Should I Major In Philosophy?

Are you considering a major in philosophy? But you are worried about making money or finding a job? This video explores what might make you consider majoring in philosophy and what might make you consider majoring in something else.

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Information for this video gathered from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Collier-MacMillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Dictionary of Continental Philosophy, and more! (#Philosophy #PhilosophyMajor)

[elimgarak]

I have a major in Philosophy. I ended up working as a software developer (I wasn't doing well economically, and being on a third world country without a strong philosophical community didn't help either), but I don't regret having studied it. It enriched my life and gave me many reasoning and problem solving tools that are helpful both inside and outside of my work. I'll do it again.

[Pfhorrest]

I majored in philosophy because after already getting an associate's degree in multimedia arts and technologies and failing to get a career off the ground with that in the half a year or so after I graduated that program, I started considering whether I should maybe look for work in a different field, and one thing that coworkers at my get-through-college job consistently told me was that I was a great teacher, so I thought "maybe I should be a teacher!" I wanted to teach a wide variety of subjects because my interests are very broad, so I figured I would target elementary school teaching since that's before classes specialize. I asked the career counselors at my community college where to begin with trying to become an elementary school teacher, and they said the first step was to get a bachelor's degree in pretty much anything, and then I could get a teaching credential after that and begin teaching, then later maybe get a master's in education if I wanted to too.

So I had to pick a subject to study for that bachelor's degree, and since it could be anything I wanted for career purposes, I thought about what it was I would most enjoy studying. Out of all the subjects I had studied as electives and general education requirements while working on my earlier associate's degree, philosophy was the one that had jumped out at me the most. In my very first college class, an English class, we had been introduced to the notion of syllogisms, and I literally exclaimed with excitement "it's like algebra with words!" The term after that English class, there were two options for the follow-up class: a literature class, or a critical thinking / persuasive writing class. The latter was in the philosophy department, and was basically about informal logic and how to write a sound argumentative essay. I really enjoyed it, so when an option to fulfill one of my general education requirements later was the Intro to Philosophy class, I picked that.

Right away from just the structure of the syllabus, I realized that this was the topic I had always kind of dreamed of. I had always had very broad intellectual interests, and was always searching for ever more and more fundamental principles underlying all of those interests. So over time I had increasingly focused my natural science interests toward physics, which seemed to underlie all of the natural sciences; and I likewise focused my social science interests toward something in the direction of economics or political science, looking for something underlying that cluster of interests as well. When I looked at the syllabus for that Intro to Philosophy class and saw it structured broadly into metaphysics and ethics, I thought that that was the field for me, the one investigating both the big questions of what is real or existent or factual or true (and how it did come to be), and what is moral or valuable or normative or good (and why it should come to be).

So that's what I picked to major in for my bachelor's degree. And though I ended up deciding not to be a teacher after all, and falling back on my multimedia degree instead as a graphic designer and then software engineer (now making a lot more than I likely would be as a teacher, and in a much easier work environment too), I loved the subject so much that I had continued a project that had begun with a mandatory "thought journal" assignment in that intro class, documenting my own views on the various topics within philosophy, the combinations of strong points made by everyone on every side of every topic, the missing pieces still unaccounted for after that, and the symmetries and interrelations between them, tracing both all of my own views and all of those I found problematic back to small sets of very general principles.

That became the foundations of a book on the subject that I've been continually reworking in my spare time ever since, which I hope against hope will some day be something that anybody cares about, and may pan out to have been a worthwhile effort that actually contributed something of value to posterity despite never becoming a real academic.

[UnworthyUnbeliever]

In high school, my peers keep recommending me that i should major in Philosophy, based on how much i engaged in various philosophical discussions.

I didn't followed that recommendation on two basis, weak and strong one.

Weak one was the "Major and Money" problem. Philosophy doesn't earn much in my native country, so i chose to go for a major that earn better. In addition to this,

I had much bigger problem with going for a Philosophy Major and that's "They dont teach philosophy, they teach fallacy-shaped mental vomits to support their otherwise crappy worldview", this is what i actually said to myself.
I live in a theocratic-run third world country in which academic philosophy is a tool to "prove" government-approved stances as "logical facts", which specifically wasn't what i wanted from philosophy.

