Should I major in philosophy, /lit/?
absolutely not unless you're so rich that going to college doesn't even begin to matter
>should
>>8246833
you have a moral duty to
>>8246935
I'm a journalism dropout. Twas a purely financial decision.
>>8246925
I'm genuinely wondering: is anyone able to justify going into philosophy over science or medicine purely in the interest of ethics? It comes down to how much good you can do in that given position, and I find it hard to believe 99% of people could be more effective and do more good as a philosopher than they could through science or medicine, purely based on their own capabilities. The only way I could see someone's abilities generating more good from philosophy over science is either if they're completely incapable of studying either, or if they're an incredibly rare savant at writing but lack the faculties to understand math or medicine well. That isn't to say science and medicine are the only ways of doing good, but I assume they attract the same level of intelligence and personalities.
So can a case be made that the average person could do more good by dedicating themselves to philosophy over science or medicine?
>>8247025
>It comes down to how much good you can do in that given position
kys my dude
>>8247025
You'd have to take into account the total amount of good done vs what could have been done, which is impossible to measure. Individually, perhaps by staying in STEM all their thought cycles are consumed daily and they don't have enough energy to positively influence the people immediately around them. Society crumbles, those people they neglected go on to cause civil war in which all that scientific progress is lost. Maybe a more direct level of influence could have been achieved if they took the philosophical approach.
>>8246833
Well if you want to be a security guard the rest of your life.
>>8247037
Nice argument my dude, so stoked
>>8247045
Definitely a fair point. But ultimately you have to make a decision about what you are going to dedicate yourself to (or decide not to decide) as a logical necessity. So, given the awareness that you're merely making a best estimate, can a case still be made that philosophy would /more likely/ do more good than science or medicine to the average person?
If you want a positive impact in life then just donate blood regularly. Would accomplish a lot more than an average science career.
>>8247060
Or to make this more applicable, can someone here who has majored in philosophy justify that it was a more ethical decision than majoring in science or medicine?
>>8247025
There's a meme in society of some kind of entrepreneurial post-capitalist industrial-scientific "productivity" thing, and they are expressing the meme because they are demi-conscious memebuoys floating on a slurry sea of currents you can only see if you zoom out
It's exhausting even trying to give an answer to this question. You need to like phenomenologically bracket every single word and write a book explaining that they aren't even people. They aren't even conscious. They aren't even having "opinions". STEM people are like robots with human skin stretched over them. To say "they are dismissive of the humanities" is implicitly to admit I think there's a "they". STEM people don't even fucking exist. They are a statistical gaseous nebula of random particles wafting across continents and periodically expressing junk they picked up along the way. Why would you even talk to them?
Talking to a STEMfag is literally like being some kind of Buddha, ascending reality, then coming back down and talking to bees who were dudes in past lives. I'm sure these bee niggas can be saved or whatever, but let's just wait until they're back in human form. Don't walk around going "BEES, STOP BUZZING, PUT DOWN THAT POLLEN, LISTEN TO ME ABOUT HOW EVERY CONCEPTUAL CATEGORY YOU HAVE FOR EVEN THINKING OF THINGS WAS SHAPED FOR YOU BY AN UNCONSCIOUS SLUDGE OF MEMETIC POLYALLOY THAT FLOWS IN PREDICTABLE CURRENTS FROM YEAR TO YEAR THROUGH THE HIVE IN WHICH YOU WERE CONCEIVED"
>>8247063
I do donate blood as regularly as I can. But it doesn't exclude any significant possibilities of doing good through other means by donating. Choosing to major in one thing or another is a decision that excludes other significant possibilities, such as majoring in something else.
>>8247070
Upvoted my dude
>>8247078
Wow, this is a strange image. Instead of using the usual fat fedora neckbeard mascot, he uses a decently attractive fit man.
Weird.
>>8247025
Philosophy can provide the intellectual tools and moral values which in turn encourage others to do good more efficiently. Generating new theory, I think, will create a higher utilitarian value than teaching though (assuming that is your interest).
>>8247025
Lol, look at prince charming the fucking selfless cunt over here.
>>8247082
Its a pic of me
>>8247083
Which is admirable in theory, but I feel the difficulty comes in the state of the field of philosophy today. Unless someone has the connections and money to stick in academia, how effectively can someone delineate themselves from the amorphous mass of publications to really reach and affect other people? And if one did stick with academia, could more good be generated by teaching philosophy over, say, oncology?
>>8247089
Prince Charming isn't selfless or interested in ethics though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G9QIIvSpzE
Yes.
You'll get all the jobs.
Just do it.
i do phil because i am an artsy fartsy faggot who feels the need to rebel against current knowledge and to create new theories, instead of going the stemlord route of memorizing a bunch of bullshit and applying it for a living.
>>8246833
If you are deciding because you are interested in philosophy, then do it. Just double major. I double majored in economics & philosophy. Two of my best buddies from college also double majored in philosophy and something else. It wasn't even difficult in terms of workload- even with a student job and a girlfriend, I still had plenty of free time for partying & hanging out with my friends. You have so much free time to fuck around in college it's ridiculous. Working 9-5 kinda sux tbqh. Take advantage of the fact that you have the opportunity to take philosophy classes, you will regret it later otherwise.
>>8246833
>Should I major in philosophy, /lit/?
If you're planning to be a corporate hack who wants to get a job in HR then why not.
If you want to really do something in philosophy and you weren't a Kripke level child savant who started off everything being naturally brilliant then it's probably a pointless pursuit.
>>8247025
>The only way I could see someone's abilities generating more good from philosophy over science is either if they're completely incapable of studying either, or if they're an incredibly rare savant at writing but lack the faculties to understand math or medicine well.
I don't think that last part describes Singer, but he's probably done more through inspiring others than he would have as a doctor. Also note that there's a fixed number if doctors students. If you don't become one somebody else will.
>>8247082
What would Lacan say about that?
>>8246833
I would say don't get any degree unless you have a specific career path or it is free/you'll pay for it as you study. I did the latter and now I'm NEETing it up for a bit but hey, I don't have any debt.
>>8247151
journalism is a craft you either can or can't do so fuck a degree ;)
