<p>I like the "major that will get you a cardboard box for a house".</p>
<p>Some people like to think teaching is the only profession philosophy majors can obtain.</p>
<p>Any liberal arts major faces those biases. There are so many business, pre-med and engineering majors out there and I always admire the student who pursues true academic interests, rather than treating college as a trade school of sorts. </p>
<p>Personally, living in a cardboard box reading Kant sounds better than working 100 hours/week as an investment banker. Money and making money, beyond supplying necessities and a few creature comforts, is of little interest to me.</p>
<p>Would it be fair to assume that people who pursue business and majors of this sort are mainly after money while people that pursue philosophy and other similar majors are simply passionate for their subject and do not care much about money? Or do you think a majority of philosophy, psych, anthro, etc majors simply didn't know what they wanted to study but they didn't want to study a stereotypical "gold digger" major? I've always wondered about this and now that I am given the gold platter of the philosophy major thread to finally ask this I thought I'd give it a shot.</p>
<p>"Personally, living in a cardboard box reading Kant sounds better than working 100 hours/week as an investment banker."</p>
<p>no it doesnt. lets not make up fantasy stories here</p>
<p>philosophy is a great step for law school. it helps you think logically and you know all of the logical fallacies (so you can use them all the time). lawyers get big bucks (at least the ones i know) and you can go into busines with ANY degree. I know a CEO that majored in anthro and another that was psych! They rule large companies and the people that work for them went to business school and got their MBA, yet who runs the company?</p>
<p>I don't think a business/economics degree is going to give you a spot in a business in the outside world. Given that the people I know are flukes and exceptional people, yet from what they've told me, it doesn't matter what hangs on your wall but what goes on in your head.</p>
<p>I would much rather be a professor living in a faculty housing than living in a suburban house that I barely get to rest in. I picked a philosophy major because it made me happy, if it makes me rich then it's just a bonus.</p>
<p>post #23:
"Would it be fair to assume that people who pursue business and majors of this sort are mainly after money while people that pursue philosophy and other similar majors are simply passionate for their subject and do not care much about money?"</p>
<p>I'm sure there are people who are majoring in business who are truly interested in the intricacies of business. However, you'll meet many people who chose it for the same reason that you're speculating people choose liberal arts majors for: they did not know what else to major in.(typically not those who work hard enough to get into Haas, but those at your run-of-the-mill state school) </p>
<p>Business degrees are, for the most part, a means to an end. Majors that foster more intellectual curiosity, such as philosophy, are more of an end in and of themselves. Granted, there are pre-law students with no interest in epistemology, philosophy of mind or language, and the history of philosophy who are majoring just because they feel it will increase their LSAT scores, but they are the exception. If one blindly chooses philosophy mistakenly thinking it is a "soft" major, they're in for a rude awakening...</p>
<p>Interesting perspective you take, CCC88</p>
<p>Thus far in my college life there have been a select few philosophy majors who I could really get along with as friends ---- besides that most philosophy majors I have met tend to be VERY pretentious and holier-than-thou and they always wear the same god-damn clothing!! (scarf, beard, slim-fit pants, w/a sweater under a coat) --- all this clothing is tan or an earthly color btw. I know i am generalizing here. I just want to get away from other philosophers and philosophize...something like Descartes did or better yet what Heidegger did in the Black Forest...leave the philosophers (i.e. philosophical societies) and have a beer with the peasants and create some revolutionary philosophy while at it.....................I have yet to meet a philosopher of the opposite sex yet, that should explain the bias.</p>
<p>I am a weird philosophy major. When I am having conversations with other phil majors, I don't really like to become very serious about philosophy. I like to laugh and think of amusing situations or applications of obscure beliefs.</p>
<p>I always seem to talk to the jerk that thinks that one philosopher is king and all others suck. When I try to change the topic, they go back on their little rant and never shut up.</p>
<p>I have met only one phil major of the opposite sex that is pretty cool and laid back. He's like me, we're not sure of what to believe yet and want to learn it all before we have to decide.</p>
<p>Aww - a philosophy couple in the making lol jk
YES -- i totally agree with you about not being serious about philosophy when you are talking about it with another philosophy major.
But I have to admit that i am one of those who often says "But Heidegger is sooo right, just look at the phenomena etc. etc. etc. the philosophical tradition has covered over such and such aspect of "truth" etc. etc." I am male btw.</p>
<p>xleper: When do you have to decide what to believe by, and why?</p>
<p>I'm very friendly with other philosophy majors at my college and I don't find them pretentious at all. But then again, we are in community college.</p>
<p>freudcarl --- lol, we just keep each other's company in class and make fun of jimmy buffet. need i say he also has a gf? it's alright, my wounds shall heal. lol.</p>
<p>myKris --- I guess I'll have to decide whenever I feel like I have completed my studies. Or if I go for my PhD and I am writing my dissertation. It would be a sad tale if one was a philosophy major yet held no firm ground on what they truly believed in. Now, I think that anything I believe in is due to the influence of my professors.</p>
<p>For those philosophy majors:</p>
<p>what will you do before you successfully transfer?</p>
<p>what do you mean by, "do"?</p>
<p>I will leave it open to the interpretor. </p>
<p>but my motivate was to find out if people would:brush up on any readings, take more classes, work... pretty much anything.</p>
<p>ah, I figured that you meant as much.</p>
<p>I plan on reading as much of the classical text that I can possibly hold. Nichomean Ethics, the Republic, the Apology, and Crito (key ones suggested by my professors).</p>
<p>Then I'll move onto the Meditations, political philosophy (locke, hobbes, machiavelli), and if I can, reach ethical theory before the summer is out.</p>
<p>If I get that internship in London, then I may have to cut down on some reading.</p>
<p>I know it sounds like a lot, but I'm pretty determined about this as I have no summer school and I want to make sure that I'm well read on any material that my UC peers may of already consumed.</p>
<p>i should add that I really hope to achieve all of my goals this summer. I'm looking over that right now and i'm already sighing. I'm most interested in ethics and have read the basic stuff for it. but still... jeez, let's see how it all works out.</p>