Philosophy - FAQ

1. What is “Philosophy,” anyway?

Philosophy is what philosophers do. They gamble. Plato once wrote that “wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.” I like this. Philosophers are not satisfied with the random coming and going of wonder as a feeling, so they actively look for things to wonder about. They make a practice of it. Children often show this same propensity to wonder when they ask questions like: What happens when you die? Why is the sky blue? What makes the earth turn? Why is it wrong to lie or steal? Will time ever end? What we call becoming an adult, even an educated adult, has less to do with learning answers to such questions and more to do with learning not to ask them. Outgrowing the childish practice of wondering might not trouble us much if it were not for the fact that a lot of what we think and believe as adults is the result of habit, conformity, convenience, and inertia. This quiet, passive sedimentation of thought is what Socrates, Plato’s mentor, called the unexamined life, which he thought was not worth living. To examine life, by sustaining the practice of wonder, is to live a life that shows gratitude for the gifts of imagination, intellect, and conscience. This often yields personal rewards of purpose, fulfillment, and exhilaration. The practice of wonder can also generate entirely new insights for our collective understanding of reality and our place in it. Profound revolutions in the history of ideas (physics, psychology, biology, mathematics, politics, and more) often originate from a philosophical question. So, while Plato said that philosophy begins in wonder, he did not say exactly where it ends. I like to think he deliberately left this out, because he knew that philosophy is a gamble. Sometimes the practice of wonder ends in idle talk and speculation, sometimes it ends by casting light on the army of unseen prejudices that culture marches through our heads, sometimes it ends in a radical transformation of life and mind. It’s hard to know in advance, and that’s the gamble.

 

2. OK, but how can philosophical discussions be anything more than simply sharing our diverse perspectives?

I’ve heard there are no right or wrong answers in philosophy – it’s just about what you believe. Careful, there! When you say “just,” it sounds like you mean “merely,” and philosophers hesitate to use terms because they usually oversimplify and thus distort the truth. This question is a case in point. “Philosophy” can refer to “a philosophy,” meaning a framework or lens through which one views their life, but it can also mean a number of other things, including the activity of inquiring into questions of meaning, value, logic, and ultimate reality, and developing answers to those questions. And in such inquiry, there are certainly answers that we can all agree are better justified than others. As for “right and wrong answers” in Philosophy, it’s important to keep in mind that much of what we learn—especially in the early stages of our education—consists of useful approximations of the truth (think, for example, of how in K-12 history classes, you often study the same events over and over again, but each time, with added layers of detail and complexity that you couldn’t have possibly handled in those earlier stages). But those useful approximations are only useful for so long, and eventually need to be replaced as you progress further in your education. The idea that there are no right or wrong answers in philosophy is one of those useful approximations that studying philosophy alongside professional philosophers, e.g. UIW Philosophy faculty, can help you to leave behind as you develop ideas that do an even better job of usefully approximating reality.

 

3. Why would anyone choose to major in philosophy, since that commitment is so expensive and doesn't yield good prospects for gainful employment?

First, because, as Socrates famously argued in Plato’s Apology, the unexamined life is not worth living, no matter how gainful your employment is. Second, as for money, Socrates went barefoot, so why can’t you? All jokes aside, one thing you do in philosophy to is recognize that sometimes questions are based on unsubstantiated beliefs or prejudices. In this case, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Philosophy majors do very well as far as gainful employment goes, both insofar as Philosophy majors score highly on the standardized tests that serve as gatekeepers to graduate programs in other disciplines and insofar as their midcareer earnings are higher than those of most majors. For the evidence, see the following websites:
Why Study Philosophy
Philosophy Is A Great Major
Value of Philosophy
Still, it’s true that college is expensive, and therefore determining whether it is worth the expense is itself a philosophical question, insofar as it is a question about what is good and how to prioritize and balance various goods that one desires to pursue in life. Philosophy does offer us some tools for answering a question like this, which may be a good reason for thinking that studying philosophy is worth a great deal. Still, that speaks only to the benefit of studying philosophy, and not to the cost, or how to weigh the one against the other. Finally, it is important to remember that the Philosophy major at UIW is only 33 credits, six of which can be earned in the core, which means that there is a lot of room for a double major. In fact, most Philosophy majors at UIW are double majors, and find their way to Philosophy after having declared their first major, because they only learn about what Philosophy is like once they take the Intro class. So for most people, the question isn’t so much about whether to major in Philosophy alone, but whether to add Philosophy as a major to a previously chosen major and so double-major.