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Careers in Philosophy (related occupations)

i find a huge connection between drugs and philosophy but then again im kind of obsessed with acid from habing an insane trip when i was like 15 lol
 
Rogue- I am not yet in school but I will be enrolling in the fall semester. I am sorry if i come of as someone that is getting ahead of themselves, but i would like to have a general idea of what i should be doing with myself. And i figure that this community could be of great help to me.

To me, philosophy and drug use are very interconnected. I enjoy drugs because of the shift in consciousness that they induce. I am most concerned with the philosophy of the mind and eastern/shamanistic metaphysics. Ethics are not a very big interest of mine. My whole motivation for education is to further myself on my path of seeking the truth.

I really hope that i haven't been contradicting myself on this thread. Thanks for all the great posts!
 
I studied the Theory, Aesthetics, and History of film in school, and received my BA in it a couple years ago. This is not that far from a philosophy degree. I haven't been able to find a job in anything resembling my field since graduating. Now with the recession, I've pretty much given up. I should have gone into air conditioner repair! :(
 
^ Damn thats no good. But by the time I am in a position to finish a degree the recession should be coming to an end. Dear god I hope so.
 
Oh no, film studies. No, there are indeed no jobs in film studies (there are very, very few academic jobs in film studies even)

Film studies, as well as philosophy, is the kind of thing where you either want to really, really shoot for academia, or make sure you have another major which will allow you to get an actual job.
 
yeh lol...those degrees are literally not worth the paper they're printed on... but i wouldn't condemn anyone for studying them, because hey, we are all funneled through this absurd society in an assortment of gauntlets. it's all about how you feel what you do on the everyday level...fuck careerism... but i still dont understand the logic of majoring in arts except for languages, maybe poli-sci too, international development, at least with those you can work for the gov't or UN or something... but why do you expect anyone to care you know a lot about descartes or the history of the longbow or something...
 
Film studies, as well as philosophy, is the kind of thing where you either want to really, really shoot for academia
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What sucks is that I never intended to shoot for academia. I don't particularly like going to school, and I sure as hell don't want to spend another four years of hard work and a ton of money getting a PHD. I wouldn't want to be a teacher anyhow. I just wanted to get a degree in a humanities field because that is what I'm interested in and better at, and because I wished to avoid any math prerequisites.

BTW, entheo, don't let my experiences discourage you from studying philosophy or the humanities. I know plenty of people who have thrived after getting such degrees, and they are quite happy with their decision. They were motivated as hell, though.
 
You have a good attitude about learning, entheo.

I discovered University a bit later than you. Let me tell ya, I feel like I've just stumbled onto an amazing outdoor party after wandering about in the woods for years.

My only regret is that I would've started my University degree sooner. I wasted 3 years in C.C. getting a 3.5GPA and wondering why I'm letting my school direct my career, when I could be directing it myself.

School is great. You're going to do fine.
 
i find school to be a deeply hateful thing. i really wish i could find this amazing college fun-house that everyone keeps talking about. seems more like a buncn of jockish preps id like to smash if i was bigger and stronger lol
 
I'm a philosophy major as well. But I'm only in the Philosophy program in the Liberal Arts College at my University (Arizona State) because its a great way to get introduced to everything that's on the LSATs (ie: symbolic logic, proving things true/false) and for Law School in general. Its a great way to show your good with writing, and language, so you can learn to think like a lawyer (great foundation).

But for neuroscience, etc, I'd think you'd need a medical degree if your talking about clinical trials, but pharmacology you would need a masters program to get much of a job I'd think. Any research needs at least some amount of grad school - same with professorships.

Also, I'd like to let you know right now that being a Philosophy major takes some dedication. You gotta rough it out through ethics classes, and such which can be terribly boring. I'm in an Existential Ethics class that is pretty fun - the great thing is that most of your philosophy classes end up as discussion ones. So you won't get a lot of test bullshit and in stead a lot of readings / papers. Its not bad though, I love the professors I have in my program. Great fun in class getting into heated debates.

I think once you get through the rough upper division ethics classes you'll be onto some fun stuff. The lower division classes are amazing. I absolutely loved PHI 101. Can't help but remember all the times I shut down my classmates in arguments about the most incredibly diverse topics. We once debated whether males were actually better than females (power structure) that was a great one - friend of mine essentially killed all hopes he had with the girls in that class by saying that women need to submit to men and do all their wishes. hahaha, great class.

