My roommate just got his Masters in Philosophy, and it’s got me wondering…is there any use for Philosophy grads other than teaching?
SnowDog
My roommate just got his Masters in Philosophy, and it’s got me wondering…is there any use for Philosophy grads other than teaching?
SnowDog
McDonald’s might hire him. Just don’t tell them you majored in mental masturbation. Wait, what am I saying?? I majored in music, which is an even more useless degree. Oh, well - at least it was fun.
Any job that is set up to train personell anyhow would hire your friend.
The MA’s reward isn’t so much in the knowledge you get in earning the degree (at least as far as the job market goes), the merit of the degree is in demonstrating that you were (or your friend) capable of sticking to something that was long and difficult. Even a degree in philosophy requires you to take courses which most people would have to work hard to do well in.
The personal reward in the study of metaphysics or philosophy is that it teaches you how to really think.
Any group that wants to keep words like “hermeneutics, ontology, and methodology” from dying out can use him.
Practical applications of disciplines such as literature and philosophy are, in my opinion, abundant but in an informal and often delayed manner. By that I mean that the actual piece of paper may not be worth much, but what you learned while working towards that piece of paper sure is.
For example, a philosophy degree may not get you the dream job at Ultimate Company, but the organized and well-trained mind of a philosopher has a much higher potential than a mediocre mind with a useful piece of paper. It’s just harder to convince people to let you in, whereas the guy clutching a “better” degree will usually be asked to the front.
I graduated with a philosophy degree two years ago. My classmates are doing things ranging from civil service to writing books to further education to IT.
Studying philosopy gives you skills beyond knowing what Zeno’s paradox is. It teaches you many transferable skills - critical thinking, problem-solving, breaking down complex arguments, reasoning. You learn what logic is, how to work within a logical framework. How to sort the wheat from the chaff when someone is trying to confuse an issue with semantics. You learn about how languages may work.
Some people go on to specialise in certain areas - with advances in genetics and the possibilities of medicine, medical ethics is a growing area. As we learn more about the brain, philosophy of mind works in conjunction with neuroscience. A good percentage of philosophy graduates go on to work for the government in some capacity.
However, people generally don’t do a degree in philosophy for the job they’ll get at the end of it. Studying is reward in itself. I chose to do a philosophy degree because I was interested and motivated by the subject. I couldn’t imagine spending three or five years of my life studying business or economics. I’d rather do something I loved. It gives you a sense of how incredibly complicated but amazing a human being and the world is - how much we don’t know, how many questions remain unanswered. It gives you confidence your ability to argue and reason but also teaches that what you once thought may be entirely wrong.
I feel like I benefited from studying philosophy both professionally and personally. I wouldn’t change my degree for anything.
I’m in a similar position to Francesca. I studied politics, which had an overwhelmingly theoretical (i.e. philosophical) setup. I didn’t choose to study it for a career; I was interested in the course and wanted to be better able to understand and explain current affairs.
I found I was better able to communicate, to reason and to look at problems and situations critically as a result of my degree. I may not be qualified to perform any one task, but considering how many times I’ve heard employers say that specifically-trained graduates are a worse prospect–since they require ‘retraining’ to approach their subject in the way the employer does–I don’t feel disadvantaged.
Besides, the friends I have and had with vocational degrees have generally struggled, because they’ve found that away from university they don’t particularly enjoy their chosen career. I know several people with nursing degress who hate nursing, but their degree choice has handicapped them when it comes to changing careers.
I think it comes down to this: if you see university as an opportunity to specialise in a vocational field and get a head-start in a particular career then there is no substitute for a vocational degree. If you don’t know what you want to do, or you want to do something that interests you regardless of career prospects, then a philosophy degree is no worse a choice than any other.
In my quest for a BS in Computer Science in the 80’s, All I Ever Wanted To Know About Semaphores came from -
I don’t think that the degree itself will be of any use. However, I think people who have studied (analytic) philosophy and learned how to do it will be much more suited for almost any career they want to pursue–they’ll have learned how to figure out what someone is saying, whether it really follows from the reasons given, and how to either defend the thesis or refute it.
I agree with many of the other posters that a grounding in philosophy is useful for many vocations, but going for the Master’s degree is an indication that either that person really enjoys philosophy and wants a degree in it regardless of his or her future profession, or that person plans on becoming a professor.
IMHO, it’s a common misconception that someone with a Masters in Philosophy is suited for any career. There are very few jobs where someone can just walk into Big Company Inc with no specific knowledge and expect to be trained. Companies generally hire to fill a particular role. They hire salespeople or marketing people or accountants or computer programmers or financial analysts or engineers. A Masters in Philosophy is at a disadvantage because they must explain how their degree answers the question “why should we hire YOU for THIS position?”.
The ability to derive meaning from what someone is saying comes from posessing knowledge of the subject matter that person is refering to. An MBA or an MS in Engineering also has the ability to determine if a persons reasoning is sound and logical. The advantage is they also posess a great deal of knowledge about their respective subject matters. Because of this, their reasoning is based on logic, facts and experience instead of.
But no one said that. A good knowledge of philosophy will, however, confer certain advantages that few vocational degrees can (and that is not to say vocational degrees do not confer their own advantages, particularly in the area of specialized skills).
And philosophers are very good at answering questions! Not to mention that they will have knowledge of other disciplines such as mathematics, the sciences, etc. As I said earlier, a vocational degree assists one in getting a job–it’s the piece of paper factor–but a degree in philosophy (ideally) trains a mind to deal with all situations in a better and more analytical manner. Therefore in the long term I would wager on a bright philosophy expert rather met my share of highly qualified dullards).
Well, I disagree with that statement as far as the MBA goes–I work with enough MBAs to know that that is wishful thinking, and that most people choose to obtain an MBA for its reputation and connections rather than for anything it really teaches them. And I also work with engineers, there are 60 of them in my company and most are excellent at what they do but terrible at everything else, making them compartmentalized workers. Clearly it would not be wise to put a philosopher into an engineer’s role, but not all jobs require the depth of specialized knowledge that engineering does. I do agree that specialized vocational knowledge is extremely important, but then again it’s not necessarily knowledge that makes a good leader, it’s skills, learning potential, and the ability to work with and understand people–all part of the philosopher’s repertoire. Yes, they often start with a disadvantage, but after that it’s up to the individual to make the best of it.