For the Love of Wisdom

by Peter Saint-Andre

2004-02-06

Tyler Cowan links to a story about a call from the executive director of the American Philosophical Association for career success stories from former philosophy majors. All that the normally-astute Prof. Cowan can say is "good luck". Please, professor, keep the snarky comments to a minimum: the study of philosophy is great preparation for lots of careers other than taxi driver. Heck, it's even helped me be a successful protocol geek (though I think my other major -- Greek -- has played a part too).

That said, I find it a bit sad that the only criterion that the APA values is career success. Whatever happened to living a reflective life, coming to understand oneself and the human experience, achieving happiness? There's more to life than one's career (says I, the workaholic). But I suppose that most modern-day philosophers would prefer to argue about symbolic logic than to dig deep into the big issues of life.


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