<p>Anyone interested in majoring in Philosophy?</p>
<p>I plan on majoring in philsophy/poli. sci. if possible.</p>
<p>Just the thought of studying philosophy makes me so excited!!</p>
<p>Anyone knows what school has strong philosophy programs??</p>
<p>I plan on philosophy major. NYU, although not a particularly good school, has an excellent philosophy program. This website is pretty helpful regarding schools and rankings of philosophy programs: </p>
<p>I'm majoring in Philosophy (second year at UCLA) - I love it. Awesome stuff to study. This quarter I'm taking a class on logic and another on ethical theory</p>
<p>should be fun :)</p>
<p>yup, definitely majoring in philo too. it's my passion. maybe visual art or history minor, or classics, literature, polit sci. heck, everything. Philosophy is all-encompassing. If you have a wide variety of talents/interests, it'll be of service to all of them.</p>
<p>Here's a few - check 'em out</p>
<p>UK - </p>
<p>Oxford
Cambridge
Glasgow</p>
<p>US - </p>
<p>Princeton (analytical)
U Pittsburgh
UT Austin
Reed
Swarthmore
St. John's (Liberal Arts)</p>
<p>princeton and swarthmore already sound great. does anyone how amherst and brown are for philo?
am tempted by st. johns, but worry that it may be too constraining....</p>
<p>From the philosophical gourmet:
"It is possible to get good philosophical training in many undergraduate settings.
High school students interested in philosophy would do best to identify schools that have strong reputations for undergraduate education first. Only then, should they look in to the quality of the philosophy department. Some ranked PhD programs have good reputations for undergraduate education, like Princeton , Yale, Brown and Rice, among many others. The larger universities (like Harvard or Michigan or Texas ) tend to offer a more mixed undergraduate experience, largely due to their size. Since much of the teaching at those institutions will be done by graduate students, it pays to go to a school with a strong PhD program, since that will affect the intellectual caliber of teachers you will encounter.
Among schools that do not offer the PhD or MA in philosophy, those with the best philosophy faculties would probably include: Amherst College, California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College , Reed College , University of Vermont , and Wellesley College . But many other good liberal arts colleges and universities that only offer a B.A. have strong philosophy faculties as well (i.e., faculties doing philosophical work at the research university level), for example: Barnard College; Bates College; Brandeis University; California State University at Northridge; Colby College; Colgate University; Davidson College; Franklin & Marshall College; Haverford College; Mt. Holyoke College; Iowa State University; Kansas State University; New College (South Florida); North Carolina State University; Oberlin College; Occidental College; Pomona College; Smith College; Southern Methodist University; Swarthmore College; Trinity University (San Antonio); University of Alabama at Birmingham; University of Delaware; University of Massachussetts at Boston; Vassar College; Virginia Commonwealth University; Wesleyan University; Western Washington University; and College of Willliam & Mary, among others. (This list is not exhaustive; see below for how to evaluate other programs.) St. John's College , the "great books" school at both Annapolis and Santa Fe , offers strong historical coverage of the field, but weaker coverage of contemporary philosophy; still, many St. John's grads do well in admissions to graduate school.
In general, when looking at the philosophy department of a liberal arts college, you should look at two things. (1) Does the department provide regular offerings in the history of philosophy (ancient, modern, Continental), formal logic, value theory (moral and political philosophy), and some combination of metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. You will need courses in most of these areas to be adequately prepared for graduate study, not to mention to get a serious education in philosophy. (2) Where did the faculty earn their PhD? The majority of the faculty at any good department should have earned PhDs from well-ranked programs (as a rule of thumb, those in the top 50). If significant numbers of faculty earned their PhDs elsewhere, be wary. Some liberal arts colleges, even some very good ones, have philosophy faculties that are now pretty far on the margins of the discipline.
You might also consider contacting the philosophy department at an undergraduate institution you are considering to inquire about where graduates have gone on for PhD study. A school like Reed sends more students on to top PhD programs than most universities with top twenty philosophy departments; that says something important about the quality of the philosophical faculty and curriculum. Amherst also provides interesting and impressive information about its alumni in academia: see <a href="http://www.amherst.edu/%7Ephilo/alumni.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.amherst.edu/~philo/alumni.html</a>.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>I wanted to major in philosophy, but my dad was like, "so what can you do with a major in philosophy? Become a teacher? That's it." </p>
<p>So now I am undecided.</p>
<p>What can you do with a philosophy degree? (I'm not being sarcastic, I really want to know)</p>
<p>law, journalism, art. a number of things i guess. but yea, teaching is likely.</p>
<p>Had to answer this post even though its old...
I majored in Philosophy back in the late 70s at a small liberal arts college in CA.
Loved it.
Am currently a senior editor for network news in NY, which I also love.
Philosophy teaches you how to think. It's that simple.</p>
<p>My H majored in philosophy; he's a pediatrician (though considering a switch to HS teaching.)</p>
<p>Camus and celebrian, I'm going to med school after getting my phil degree. A lot of the phil majors I know are planning to take the LSAT and go to law school. There are a lot of graduate opportunities.</p>
<p>I know this is old, but I still have a question regarding a philosophy major.</p>
<p>My problem is that although I believe philosophy to be the most interesting major for me, I have trouble seeing what my career would be after it. Icarus mentioned going to law school afterwards, which does seem like a good idea to me. My question is - Is it more beneficial to major in philosophy and then go to law school opposed to majoring in something more closely related to law in the first place?</p>
<p>odan: a philosophy major would actually serve as excellent preparation for law school. In fact, it's a common undergrad major for law students. Any major that teaches you how to think critically, read analytically, and write well will prepare you for law school.</p>
<p>Can't easily go directly into sciences or anything else that typically has a sequential milestone setup. However, any profession that places a high premium on analytical reasoning, verbal expression, the ability to craft a compelling argument/case/persuasive essay, is a reasonable transition if you have a good amount of philosophical study under your belt.</p>
<p>In my case (7 years), I earn my $ as an Enterprise Data Architect/Data Manager/Data Quality weenie in IT - What else? Think of the skill set - definitions, set theory, sequential (logical) organization of concepts, being very quick on the uptake for new concepts, methodologies, approaches, potential of technologies, etc. etc.) Most people with these degrees are also serious questioners, in general, so you aren't likely to fall into the trap of "form over substance" in your profession. If your personality is even moderately practical in orientation, you can excel in the business world in general.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses.</p>
<p>Some more questions though.</p>
<p>Is business an option with philosophy? I do know that it isn't common, but is it totally unheard of?</p>
<p>I was also thinking of doing some combination of philosophy and economics...I believe that that is fairly common? I'm not sure if that would mean a double-major or what, but it is combining things I think I'd both enjoy and excel in. What do people who combine the two typically do after college? Any personal experiences?</p>
<p>I'm sorry if these questions seem stupid; it doesn't help that my guidance counselor does nothing more than occasionally mess up my schedule.</p>
<p>Yulsie - Just noticed your post...not sure how I missed it. I'm curious as to what your career path has been?</p>
<p>I read that private detective agencies like philosophy majors--they're good at making logical deductions from evidence.</p>
<p>Woody Allen was a philosophy major but either dropped out or was kicked out.
He wrote:"Is knowledge knowable? And, if not, how do we know this?"</p>
<p>One of my favorite lines.</p>
<p>odan, if you combined those two as a double major, business would be an obvious next step for you. If you wanted to, you could of course do it with just either one of those majors, but why not do both if you enjoy them?</p>
<p>Good point. :)</p>
<p>How much bigger/tougher would the courseload/workload be? Any other problems that could arise from doing both?</p>