This just over the transom:
My name is Bryce. I am a freshman uni student, studying philosophy. I have a question I believe you are well-suited to answer, considering your vast life experience and knowledge in philosophy; is it worth it to get a college degree in philosophy?
I am academically unaffiliated by choice, having resigned from a tenured position at a university. So I am not an outsider to academic philosophy, but neither do I have a vested interest in recruiting philosophy majors. So I am in a position to be objective. But I advise you to solicit opinions from a variety of people both in and out of academic philosophy. I have enabled Comments for this post in the off-chance that some readers will offer you some helpful suggestions.
If you are asking whether it is economically worthwhile to pursue an undergraduate degree in philosophy, then my answer is that it is probably not unless you have in mind to study law or journalism. In that case the philosophy training could be very useful assuming that you are studying in a department that is analytically as opposed to Continentally oriented. But studying philosophy as preparation for L-school or J-school or some other professional school would not be a reason to study philosophy as opposed to economics or political science, say. Of course, you might have an interest in the foundations of the law and so study philosophy of law as an undergraduate in preparation for law school.
If you have an all-consuming passion for philosophy and are really good at it, then you might consider going into academe to make your living from philosophy. But this is a long shot. Good tenure-track positions are hard to find, competition for them is ferocious, and the market can be expected to worsen. And I presume that you would not want to end up an academic gypsy traipsing from one one-year position to the next or end up an adjunct teaching 12 courses per year for slave wages at a community college in [insert name of least desirable locale].
So, from a purely economic point of view, you ought not major in philosophy — or in English or in Women's Studies, or . . . . This is especially the case nowadays when the cost of a college education is vastly in excess of the value of what one gets for the money and many assume onerous debt to finance it. By and large, the old adage holds: "Philosophy bakes no bread." There is no money in it, nor, in my opinion, should there be: the lack of earning potential tends to keep out those with the wrong motivations.
The other side of the issue, of course, is that "Man does not live by bread alone," this New Testament verse being my stock response to those who say that "Philosophy bakes no bread." Surely it is only the stunted mortal who views everything in economic terms. Philosophy is a magnificent and noble thing and the best have always pursued it for its own sake as part of a spiritual and intellectual quest for ultimate understanding, wisdom, and true happiness. In my opinion, philosophy is the highest quest a human can embark upon. The life of the philosopher is the highest life possible to a mortal. But be aware that what I just wrote will be violently contested by many. (Their contesting, however, is just more philosophy in the guise of anti-philosophy.)
And this leads me to a final suggestion. If you agree with the spirit of the preceding paragraph and want to study philosophy for its own sake, then you might consider double-majoring in something 'practical' such as Information Technology so as to have a latter-day equivalent of lense-grinding by which to support yourself. (The allusion is to Baruch Spinoza, patron saint of maverick philosophers, who was academically unaffiliated by choice and who supported himself by grinding optical lenses.)
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