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Author: |
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Anonymous |
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Date: |
March 26, 2007 |
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Philosophy:
Philosophy is in some ways both incredibly easy and incredibly difficult to recommend. There are two practical paths with a philosophy major. One is to get your bachelor's and then move on to a PhD in philosophy and commit your life to teaching in colleges and universities. If you're brilliant and capable of truly original work you can work your way up to research institutions and write and research along with teaching, but the majority of philosophy PhDs end up teaching every semester, except maybe summers, as adjunct or visiting professors without tenure. This could mean moving every other year to find more money or a better university, etc. The second path is to get a PhD in philosophy as 'exoticism' on a resume with a solid MBA or JDoc.
To focus on the second path, philosophy can be a big plus in interviews. It's an edge, a thing of interest for interviewers. If you focus on something like ethics or logic especially you could even apply some of your learning. Regardless of what area you focus on, though, the end result of a philosophy bachelor's will be clear thinking and critical thinking and the ability to write concisely. All of those things are of vital importance in both law and business. So as a bit of interest, as a way to polish your writing and thinking style you can't go wrong.
As for the first, it's a hard road, as I said above. I love philosophy and I love thinking about the things philosophy thinks about. I majored in it and am continuing to study it because it's what I love. But have no illusions, academia is not easy. It can be cutthroat and there are politics and gossip much like the business world. The satisfaction can't come from money, it has to come from the work itself. I'm excited about teaching people how to think critically and how to examine the world around them. I'm looking forward to doing that wherever I can. I'm also excited about reading and writing and publishing, but it takes a lot of work before you can sit back and research for a semester without classes.
I would definitely choose it again if I had to go back, and I recommend only that you think about your choice taking into account some of what I wrote above. It can be a dream come true, as long as you're aware of what you're choosing. |
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Anonymous |
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Date: |
March 26, 2007 |
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Philosophy and Religious Studies, Other:
Philosophy of religion is one of the most interesting subjects one can think of. Not only do you get a good overview of the history of Western philosophy, but you also critically examine the question what it means to believe in God. This can become quite an existential matter, as you also start to examine your own beliefs and how they came to be. You need to have some guts to scrutinize your own beliefs.
One area I became very interested in, was religious epistemology: how our beliefs come to be and how the relate to reality. This quite quickly led to other questions having to do with epistemology in general: how do we know anything at all? What is knowledge? Does only scientific knowledge deserve to be called 'knowledge', and if so, why? These questions are still very much on my mind, as I now work professionally in the area of science & religion. The skills I now have allow me to examine critically the claims by, for instance, Intelligent Design proponent, but also the atheistic claims by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.
If you choose this major, be open-minded and critical. Don't let yourself be scared too easily by different opinions. Try to argue your case, as you develop your ideas and reasons for having a certain belief. If you are interested in the nature of religious belief, then I definitely recommend having a major in philosophy of religion. If I had to do it all over again, I guess I would choose exactly the same subject. No doubt about it! |
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Author: |
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Anonymous |
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Date: |
December 24, 2006 |
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Religion / Religious Studies, Other:
The best advice I was given as a first year college student was to go through the course catalog and read the class descriptions and take classes that looked interesting to me. I really fell in love with the study of religion. I am not a religious person, but am fascinated with religion as a concept, an entity, and something so pervasive in the world today. If you are going to a liberal arts school I highly recommend the above advice to you and if religion is your thing and you think it might be weird, take a class or two and see what you think, you don't have to know what your major will be right away, you have time to explore your options. I would definitely still choose this major, though I would have liked to look at religions less like those I was already familiar with.
The pros and cons to having a degree in religion are essentially the same as any liberal arts major. What you are taught is how to think, to write, to learn...these skills will be yours...tools to take out into the world with you. I had a successful career in software development and am now embarking on my next career, I don't think it was a hinderance in any way. I do get weird looks every now and then when I tell people what my major was...they think I wanted to be a nun or something, but that's to be expected...unfortunately. |
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Author: |
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Anonymous |
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Date: |
December 15, 2006 |
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Philosophy:
If I had to do my undergrad over again, I would still have been a philosophy major, but I would have combined it with another subject, one that I enjoyed studying more at the grad level and could get hired at. Right now, I'm doing a grad degree in ecology, of all things in the world, and I'm finding that my studying philosophy was very helpful. When I read the scientific literature, I'm pretty good at deciding whether or not the conclusions really derive from the evidence, if there are alternate conclusions that should be considered, and if the experiment or study really tested what the authors think it tested. Having studied some formal logic was also very helpful in learning basic experimental design, data analysis, and for picking up on some basic concepts in various biological science subfields. My coursework in philosophy also gave me communication skills which have been incredibly useful in both teaching and in writing up my own results. I would strongly advise anyone considering a philosophy degree to keep their career goals in mind. Philosophy courses are very helpful in learning other things, but, by themselves, degrees in the subject won't get you hired. Check out some internships, decide if you want to go to law or med school, or have a second major in something you'd enjoy doing as a profession. |
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