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FEEDBACK
Why Philosophy?
- Train your brain. Philosophy, more perhaps than any other discipline,
emphasizes the skill of critical thinking. Philosophy develops your
ability to analyze and really work through tough problems. Being trained
in this sort of high-level thinking is useful in your life in general.
Also, it is the sort of skill employers look for. In the face-paced
business world of today, employers are more interested in people who
can think than in people who have very job-specific skills. Employers
hire those who have taken philosophy because those people tend to be
good problem-solvers who are flexible and can acquire new knowledge
easily. Philosophy majors score higher than most other majors on standardized
tests such as the GMATs, LSATs, and GREs. Philosophy is excellent preparation
for law school, business school, medical professions, education, science,
management, etc.
- Get a chance to tackle "Big Questions". Philosophy
is the discipline that confronts head-on some of those "Big Questions"
that might come up when you are not busy with life itself -- Big Questions
such as: "What is there, really?" "What is the meaning of life?" "What
can I know?" "What is it to have a mind?" "Does God exist?" and "If
He does, why am I stuck in traffic?" All of us at one time or another
wonder about these kinds of questions. In a philosophy class, you finally
get to work through the answers some of the great thinkers have come
up with and you get to test out your own responses. You have a once-in-a-lifetime
chance in college to do this. After graduation, you usually don't get
much chance to do the kind of reflecting that philosophy allows you
to do. Plus, it's fun.
- Learn a tradition. When you learn philosophy, you enter into a more than 2,000-year-old tradition of thought. It would be hard to call yourself a truly educated person if you never took a philosophy course. Philosophy provides the basis for all other disciplines in the university. So, when you are seeking a college degree, you should think about including the first discipline-philosophy.
