Major in philosophy - worth it?

University of Barcelona

>
>University of Barcelona
No.

It wasn't a question

>That being said if it's just for a BA; then fuck no.

Fucking this. BA is bloody kindergarten with the amount of clueless thickskull you see floating in from High School because they heard of Nietzsche one time.
I say this as someone who graduated from one of the top departments in Europe.

Go for a practical degree for you Bachelor degree then transfer to graduate philosophy if you are inclined.

In a good country, yeah pretty good

Too bad he turned out to be a Spaniard

I guess, but imagine it'd be worse if he was american

>Its a Europoor doesn't understand superior American Education episode

Nah, but europe is _generally_ kinder to arts majors

I am philosopher.

Why? Couldn't be a better country to study Philosophy.

I'm Spaniard, got a Philosophy degree and work teaching in highschool. There's no job with better holidays and work schedule. Wage is decent and I won't be fired.

I'm just memeing, I got no fucking clue what the departments are like in northern maghreb

Major in something more useful careerwise if you're paying for it. Work on philosophy in your own time and try to get published with papers or literature while you're still in uni.

If not, just study both. That's what I'm doing and it's great.

please dispel the notion that you can pursue philosophy in your "free time" when studying something "practical"

you have serious delusions if you think you can study something like computer science while also engaging in something as complex and intricate as modern continental philosophy and still retain something resembling sanity

Excuse me? I may be 15 but I've already read Infinite Jest from cover to cover twice. I'm really mature for my age. Favorite philosophers are Hitchens, Sagan and Dawkins.

Hahaha I GUARANTEE you this guy is either a philosophy major with no job or a stem major who plays computer games during all of his free time and says he "can't find time" to read philosophy. Or he's just low IQ because modern philosophy is not hard to read at all.

Yeah it's a useless degree so kind of a luxury good that you bought with the best years of your life. That's certainly a statement. Also whenever you didn't pay attention people will think you just had deep thoughts instead, instantly befriending you and asking you about Plato and what's this other french guy's name and shit.

Computer science is piss easy man

Anything is piss easy if you do it at the level that is needed to pass the tests.

If you want to do anything to a high level you need to concentrate on it.

Sure but we're talking about just getting a stable job here when its just your bread and butter.

If you understand what you read and can comment on it without being a total retard, yes. Most philosophy students lack this, thats why after graduating they cry "omg I dont have a job I got ripped off le system sucks dont study philosophy guize"

After reading this, I would reccomend you to not major in philosophy

If you must ask yourself this question, then the answer is no.

Sadler says to double major is best. I
agree with him. Search for it on YouTube.

What are you guys on? There's plenty of worse majors out there. It's particularly good if you're going into law. IIRC philosophy majors have the highest chance of passing the BAR.

Inb4 if you don't study business, econ or comp sci your degree is worthless.

If you're going into law then sure, but nobody is going to hire a fucking philosophy grad for anything except as a barista.

Also understand your major doesn't matter going into law so you can say the same thing about anything.

>but nobody is going to hire a fucking philosophy grad for anything except as a barista.

This is deluded. There's a lot of business related jobs out there that can't rely on direct degree qualification.
A Philosophy degree in that context if nothing else says you got a fucking head on you at least over the other hoopleheads in the stack

Do you have a plan for it afterwards? Going into academia? Law? It isn't the wisest financial or career decision today, so think very carefully. You could major in something more practical and study philosophy on the side as a passion.

I have witnessed entire groups of normies laughing behind the back of philosophy majors. It's a massive meme and you won't contribute anything of value unless you're both genius IQ and work 70 hours a week and even then you still won't probably contribute anything of value but at least you have a shot.

People make fun of philosophy majors becoming baristas for a reason, because it's true. Philosophy only teaches you why to live, it doesn't teach you how to get a job. You need to learn how to get a job AND why to live.

This is also the kind of job where if you need to be convinced to do it, you probably will never succeed. You'll only succeed if you're willing to do it with everybody telling you an idiot, if you also fart talent, and are a genius, and work hard.

Becoming a professional philosopher is an even more meme career track than trying to become a professional musician and that says a lot. At least there is some demand for shitty musicians to do local live acts.

