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March 28, 2024, 07:40:26 pm

Author Topic: Careers in philosophy  (Read 5085 times)  Share 

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Dejan

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Careers in philosophy
« on: April 23, 2015, 08:44:53 am »
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Hey all, recently I have taken a real interest in philosophy because I have really enjoyed the philosophy units I am taking and it got me wondering, would a philosophy major be enough to get a job in philosophy? I know this may be a broad question but I just want to know what I am working with. Also, how does someone become a philosopher? What qualifications are required to meet the criteria?. If it requires post-grad, what are good universities for post-grad philosophy? (Willing to go international). Sorry for asking many questions. Thanks! 

slothpomba

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Re: Careers in philosophy
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2015, 10:55:53 pm »
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An undergraduate degree usually isn't enough for a job in much unless there's kind of an explicit promise you'll be qualified at the end (law, medicine, dentistry, nursing, engineering, etc).

To be a professional philosopher you would almost certainly need a PhD. This would allow you to teach inside universities and do research. Of course, there is no promise of a job at the end of it. Alternatively, you could be an author but its quite the struggle to initially get published and even more-so to be successful. The only other career that is directly related which i can think of is teaching it in a highschool setting (there is VCE philosophy).

If you look at a lot of the top professors, they were either rather talented/lucky here or went abroad to the most respected institutions to get their PhD (Cambridge, oxford, etc).  I assume there are more philosophy PhD's in training by professors than there are spots for professors. A professor may train 10 students who want to take his one job eventually. Of course, you can see this is rather unsustainable.

The vast majority of people with a major in philosophy end up in other fields but it still is possible (albeit not likely) to end up in a field that is directly related to it.


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