Fast forward to now.

The weak problem is no longer applicable, but a modified version of bigger one is still valid: Formal philosophy have a tendency to turn already snobby individuals into full fledged psudeo-intellectuals. Anytime i check reddit's philosophy or askphilosophy subreddits, it just pains my how utterly meaningless word salad people can came up with just to look cool.

No thanks, i prefer YT's comment section to discuss about hard problem of consciousness and Idealism.

[deluxieeee]

A note: I possess a doctorate in Germanics (USA), a doctorate in philosophy (Germany) and even more advanced doctorate in philosophy (Spain). During my life I have at least 17 years in at least 6 or 7 universities in 4 different countries--and I have never earned a cent, centavo or kopek. No one has as many degrees as I and earned naught for it all. Why do it? For health reasons, teaching was for long periods was not possible for me (and it was seldom my thing), so I was like the wandering Jew (only I am a gentile) moving hither and thither absorbed in the philosophical traditions of various countries, and in their language, and in their thought. But, what value was my time at so many universities in so many countries? How do I measure it? If, the absorption--after hard thinking--of of your understanding of knowledge that affects such that you feel you "are in God"/enthused by a knowledge, seemingly embracing it all (knowing that you never get that far), then clime aboard, you attracted by philosophy, we wanders await you. Particularly, if you can agree with Friedrich Schlegel (1800), a leading theoretician of German Romanticism that: "The consciousness of the infinite in the individual is the feeling of the sublime. ... And this feeling of the sublime is enthusiasm, which we have had ... as a factor in philosophy. The feeling of the sublime should be raised to science." And that "science" /"Wissenschaft" has philosophy as its crown of joy. If you are just interested, like the Cookie Monster, in crumbs, then follow in the boring path of the positivists, indeed, just about any type of nominalist, for you have missed to point and will cull no "wisdom" ("Know thyself", God and the cosmos--and finitude of death) as was reflected in Schlegel. (Check out Brand Blanshard's critique of logical positivism and you will understand my aversion to nominalism.) The point is--and only a few can really make it, even just want to make it a life's goal for one's own self--the knowledge is enthralling, the challenges are magnificent, but, you, if knowing is not the telos an sick, can easily end up repeating the words of Goethe's Faust at the beginning of the drama. (Look them up.) If you want money and have no real chance of obtaining a university professorship, then the business school is rightfully yours.

Prof. L. P. Wessell (ret.)
Bonn, Germany

[ernestogiusti]

" Ask not what philosophy can do for you — ask what you can do for philosophy." J.F. Kant

[FrozenSpector]

Philosophy is the bedrock of all disciplines.

Seeking an ‘answer’ to something? Those sought have spawned Science, Mathematics, Ethics, Political Theory, and so on. Philosophy helps us understand the core questions being asked behind the methods used. Questioning the understandings of how and why we do seek Truth encourages innovation through dialectic participation. Philosophy also serves as a source for creative and critical thinking, problem solving, and a perspective on things beyond the tasks at hand for an inclusive look at a bigger picture.

[framelessthinker]

It's hard to say if my nature (analytic, argumentative, and good at problem solving) led me to be able to excel in my philosophy degree, or if what I learned in my degree helped me to fortify my existing strengths.

Honestly, something I would love to do would be to discuss philosophy and politics on YouTube or Twitch (in more of a debate setting), and maybe even one day move towards a real political career. My background in science, ethics, and metaethics seems like a great base for these paths, but it's hard to start because of the initial capital needed, and the continuing need to make money now to be able to support myself and my family.

[manuelt]

For myself, I found philosophy intriguing after I took a course in my community college. I ended up taking an ethics course with the same professor who really opened my eyes up to what I wished my other classes were; a flow of ideas and concepts with respect to opposing views. I have learned and read so much by myself since those classes. I think economically, that going to lower cost places to get an introduction to the beauty of learning more is a good idea when you don’t know what you want to do as a career. The insistence of college on a society that is much more indecisive is a destructive idea in the long run. I hope that the more philosophers that are created, the more we can spread ideas to people who wouldn’t be exposed to it. It could possibly save people lots of money too.