>You could major in something more practical and study philosophy on the side as a passion.
I am too lazy to do anything, if there is no "challenge" like "pass this exam or else you wasted your money" etc

Not really. It says that you'd rather study esoteric bullshit instead of something practical

>Law
lol philosophy doesn't prepare you at all for the study of law.

It's the same shit but with different texts

Fuck no its not. You don't learn about zoning regulations, child protective services, or contract negotiations by reading fucking plato. It's absolute horse shit. The only benefit of majoring in philosophy is you get training wheels for reading a shit load of dense and boring books you don't agree with. This is fucking stupid, you don't even start getting to make choices based on philosophic theory until you become a judge, and that is a small percentage of the lawyering community, and even then they do not get to just chose any ideology, they are forced on very narrow paths when they make decisions. I know so many classmates with degrees in philosophy and I know more about philosophy just by shitposting on Veeky Forums than they know after 4 years of study. It's absolute horse shit

>you still won't probably contribute anything of value but at least you have a shot.

That's the hardest pill for people to swallow, literally everything can go right, you get a tenure tracked professorship at one of the top universities... and you could die tomorrow after publishing your 100th paper with zero citations, nobody outside of your department even knew of your existence and your obituary in the student paper is probably your parents commenting on your worthlessness.

>didn't read my post

>you get training wheels for reading a shit load of dense and boring books you don't agree with

Guess what studying law is like?

Ah, I read "same shit" as the same content with "different texts" being the medium of communication. But as it turns out, you meant the act of doing as the "same shit" with "different texts" meaning a change in content.
I am sorry friend for the miscommunication.

Read Stoner.

No problem friendo, as long as you realize

If you plan on majoring in Philosophy then start reading right fucking now. Preferably with the Greeks.

Don't listen to all these muh pragmatism faggots. They adhere to a shit philosophy of life. If you're serious about philosophy, then go for it.

cont

Make sure that you go to a good university too.

I also agree with this sentiment, you literally WILL NOT succeed at philosophy if you limit yourself to what school teaches you. That's just allowing school to serve as a young adult daycare for you essentially.

If you wanted to actually succeed in philosophy it needs to be such a passion school should seem constraining.

Major in Philosophy, but try to get a second major or a minor in something more employable unless you have some really good connections or a bunch of wealth to fall back on.

Or just study for the LSAT starting your junior year, and then smash it because of your amazing reading comprehension and logical capabilities.

Also, as a side note, studying philosophy on an amateur level can be every bit as rewarding as studying it academically. But you will need to have a lot of free time because it's NOT EASY STUFF.

Anyone can "study" philosophy. Understanding philosophy is not easy and will likely require you to rethink everything about your life and reality. Also, Philosophical writing is some of the most dense out there.

>he's never heard of cognitive science
Look at him, look at him and laugh.

Id also recommend learning another language. I'm a monolingual cuck but atm im learning French and Greek.

Seeing as OP is Spanish, he obviously speaks Spanish and English already which is a better start than most.

For philosophy, there are 5 key language that are the most important. Greek, Latin, French, English and German. Italian I'd put 6th, but personally some of my favourite works have been written in Italian. Unfortunately Spanish has not been known historically as a very influential philosophical language, but there are likely many texts that are excellent regardless.

Dont expect to become a scholar of a non-English/non-Spanish speaking philosopher if you dont speak/read the language.

Cont

However, as a Spanish speaker, you could just do a thesis on a largely obscure writer no one has heard of.

>For philosophy, there are 5 key language that are the most important. Greek, Latin, French, English and German.

Eh, the reason why people learn French in philosophy is because a lot of French philosophy isn't translated into English, but most German philosophy is.

That's not the point. Translations, particularly in philosophy, are generally not all that reliable, particularly at an academic level.

>worth it?
if you'll have to pay for it and you aren't rich, then no
do you crave a lavish lifestyle and/or job security? then don't do it
also, don't even bother studying philosophy if you aren't going to a top university

>if you don't study business, econ or comp sci your degree is worthless.

who says this?

My mom.

Try it, nigga. What's the worst thing that can happen?

