Philosophy Major? Fries With That?
Well, that's not impossible, but philosophy tops the humanities in expected salaries according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. So in addition to the real project -- learning to think and understand -- your kids might actually get a decent job, too.
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"expected", eh?
Lot of room for maneuver there.
Sure, but I don't know a better standard for the future. Past performance is no guarantee, and all that.
Philosophy requires differentiating between fine shades of meaning and engaging in very abstract thought. People who can't do that are weeded out, or wander away into less difficult subjects.
Which is not to say that they are wise. Not only philosophy students, but philosophers themselves, can talk themselves into some remarkably stupid stuff. This likely stems from a childhood of having no decent opposition in arguments, and thus believing they are always right. I liken it to being able to screw in a screw that is cross-threaded by brute force.
Thus, of the many humanities and soft sciences one might pick, the philosophy majors at least have raw candlepower, which they can sometimes put to good use in more practical fields.
That's all true. One runs into the worst ideas in philosophy, sometimes. Systems of thought are dangerous on their own -- the clearest example is Marxism, but it pertains to any systematic mode of thought. Once you have internalized the system, the fact that it coheres when you force the rest of life into its frame can make it seem as if you've accurately described the world.
And one does need to do practical things as well as philosophy. For one thing, they make your philosophy better. But the remark reminds me of the three "rules" of class consciousness on education we were just talking about at your place. For the poor, education is suppoed to be valued and revered in the abstract but not realtiy. For the middle class, it is to be valued for climbing the latter of practical success. For the rich, necessary as a tradition for maintaining connections with others in the class.
Yet for Aristotle, the reason to pursue education -- especially into metaphysics, the first philosophy -- is the one he gives in his opening sentence: "All men, by nature, desire to know." Education isn't meant to be practical in the sense of being for something else. The reason to pursue everything else is so that you can pursue coming to know.
Possibly you can tell the wise from the merely smart by whether or not they have internalized that distinction. Possibly not. I haven't decided what I think about that.
Great education, obviously much better than other humanities choices, but still no competition for an engineering degree. If one can afford to go to grad school, and plans a degree there that will likely assure a good income, then a Philosophy undergrad degree would be my recommendation if it's at a good school that's not lost in the modern ridiculousness.
"Yet for Aristotle, the reason to pursue education -- ..."
Is that education - as in at an institution of higher learning- or knowledge? I hold that one should seek to gather knowledge at all opportunities, in or outside of an institution ostensibly designed to facilitate such things. More a way of life than a vocation.
Well, modern institutions didn't exist for Aristotle. The Academy existed, and he was there for a long time. But I think he meant -- always, everywhere, whatever you do is for the purpose of enabling the life of contemplation. He also valued the active life, by which he meant the life of politics and war, but in large part because it enabled the contemplative life.
So the practical serves the theoretical, if you like. We don't theorize and try to understand in order to do practical tasks better, for Aristotle. We do practical tasks to provide the right environment and adequate resources to enable our attempt to know and understand reality.
Indeed, and that would seem to be an argument against the modern university, where students continue not being part of the practical world, but remain isolated in the theoretical world- the old ivory tower problem. Frankly, I'd he quite happy if my children choose to work or do something else productive (mission work, say) for a few years before going to college.
It's always worth remembering that Aristotle's most famous student was Alexander the Great, who conquered the known world. If you flip the switch on putting the practical ahead of the theoretical, a lot can be done with it -- at least, if the theory is as insightful about human nature as Aristotle's.
The thought prisons that are American public and higher education, doesn't allow an Alexander the Great. They would put that guy on so many meds, he'd be fried at the end of one term. Won't take a spear on a siege wall to kill em, they'll willingly suicide due to depression from so many 'learning disabilities'.
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