[ijaeik]

this is coming in clutch as a high school junior

[chunkyazian]

As much as I enjoyed studying philosophy, it has the potential to make you unhappy if you have the wrong personality. If you have a philosophy degree, let me congratulate you. It was a difficult journey; on par with engineering school, based on my personal experience

You'll find yourself frequently question other people's ideas and analyze the usage of every word. Just as Socrates did. Remember the fate of that dude? If you paint people into the corner by exposing their contradictions, they would simply ignore you.

At the same time, you would find yourself disgusted by the inability of your peers who can't make a logical argument or consider all the hypothetical situations, just like Descartes, and yet they would make the same or more than you do simply because they can sweet talk their way to their position. In fact, you may find them despicable when they hold sway of your career advancement.

If you do care about how people perceives you or you are idealistic enough to be disgruntled by the incompetence of others who can't pursue a hard major that philosophy is, then I regrettably cannot recommend philosophy to you. I was both of those until I learn to become oblivious to the imperfections of life

[shawnchristophermalig]

I had an argument made for choosing philosophy course. I have laden out good reasons for choosing philosophy such as academic inflation that the hegemonic society requires today.

But I do not advocate for pure philosophy if you want tons of cash on your table. Unless you want to dedicate yourself as a future-prolific writer or an outstanding lawyer which provides an excellent amount of monetary asset.

I, myself, is well-versed to business. The judgments which I garnered and made expertise from philosophy are helpful to my business-related ventures.

It really boils down to your purpose, the same sentiment from this video. But I can really contend that philosophy at its very core do provide a significant amount of monetary return when applied as a way of life, not just a mere label to the diploma which you will hold soon.

[mickeymaples]

As a econ major Phil minor I would argue you should not solely major in philosophy unless you want to go into law or go grad school. If you have a passion in philosophy please just study it on your own or get a minor in it

[Eta_Carinae__]

I'm convinced of the double with philosophy and an adjacent field that compliments the sub-field of interest: CS/AI/Psych with Phil. of Mind, Mechatronics/Psychophysics w/Phil. of Sci, etc. even if you want a career in philosophy, just because much as you say with philosophy being of use for scientists and artists, I'm convinced the converse relation is also true. Almost every field contains ideas that are fantastic philosophy, though not in name. You're always going to be missing out, but it's not wise to assume that one obtains all the philosophy out there from a strict philosophy education.

[DAMMK]

Bsc in Computer Science and Msc in Computer Science in progress. Currently a software developer / system analyist. Found this video after watching dozens of videos about Philosophy, and read a textbook (yep, textbook) and some lesure books a few years ago.
Instead of considering its "universal" coverage, "getting a major degree" still applies: Do you benefited from making use of the knowledge already? Or do you need to advance and outstand in that particular area?
For me, learining philosophy enrich my "logical thinking" / critical thinking for my career obviously, but it's already good enough for me to apply the knowledge to strengthen my arguement or propose uncommon idea. I don't need to obtain a "degree" for it. However, if there is organization do reconise the degree, I'd like to study (more like verify my knowledge) for it.
Also, catorizing an issue is critical when my job duty is about managing stuffs, or even people (team leader *cough). is it really a technical issue? Or there is political / financial considerations a.k.a "drama" behind it? Should I value the "big picture" more than an individual? How should I answer it? That is not a "logical" question. This is really a philosophal question. It's sad to know that "(software) system" is always abused as a ambigous / abstract concept, but this is real. "As solid as a blown GPU"

[CMVMic]

Can you do a video on Parmenides strict neutral monism? Or a video on nothing? Or Bertrand Russell on brute facts? Or Bradley's regress?

[bobboberts]

I wish to major in philosophy and attend law school after !

[renshura]

does philosophy go well with as a double major with like religion or religious studies? Since I'm also very interested in religion or theology but also philosophy so I'm wondering if I should double major but I don't know if it would go well together.

[sansorini]

being gay led to me to think about the world and social order. thinking about these led me to think about roots of our mind, reasoning and phsycial reality. so i decided to major in philosophy. my ba is sociology.

[adammyers]

I minored in philosophy and thus feel I rate dropping this joke (not to be taken seriously).

“A philosopher is one who can argue forcefully for nearly any position, except higher wages”.

[EngGear]

My perspective of philosophy is the basis of all academics.