# Can you make a living as a philosopher? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-a-living-as-a-philosopher/479811 "2009-01-04T14:27:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-a-living-as-a-philosopher/479811/21 "2009-01-04T23:37:52Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > Any sizable university will have a philosophy dept, so there’s obviously going to be numerous philosophers employed here. Indeed, this is where all the serious philosophising in society will take place. All the serious philosophizing in society takes place on the SDMB, and you know it. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-a-living-as-a-philosopher/479811/22 "2009-01-05T02:23:15Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I’ve often heard that philosophy is a good undergrad choice for people planning on going to law school, since law school demands the same kind of thinking. I’ve my doubts. I generally can understand quite readily a legal reasoning, or make sense of a bunch of statutes, but faced with a philosophical text, I’m generally 😕😕. I don’t think it’s the same kind of thinking. However, I assume that studying philosophy, ethics or such things, and how they relate to justice and law might be intellectually valuable for a future lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-a-living-as-a-philosopher/479811/23 "2009-01-05T03:04:41Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > I don’t think it’s the same kind of thinking. However, I assume that studying philosophy, ethics or such things, and how they relate to justice and law might be intellectually valuable for a future lawyer. In practice, law has little to do with philosophy, but the skills that a philosophy student learns, such as symbolic logic, argument, inductive proof and reasoning, the ability to read and digest zillions of pages of extremely boring stuff in one night, and so on, are valuable skills to have in law school. Many, many law students in the Common Law system study philosophy before law school for this reason. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-a-living-as-a-philosopher/479811/24 "2009-01-05T04:53:58Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > Are you thinking outwith academia? Outwith? Slightly off-topic, a high-school friend of mine is now a philosophy professor. I cannot even understand the titles of his articles. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-a-living-as-a-philosopher/479811/25 "2009-01-05T15:42:08Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > In practice, law has little to do with philosophy, but the skills that a philosophy student learns, such as symbolic logic, argument, inductive proof and reasoning, the ability to read and digest zillions of pages of extremely boring stuff in one night, and so on, are valuable skills to have in law school. Many, many law students in the Common Law system study philosophy before law school for this reason. Philosophy students also are familiarized with the “Socratic method”, which is used to teach most if not all law school classes, particularly in the first year. Back when I was a philosophy undergrad, I heard rumblings that there was a demand for PHIL grads in the field of artificial intelligence. The theory was that philosophers know how people think, and therefore could be useful consultants when designing artificial intelligence systems. Sounded pretty neat, but life didn’t take me down that path. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-make-a-living-as-a-philosopher/479811.md?page=1)