ethics
- Ethics
- Meta-Ethics
Metaphysics
Philosophy of Religion
Philosophy of Action
Aesthetics
Continental Philosophy
- German Idealism
- Postmodernism
Analytic Philosophy (Logical Positivism)</p>
<p>philosophy is different from just sitting and thinking. it is a lot of unanswer questions that can drive a person crazy but it is very interesting and worth exploring. it requires a lot of solid basic skills such as reading comprehension (it is so hard to read about philo, the sentence structures are unlike other testbooks) and writing skills (explaining philo is even harder without sounding vague and redundant).</p>
<p>you can try to double major or minor in philosophy with something else such as political science (policy making). i know my friend is considering to minor in philosophy and do law later on which will come in handy because philosophy requires A LOT of analytical and systematic thinking. just randomly pondering about life doesn't make one a philosopher (at least according to my philo teacher).</p>
<p>Once you get the college, why don't you see a counselor and take one of the interest (career?) inventory tests?</p>
<p>Take different kinds of general ed. classes, too. I made a mistake of taking 4 art-related classes in one semester, bleh. You don't necessarily need to major in philosophy to take philosophy classes also. It could be a big mistake trying to get into a school as a philosophy major and have it turn out that you don't like what you got yourself into.</p>
<p>I'm probably not the best person to answer your questions about what philosophy is like. But I would say if you have strong rational/logical skills and can see contradictory statements (or any other flaws) in arguments somewhat decently, the major might be a good match. You can always pick up an introductory philosophy book (it might be boring since it's usually just history of philosophy) and try to see if you can at least get the gist of it.</p>
<p>What can you do as a career afterward? Is it a successful and reasonable career to pursue?
Counselors (or people in general) usually ask if you'll be going to pursue a graduate degree if they find out you're a philosophy major. Philosophy majors usually make good candidates for law school and what not. But anyway, I would say not to worry to much about getting a job with a specific major. If worse comes to worst, just try to equip yourself by taking classes that will benefit you when you graduate from college (such as business classes).</p>
<p>If you enjoy thinking about and analyzing people (or yourself) then Psychology might be your best fit, not Philosophy. Psychology majors do not have to take a lot of courses in bio-psychology or experimental psych. Biopsychology is just one specialty within Psych and there are many other specialties such as Child, Social, Personality, Abnormal.</p>