Department of Philosophy (PHI)

Why Study Philosophy?

1. General Uses of Philosophy
2. Philosophy and Educational Pursuits
3. Philosophy and Non–Academic Careers
4. Philosophy and Graduate School Entrance Exams

General Uses of Philosophy

Much of what is learned in philosophy can be applied in virtually any endeavor. This is both because philosophy touches on so many subjects and, especially, because many of its methods are usable in any field.

• General Problem Solving. The study of philosophy enhances, in a way no other activity does, one's problem–solving capacities. It helps one to analyze concepts, definitions, arguments and problems. It contributes to one's capacity to organize ideas and issues, to deal with questions of value, and to extract what is essential from masses of information. It helps one both to distinguish fine differences between views and to discover common ground between opposing positions. And it helps one to synthesize a variety of views or perspectives into a unified whole.
• Communication Skills. Philosophy also contributes uniquely to the development of expressive and communicative powers. It provides some of the basic tools of self–expression – for instance, skills in presenting ideas through well–constructed, systematic arguments–that other fields either do not use, or use less extensively. It helps one to express what is distinctive of one's view; enhances one's ability to explain difficult material; and helps one to eliminate ambiguities and vagueness from one's writing and speech.
• Persuasive Powers. Philosophy provides training in the construction of clear formulations, good arguments, and apt examples. It thereby helps one develop the ability to be convincing. One learns to build and defend one's own views, to appreciate competing positions, and to indicate forcefully why one considers one's own views preferable to alternatives. These capacities can be developed not only through reading and writing in philosophy, but also through the philosophical dialogue, in and outside the classroom, that is so much a part of a thoroughgoing philosophical education.
• Writing Skills. Writing is taught intensively in many philosophy courses, and many regularly assigned philosophical texts are unexcelled as literary essays. Philosophy teaches interpretive writing through its examination of challenging texts, comparative writing through emphasis on fairness to alternative positions, argumentative writing through developing students' ability to establish their own views, and descriptive writing through detailed portrayal of concrete examples: the anchors to which generalizations must be tied. Striker and technique, then, are emphasized in philosophical writing. Originality is also encouraged, and students are generally urged to use their imagination and develop their own ideas.

Philosophy and Educational Pursuits

The general uses of philosophy just described are obviously of great academic value. It should be clear that the study of philosophy has intrinsic rewards as an unlimited quest for understanding of important, challenging problems. But philosophy has further uses in deepening an education, both in college and in the many activities, professional and personal, that follow graduation.

• Understanding Other Disciplines. Philosophy is indispensable for this. Many important questions about a discipline, such as the nature of its concepts and its relation to other disciplines, do not belong to that discipline, are not usually pursued in it, and are philosophical in nature. Philosophy of science, for instance, is needed to supplement the understanding of the natural and social sciences which one derives from scientific work itself. Philosophy of literature and philosophy of history are of similar value in understanding the humanities, and philosophy of art is important in understanding the arts. Philosophy is, moreover, essential in assessing the various standards of evidence used by other disciplines. Since all fields of knowledge employ reasoning and must set standards of evidence, logic and epistemology have a general bearing on all these fields.
• Development of Sound Methods of Research and Analysis. Still another value of philosophy in education is its contribution to one's capacity to frame hypotheses, do research, and put problems into manageable form. Philosophical thinking strongly emphasizes clear formulation of ideas and problems, selection of relevant data, and objective methods for assessing ideas and proposals. It also emphasizes development of a sense of the new directions suggested by the hypotheses and questions one encounters in doing research. Philosophers regularly build on both the successes and failures of their predecessors. A person with philosophical training can readily learn to do the same in any field.

Philosophy and Non–Academic Careers

It should be stressed immediately that the non–academic value of a field of study must not be viewed mainly in terms of its contribution to obtaining one's first job after graduation. Students are understandably preoccupied with getting their first job, but even from a narrow vocational point of view it would be short–sighted to concentrate on that at the expense of developing potential for success and advancement once hired. What gets graduates initially hired may not yield promotions or carry them beyond their first position, particularly given how fast the needs of many employers alter with changes in social and economic patterns. It is therefore crucial to see beyond what a job description specifically calls for. Philosophy need not be mentioned among a job's requirements in order for the benefits derivable from philosophical study to be appreciated by the employer, and those benefits need not even be explicitly appreciated in order to be effective in helping one advance.

It should also be emphasized here that–as recent studies show–employers want, and reward, many of the capacities which the study of philosophy develops: for instance, the ability to solve problems, to communicate, to organize ideas and issues, to assess pros and cons, and to boil down complex data. These capacities represent transferable skills. They are transferable not only from philosophy to non–philosophy areas, but from one non–philosophical field to another. For that reason, people trained in philosophy are not only prepared to do many kinds of tasks; they can also cope with change, or even move into new careers, more readily than others."[1]

"In recent years, within their "Careers and Business" section papers such as the New York Times have been proclaiming the rediscovery of the philosophy major (See "Philosophers Find The Degree Pays Off in Life and Work," New York Times, December 26, 1997). Major employers of university graduates are finding that philosophy majors have finely honed analytic skills and problem solving abilities that make them extremely effective in a variety of professional careers.