Most of your tests, etc, will be multiple choice. You'll have a blast if you like the subject material, but you gotta really like it to have fun, otherwise its just like "wtf am I doing, this is boring literature I'm spending 24/7 of my time reading."
 
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^^
Are you kidding me? You have philosophy classes which set multiple choice exams as assessment items? That is ridiculous - you can't assess philosophy with a multiple choice exam.

A philosophy exam where there is one unambiguously correct answer? What a crock of shit.
 
satricion said:
^^
Are you kidding me? You have philosophy classes which set multiple choice exams as assessment items? That is ridiculous - you can't assess philosophy with a multiple choice exam.

A philosophy exam where there is one unambiguously correct answer? What a crock of shit.
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Haha, no reason to get all pissed off about it. At the end of the day you still need a way to assess someone's knowledge of the material.
 
Just out of curiosity; does anyone know of any schools that have good philosophy, ancient history, or world religion programs?
 
DarkCode said:
Haha, no reason to get all pissed off about it. At the end of the day you still need a way to assess someone's knowledge of the material.
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Absolutely, and the only way to do that is to set an analytical essay. Even if you do it in an exam context where people have a couple of hours to write one or two essays. Multiple choice exams don't assess philosophy, they assess rote learning, which is the opposite of philosophy.
 
I think satiricon is spot on.

My advice would be to take philosophy for the metaphysics, psychology for the individual perspective, sociology or anthropology for a broader social perspective, and then something different, maybe history, maybe neuroscience, maybe a language, maybe art history or something like that.
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Lawl. You're suggesting the exact thing that I did in undergrad (majors in psychology, philosophy, and sociology). I'll also note that I did most of my research in cognitive psychology, in a sub-area that happened to require near no background in bio or chem. Applying to an academic-track psych program was easily within reach.
...
As an aside, I think that soc and anthro should rejoin at this point.

gp said:
Contemporary philosophy in the US is not patty-cake...there are some VERY sharp people involved and the methodologies people use are very rigorous.
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we must take care to prevent methodological rigor from turning into methodological dogmatism.

ebola
 
ebola? said:
I think satiricon is spot on.



Lawl. You're suggesting the exact thing that I did in undergrad (majors in psychology, philosophy, and sociology). I'll also note that I did most of my research in cognitive psychology, in a sub-area that happened to require near no background in bio or chem. Applying to an academic-track psych program was easily within reach.
...
As an aside, I think that soc and anthro should rejoin at this point.
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As an aside to your aside, I think this is already happening.
 
satricion said:
Absolutely, and the only way to do that is to set an analytical essay. Even if you do it in an exam context where people have a couple of hours to write one or two essays. Multiple choice exams don't assess philosophy, they assess rote learning, which is the opposite of philosophy.
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At the end of the day are you going to debate with your professor whether you should have a multiple choice exam or a multiple essay exam?

The discussion in class is where the fun comes from. The assessment part, if you ask most Philosophy professors, is something they frown upon, but they have to give you some sort of grades.
 
I think everyone in University should be required to take Bio 101 and Chem 101. I'm terrible at math and I find these courses to be absolutely crucial to understanding life and the world around you. Why anyone would skip out on these is beyond me. Even if they are in an arts or social science degree.

That said, I resent the math prerequisite to any science related course.
 
Kyk said:
I think everyone in University should be required to take Bio 101 and Chem 101. I'm terrible at math and I find these courses to be absolutely crucial to understanding life and the world around you. Why anyone would skip out on these is beyond me. Even if they are in an arts or social science degree.

That said, I resent the math prerequisite to any science related course.
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I definitely agree about the whole Bio 101 and Chem 101. But it should be Bio 100 or Chem 100 instead. Those are non-major courses, and pretty much cover everything that you should know or really need to know to have a basic understanding. You can't ask for very much attention from students when its a general ed class.

I hated taking my math class, I took MAT 210. Brief Calculus. That was terrible. I'm a philosophy major, the amount of math I'm going to have to do years down the road dealing with Law is so little. Then again, I did take a higher level class than I was required to take for my degree. I can't imagine the people in the like MAT 142 or 147 classes doing basic functions.
 
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