What is Philosophy? What is the idea?
Study the great thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to Darwin and Einstein.
Discuss the deepest problems. Are you a mind plus a body? Is your brain/mind
a computer? Can computers think? Can they do anything creative? Are all your
actions physically determined? Are you responsible for your actions? Must
anything that thinks have a language to think in? What is the best form of
government? Where do human rights come from? What aesthetic values should inform
our city planning?
Want to learn the big ideas? Plato's world of Forms? How Kant's Copernican
Revolution turned the world inside out? How Marx turned Hegel on his head? How
Darwinian evolution replaces intelligent design by monkeys at typewriters? Why
Nietzsche said that God is dead? How to think in the post-modern world?
Want to grasp leading theories of the universe? What does it matter for us
whether the universe is intelligently designed or a big accident, whether moral
principles are built into nature or entirely made up by us, whether the universe
is mechanical or organic, deterministic or indeterministic?
Want to learn to read and think at a deeper level? Can you recognize the
common fallacies that are committed in our presence every day? Can you "cut
through the crap" to grasp the core moves being made in a speech?
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Fact: Philosophy majors, on average, perform
far better than most other students on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), taken
by aspiring grad students. (The attached table is an eye-opener.)
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Fact: Computers are based on developments in
logic by such philosophers and mathematicians as Bertrand Russell and Alan
Turing.
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Fact: Philosophy is been a traditional route
into the law.
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Fact: Medical schools prefer majors in a
traditional "hard" discipline such as philosophy to pre-med majors in health
sciences.
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Fact: Many of our students have philosophy as
a second major or as a minor. Consider physics and philosophy, biology and
philosophy, math and philosophy, English and philosophy, history and
philosophy, even business and philosophy. So if you are already in love with
your major, think of philosophy as a second major or a minor.
Employment opportunities: Wide open!
Can you think of a position in which sharp, critical reading, listening, and
thinking will get you a promotion? Business leaders from bankers to engineers
say that the most important thing that a good employee possesses is an ability
to read, write, and think critically--to think for herself and to teach herself
new techniques! No major/minor teaches you to do these things better than
philosophy. Very few philosophy majors and minors aim to be college professors.
Most hold positions in the legal, business, government and healthcare worlds. Today, as technology
advances, many positions are opening up in professional ethics, e.g.,
environmental, business, medical, and legal ethics. And keep in mind this
additional . . .
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Fact: While current "technical" knowledge is
certainly important in some fields of employment, those fields will change
significantly with the next ten years. The most important thing is to be
able to adapt--to be able to figure out things for yourself and to learn new
things. Everyone knows that rather few people end up in the professional
fields that they majored in. So why do so many students think that a good
job is closely connected with a college major? A great many jobs out there
don't even correspond to a definite college major. Plus, your second and
third job (moving up the ladder, we hope, rather than toward Skid Row!) is
increasingly likely to be different from your major.
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Fact: Philosophy isn't the easiest major. But
you get out of your education what you put into it. Your education is an
investment in the rest of your life. Prepare to adapt yourself to a rapidly
changing world--and get a good, liberal education to boot!
American Philosophical Association Publications
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