Q: What can you do with your training in Philosophy?
A: Anything you want, and you can do it better! Here are three reasons why.
1. Philosophy graduates consistently outperform graduates from all other liberal arts or social sciences disciplines on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), and the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). [See Profile of Graduate Management Admission Test Candidates: Five Year Summary 1994-1999, Graduate Management Admissions Council; Guide to the Graduate Record Examination Program 1996-1997, Education Testing Service.]
Indeed, philosophers bested business students on the GMAT (average mean score of 582 to 508) and bested both political science and pre-law students on the LSAT. (In terms of average scores among members of disciplines on the LSAT, Physics did best, Philosophy/Religion was 2nd, Political Science 18th, and Pre-Law 28th). [See Nieswiadomy, M. 1998. "LSAT Scores of Economics Majors," Journal of Economic Education 29:4. pg. 377-379.]
Accordingly, those who graduate with a degree in philosophy often find careers in:
-Law Journalism and Publishing
-Education Government
-Ministry Computer Science
-Medicine (especially psychiatric medicine)
-Business (especially management and advertising)
Because philosophy is such good preparation for careers in these fields, I recommend that students interested in these fields add philosophy as a second major.
2. According to The Times (August 15, 1998, "THINK ON: Philosophy is a Quintessentially Modern Discipline"), 98.9% of those with an undergraduate philosophy degree are employed. Mind you, most of these graduates do not go on to be philosophy professors; instead they become successful in other fields, typically one of those mentioned above. Moreover, the kinds of skills that philosophy students bring to the workforce are increasingly in demand from employers. [See The Guardian, November 20, 2007.] Among the liberal arts, philosophy appears to do the best job of developing what are often referred to as transferable skills (reasoning logically, evaluating information usefully, arguing effectively, and communicating well in speech and writing). Transferable skills enable students to perform well on high-stakes tests and in positions of authority in the workplace. In many other disciplines, the transferable skills are developed and relied upon; however, they are not the subject of consistent focus the way they are in philosophy. Therefore, training in philosophy can help students achieve success in any other discipline. Students who are not primarily interested in the fields listed above are still encouraged to minor in philosophy at the very least.
3. It is clear then that philosophers are eminently employable; however, philosophy does more than prepare one for employment. A third reason to study philosophy is to contribute to the common good in a special, indispensable way. German philosopher Josef Pieper writes:
After we have accomplished, with an admirable amount of intelligence and hard work, all that is necessary, after we have provided for the basic needs of life, produced the essential foodstuff, protected the realm of life itself -- after all this, what is the meaning of the life itself that we have thus made possible? How do we define a truly human life? To ask this challenging question in the midst of all our accomplishments as we establish ourselves in this world, to keep this question alive through honest and precise reasoning: this is the fundamental task of philosophy, its specific contribution to the common good... (taken from Josef Pieper: An Anthology, p. 111)