>don't even bother studying philosophy if you aren't going to a top university

Not the best advice. Rutgers and Pitt, neither of which are top universities, have some of the best philosophy depts in the world.

This.
"Not having time" is fucking bullshit. I'm studying for a master's degree in CS, yet I still find just enough time to read philosophy. You'd be surprised at how much time you can save if you stop playing video games and watching TV.

If you want a degree that is practical, yet still forces you to think creatively and rationally, I'm gonna go against the grain and say that MATH could be an excellent degree for the kind of person you are. I'm a CS graduate who has worked on many projects with both mathematicians and physicists. Trust me, math is not at all as useless as most people claim. It's actually one of the most versatile degrees, and one of the few that makes you truly think. Furthermore, as others have said, nothing is preventing you from studying philosophy in your free time.

I second this OP. Don't listen to the cowards in this thread. You have one life as far as you know, so choose wisely. If you have to toil after you graduate in shit jobs until you figure out how to monetize your creativity, it will have been worth it, much more so than living comfortably and biding your time.

"But where danger is, grows
The saving power also."

haha xD

Added not: study math while you are at it. Continue the legacy of the greeks; do not believe postmodernist lies.

No

*Added note
;3

whats your plan after graduating? if you don't have a plan, just do something more """"useful""" and read philosophy on your on my dude, internet is at your service.

Majoring in political science was worth it. Can't tell you much about philosophy.

>Majoring in political science was worth it.

I seriously doubt that

Philosophy will do one thing for you. It will teach you how to die, and how to die like a man. It will teach you how to lay down your life for a cause. It will teach you not to yield the victory.

Learning how to die is one of the best things I ever did. Stop fearing death and you can live however you want.

It may have taught you how to die, but did it teach you how to live without a job?

No that's something that I never needed to be taught, because I've never shied from work, even the most taxing kind.

well what do you want to after it? IMO if you know you want to go into law Philosophy is the best undergrad to have.

LEARN
A
TRADE

Are you in Law? I was always curious, what do Lawyers do when they know there is a huge scandal in the works, just waiting to be uncovered? Do they circle the waters like they've been chummed? Are they already hard at work trying to exploit/control damage? What happens when something is 'just' beneath the surface, waiting to explode onto the scene, and its the biggest case in a long time, and to the inner circles of firms, its no secret? What happens with this kind of stuff?

well in capitalist society you might as well be dead from how society will judge you.

Tell me, how does society judge a man who refuses to sink because he knows how to swim?

Depends if they term the locomotion as swimming

Let me simplify it for you. A man keeps his head above water through every effort he can. As a result he does not die. Some of the things he did to keep his head above that water some people might find wrong. For example, maybe someone threw him a life preserver, and then he never returned it. Why? He'll die if he does. He must get to safety first. How does society judge this "thief" who merely wants to survive?

if it is shit

This thread seems dead, but I gotta ask what jobs do maths majors get that isn't related to computers and stuff? Would I have to major in statistics or something to do non-computer work?

I'm double majoring in Biochemistry and Philosophy, looking to eventually attend medical school.
Nearly all the other philosophy majors are pre-law, and the few I've met that aren't are either hoping to enter a Catholic seminary or go into academia.
If you really love it and don't mind being poor, I'd say do it. If it's something you enjoy and you can make it fit into plans toward something more lucrative, such as med school or law school, then go for it. If it's just an interest and you're not sure what you want to do, stay away unless you change your mind.

Is it reasonable for someone to major and take classes in something practical, but also attend every philosophy lecture without enrolling in them? Can you get caught for doing that?

Even if you go to a school with a large enough philosophy program that you could blend into a lecture hall for a few months, after a semester or two the professors will start to notice.
At my university, the philosophy program consists of only about 100 students, and outside of phil 101 classes that every major has to take, each class only has 15-20 students in it.

So if I wanted to crash a course on something esoteric like Philosophy of Modern Physics then I would have to lie my way through the semester?

Yes. The only classes that you could stay hidden in would be the lowest level courses that mostly serve as prerequisites for other majors.
In the classes I take for my philosophy major, the professor has a fairly close relationship with each student and usually teaches that student through multiple courses before they finish.

That sounds like it might be an awesome experience