Is a Philosophy Degree Worth It?

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These videos are for entertainment purposes only and they are just Shane's opinion based off of his own life experience and the research that he's done. Shane is not an attorney, CPA, insurance, or financial advisor and the information presented shall not be construed as tax, legal, insurance, safety or financial advice. If stocks or companies are mentioned, Shane might have an ownership interest in them. Affiliate links may be present, the offers and numbers presented may change over time so please make sure to confirm that the offer is still valid. Some offers mentioned may no longer be available or they have been changed. Please don’t make buying or selling decisions based on Shane’s videos. If you need such advice, please contact the qualified legal or financial professionals, don't just trust the opinion of a stranger on the internet and always make sure to do your own research and enjoy this family friendly content.

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[wargriffin]

Everyone: "Is a Philosophy major worth it?"

Philosophy Majors: "What is worth?"

[chocolateangel]

The people I've met that study philosophy on a serious level have been generally smart. A lot of them have advanced degrees in various things and even come from money. Many also minor or double major in something more practical. They have been the kind of people that could do whatever they wanted.

[Daouz]

Philosophy is good as a minor and I love this major so much because It's critical thinking without taking weed

[danielconiff]

Philosophy is a great degree if you want to get into graduate school. Philosophy majors typically do better on GREs than other majors.

[richardking]

"The hardest major with the worst job prospects" - some smart dude

[radioblair]

Philosophy taught me to think differently than my colleagues which was a huge advantage in the workplace. I ended up running a large coatings/equipment manufacturing division for a large corporation. I made very good money but had a stressful job that I was able to handle, in part, because of my unorthodox thinking processes. I don’t regret my major for one second. PS I also got a Political Science degree - my “master plan” was to work for the State Department (after my PhD) but followed my opportunities and ended up just fine.

[dinojoe]

One thing about philosophy that lots of people don’t really understand without studying it or without much exposure to “meta-philosophy” is that philosophy is a science. It’s about utilizing logic with observation, humility, and the resolve to eliminate as many presuppositions as possible to answer questions and understand a subject. It began as the mission to understand how the world works, and continues to be, coinciding with modern science and climbing up the same mountain.

Modern academic philosophy, as the western university became increasingly segmented and compartmentalized and as modern science as we know it established itself, stuck with those questions and subjects that can’t be completely answered through strict quantitative or mathematical reasoning, or issues arising from our usage of language and tenuous concepts, or highly subjective debates such as ethics, faith, and justice.

The discipline is not simply about forming arguments; argumentation is the method used to understand all of reality and Being itself. Hence why students that get into it because “they like to argue” tend to be missing certain dispositions that make them great philosophers and critical thinkers. But hey, don’t we all 😅

So to all my fellow philosophy majors, when an employer asks what is the use of your field of study, tell them you are trained to answer questions, of which can most certainly be “How do I solve this company’s problem?” or “how do I help this customer?” or “how do I get this team to complete this objective?” All you need to do is set me loose on it, and let logic and reason, animated through my mind and body, work it’s magic.

[trigonometrisk]

It makes total sense IMHO that a degree that teaches you the constructions of arguments will be a stepping stone for future lawyers.

[chunkyazian]

Was watching philosophy YouTube videos and got recommended here

I chose philosophy over economics because I didn't want to do math. After I was done with it, I transferred to another school to study mechanical engineering. Jokes aside, I met some really smart people who also double majored in philosophy and some hard STEM fields such as math and physics

I think there are 2 issues that works against philosophy majors out in the real world. First of all, your employer is unlikely to understand what you studied and why you'd spend a few years studying it. With that said, they wouldn't know what you're capable of.

Secondly, you'd alienate people rather quickly if you logically analyze and question every word just like Socrates did. Especially your grandma who'll be stumbled by your endless questioning

I'm lucky to be working amongst programmers as a programmer myself in a globally known company. Everyone around me is well versed in logical thinking and the way I think and talk is normal speech

Anyways, thumbs up for the fair assessment, instead of that it is a useless degree spiel

[musicdiary]

The issue is that philosophy is so interesting to me but when I search up what I can do with a philosophy degree that’s when it becomes a snooze fest or an emotionally draining job for me.

[sydsdoomscrolling]

I double majored in psych and philosophy. I’m so glad I did. I am now in a completely unrelated to philosophy masters program in counseling. having a second major in philosophy has helped me in a lot of ways. I’ve used none of the practical facts I learned but It’s helped me tremendously in developing and analyzing arguments, writing a strong paper, and challenging myself with critical self reflection. I don’t think i’d have those things without it.