According to the Times of London, in the August 15, 1998 issue, speaking specifically of philosophy in the United States :

The great virtue of philosophy is that it teaches not what to think, but how to think. It is the study of meaning, of the principles underlying conduct, thought and knowledge. The skills it hones are the ability to analyse, to question orthodoxies and to express things clearly. However arcane some philosophical texts may be – and not everybody can come to grips with the demands of Austrian logical positivism – the ability to formulate questions and follow arguments is the essence of education.

It can also be studied at many levels. In the US, where the number of philosophy graduates has increased by 5 per cent a year during the 1990s, only a very few go on to become philosophers. Their employability, at 98.9 per cent, is impressive by any standard. Philosophy has always been a good training for the law; but it is equally useful for computer scientists. In this country, the Higher Education Statistics Survey puts philosophy of science right up with medicine in its employment record for graduates.

Philosophy is, in commercial jargon, the ultimate "transferable work skill".

Why would employers in business, management, public administration, and such professions as journalism, public health, criminal justice, and the legal professions be attracted to philosophy majors?

The answer that is frequently given is that such professions find they have increasing need for candidates who are less narrowly trained, who are able to look at issues from a variety of viewpoints, who have the ability to think questions through, on the basis of sound reasoning and solid evidence."[2]

Philosophy and Graduate School Entrance Exams

Majoring in philosophy is also great preparation for taking graduate school entrance exams such as the LSAT, the GMAT, and the GRE, as this analysis by the philosophy department at Lewis and Clark College demonstrates.
Philosophy Rocks the Graduate Record Exam![3]

 "Did you know...

Students declaring an intention to go to graduate school in Philosophy score higher on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) than all but four other major fields (out of fifty recorded by the Educational Testing Service, which runs the Graduate Record Exam)? The only fields that score higher mean scores on the combined Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical sections of the GRE are (in rank order) Physics and Astronomy, Mathematical Sciences, Materials Engineering, and Chemical Engineering.

Philosophy students score higher than every other major in the Humanities and Arts, higher than every major in the Social Science, higher than every major in the Life Sciences, higher than every major in Education, higher than every major in Business, and higher than every major listed under "Other Fields." In fact, Philosophy students score higher than four out of the six majors listed in Physical Sciences, and five out of the seven listed in Engineering.

Students declaring an intention to go to graduate school in Philosophy have the highest mean scores on the Verbal section of the GRE than any other major in any of the fields listed (mean score: 589). English majors also score well on this section (mean score: 561), but not as good a Philosophy majors do! Honorable mention goes to History majors in this category (mean score: 546). Philosophy majors simply blew away other popular majors in this area (compare Foreign Languages at 526, Political Science at 517, Religion and Theory at 516, Sociology at 479, and Psychology at 479). Not surprisingly, dead last in this category were Accounting majors, who got a dismal mean of 408 in Verbal. The best score outside of the Humanities and Arts in this category was Physics, with a Verbal mean of 545.

Students declaring an intention to go to graduate school in Philosophy get the third highest mean scores of any major on the Analytical section of the GRE (mean: 625). The only higher majors in this area were Physics and Astronomy (mean: 646) and Mathematical Sciences (mean: 635). Philosophy majors scored better in this area than every major in the life Sciences, Engineering, Social Sciences, Education, Business, and "Other Fields," as well as every other major in the Humanities.

Students declaring an intention to go to graduate school in Philosophy score much higher in the Quantitative section of the GRE than any of the other Humanities. Compare the mean scores of Philosophy students in Quantitative (593) with English (524) or History (532), for examples, who are the next best two in the Humanities in this area. Not surprisingly, majors in the Physical Sciences and Engineering do better in this area than Philosophy students do. But Philosophy students do better here than every major in the Life Sciences, Education, and "Other Fields," and all but one of the majors in Social Science (Economics students do well here, with mean scores of 660 in this area), and all but the Banking and Finance students in the Business area (whose majors get a mean score of 606 in Quantitative). Compare Philosophy students' mean score in Quantitative of 593 with Accounting majors, who get a mean of 513 in this area. Aren't they supposed to know math?

Thinking of going into Law? Compare the GRE mean scores with other popular pre–Law majors: Philosophy (overall mean: 1807), Political Science (overall mean: 1641), Communications (overall mean: 1505), Public Administration (overall mean: 1450). Now, which looks to you to be the best training for pre–Law? None of these majors did better than Philosophy students on any of the three sections of the GRE.

Want a major that will prepare you very broadly for whatever kind of challenge you might face later in life? All things considered, averaging the rank order in each of the areas of the GRE, Philosophy does better than any other major of the fifty listed. Tell that to your Mom and Dad, when they ask what good a philosophy major is!"[4]

Please contact the Philosophy Department´s undergraduate adviser to learn more about majoring in philosophy.