By Lan Nguyen
Philosophy is a major that many think impractical to daily life and, therefore, useless to society. Philosophy students and professors beg to differ.
There are benefits to being a philosophy major other than learning skills to be applied in the adult world or graduate school.
Philosophy is very compatible with other majors. It allows students to easily study and obtain a major or minor in a different field of study. Philosphy has a wide variety of options open to its students. The philosophy department homepage supplies a link to a page that list career choices for philosophy majors.
“The job market isn’t like it used to be” said Professor Avery Kolers, who is also Vice Chair and Undergraduate Adviser of the Philosophy Department.
“In contrast, philosophy helps foster key skills that will be important no matter what the job market throws at people. Critical thinking, advanced persuasive and expository writing, moral reasoning, even quantitative reasoning, are all areas at which philosophy majors excel,” Kolers said.
Recent philosophy graduate, Jessica Sanders Milling, now enrolled in law school, constructed a presentation on a topic addressing this issue.
Milling agreed with Kolers. she said philosophy has provided her with skills that have been useful so far in her two weeks in law school. She disagrees when people say philosophy prepares students for law school by teaching them how to argue.
“Philosophy teaches you to think critically, to examine your world more closely and to challenge the norm. I think my classmates who studied a much more straightforward field of study will have a harder time getting used to the style of teaching. Here, the professors do not lecture, they raise issues, ask questions and expect you to work through the answers,” said Millings.
“Not many people know that most philosophy majors do not become philosophy professors, many of them go on to other disciplines,” Millings said.
Kolers said, “If you did a philosophy degree (focusing on aesthetics, for example) and combined that with an art history degree, you’d have a great career as a museum curator in front of you.”
Adam Richardson, joint winner of the Richard Campbell Smith Award for Demonstrating Excellence in Philosophy, is heavily interested in linguistics. However, the University of Louisville offers linguistics classes, but a student cannot major in the subject. Richardson decided to major in philosophy, as his area of concentration (the study of semantics and pragmatics) closely overlapped with philosophy.
“I chose philosophy primarily because I would be able to take upper level courses in subjects like the Philosophy of Language and the African Philosophy. The degree really provides you with excellent rhetorical and logistical skills,” Richardson said.
Students wanting to become more involved with philosophy, there is the philosophy honors society known as Phi Sigma Tau. Milling, former president of Phi Sigma Tau, found being in the organization gave her a wide perspective on philosophy majors.
“I think Phi Sigma Tau really opened my eyes as to the diversity of people who were interested in philosophy. I wouldn’t call myself a typical philosophy major or at least one who would fit into that stereotype, though I didn’t know many who would. PST is a great way for philosophy majors to connect with other majors within the university,” said Milling.
“Philosophy majors can do anything. In addition to law school, medical school, the ministry and graduate school, there are a lot of opportunities in computers and artificial intelligence, publishing and editing, public policy and public administration, management and numerous other areas where people trained in philosophy do very well,” said Kolers.
While a person’s undergraduate degree can prepare them for a first job, if the job market or the graduate’s goals change, the degree might not be as helpful.
Critics of philosophy say that it is impractical because it is not oriented toward any specific line of work, but students here at the university have proven that philosophy is oriented toward any line of work. For more information visit http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/philosophy/.
