Uni Stuff => Faculties => Arts => Topic started by: Dejan on April 23, 2015, 08:44:53 am
Title: Careers in philosophy
Post by: Dejan on April 23, 2015, 08:44:53 am
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!
Title: Re: Careers in philosophy
Post by: slothpomba on April 25, 2015, 10:55:53 pm
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.