[Andy-eslh]

Been waiting for this video man! Did not disappoint 😊 Graduated my BA last year with a major in philosophy and minor in computer science (Irish university is weird). I may not have gained ‘hard skills’ but I gained every soft skill employers look for - communication, problem solving, presentation skills etc. Absolutely loved studying it

From experience, do not go into a philosophy degree without a backup or something to focus on after. Regardless of if you plan on going into academia and writing (which is a difficult industry to break into), you will need to work on a hard skill. Luckily, a philosophy degree can get you in many doors! I’m doing a masters in digital humanities where I’m learning more hard skills in graphic design, game design, video editing, coding etc and I get to write philosophical essays on technology

Plan ahead and enjoy the philosophical journey 👌

[immortaljodi]

As a dual major with philosophy and business, philosophy is only for my own development as a person and as a thinker, while the business is for the practical skills I can use in the workplace.

[Jacob_Kapnobatai]

I love philosophy as a discipline, but in most cases the esoteric mental nature of it tends to not mesh well with the modern materialistic society we live in today. Definitely seems like a skillset that those are passionate in unfortunately seem to be "born in the wrong time" in a literal sense. At least compared to how valuable it would have been in the ye olden days.

[georgewahington]

Graduate student in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. There are Lots of philosophers and theoretical topics that could be taught in philosophy classes. Feel bad for my classmates though, the content is harder for them while for me it's incredibly easy and simple. The benefit of a philosophy degree is that 1. It makes your graduate degree incredibly easy, or relatively easier in terms of difficulty. Second, you get to connect with a lot of future lawyers and doctors who are at the top of their class. Third, you don't have to worry about "fake" friends and annoying people/social conventions (people are pretty down to earth). 4. You are quite literally, on the neuroscientific level, rewiring your brain to "think smarter." 5. Anecdotally, confronting the hard questions of life "bulletproofs" you psychologically. You become more resistant to depression and thinking patterns that lead to depression and anxiety. Lastly, you will always have something interesting to think about by yourself, or talk about with your philosophy friends - and they're ridiculously reasonable as well. I will say though, with my non philosophy friends, I sometimes get bored because I have to go from thinking and talking with high level thinkers to the average everyday person... so there can be a feeling of alienation when you learn so much, you're excited by it, and you know people are interested in it, but you can't really engage in it with others as equals on a level playing field.

Would I recommend the degree? No. I think it's better that philosophy doesn't have droves of students. Close knit communities of intellectuals, monopolization of resources, publishing, and scholarships/awards for the most devoted students, and more time and attention from professors made MY degree worth it. If everyone decided to do it, it would destroy the degree. No one gets a philosophy degree because all they're thinking about is money. It's usually people who either want to become lawyers/doctors, eccentric people, a few overachievers, but mostly passionate people who have figured out money is not that important. Or, people who come from already well-off families. It's, unfortunately, a degree that gets considerably better as saturation lowers. It also, unfortunately, takes a certain temperament as depending on your luck/professor, the barrier to entry could be small or an entire asteroid belt and I don't encourage gambling.

[polonium]

My BA is in philosophy. My MS and PhD degrees are in geology and geochemistry. My geology degrees have taken me MUCH further with respect to travel, income, challenging problems, and career satisfaction than would have been possible with any degree in philosophy. If I had known what I know now when I was an undergraduate student, I would have majored in geology. That would have eliminated two years of leveling work after my BA to qualify for the MS program in geology.

[canyildiz]

definitely. studying it has changed the way i see the world, fundamentally made me a more active participant in the world, a more constructive thinker, and i'd like to think a better human-being too. but, it really has to be something you are driven towards, not something arbitrarily considered or whatever. you really just have to naturally be a philosopher to get the value out of it. in the case that you are not such a person, i can comfortably say that philosophy is the wrong subject to study.

[clumsy]

What I can say as a philosophy student is that people mostly don't major in philosophy to get a profession kinda thing, but to experience, form their personalities. Mostly it's a secondary degree, at least here in Middle-East Europe.

Also it's not really about us (students) thinking, but learning philosophical views of famous, important philosophers in the past.

[brandont.williams]

Dope video. These are all pretty accurate points. I'm a philosophy major and nothing said here is far from the truth. At my school, we have a joke that all the phil majors know each other (because we do) and it's a very tight knit community. We also all have pretty general ideas about what we want to do in life too, most are either politics and law, if not both. I think the biggest problem we have is that we can find the philosophical roots in all careers and have essentially limited options. That being said, it's a good problem to have.