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this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2025
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ironically philosophy majors perform better on graduate school entrance exams like the LSAT and GREs than most other majors, and philosophy graduates tend to be more successful and be better earners than other majors, notably than business major graduates
arugably, philosophy is one of the better majors in terms of outcomes
https://philosophy.unc.edu/undergraduate/the-major/why-major-in-philosophy/
This is PURE speculation, but I feel like this could be caused by the only people who feel comfortable getting a philosophy degree being wealthy connected people. I know a lot of people from my high school that have stereotypical "be poor forever" degrees and are doing great - but if you knew them in high school, you'd know that they had millionaire parents. All the poor kids went for safer degrees because they knew they'd need money.
To be clear: I love philosophy and think it is very valuable. But sadly it seems like something that only privileged people or the very passionate take a risk on.
I didn't want to say it, but I do think this is a possibility - people like Pete Buttigieg were philosophy majors. However, it's probably a bit of both - being wealthy and connected probably still makes up a minority of philosophy majors, and yet they still outperform on graduate entrance exams generally.
You might be interested in reading The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart for a non-wealthy philosophy major's perspective on business. :-)
That could also create a networking situation for even poor ones.
Yeah I agree, there is probably a bias effect here. That may or may not explain all of the difference. The one you've proposed makes sense.
Don't ya think this might be a bit bias? They have a vested interest to sell you a philosophy degree.
I used my philosophy of science classwork all the time in my engineering career.
What constitutes proof? What kinds of questions can you answer with data? When do we consider a pattern of behavior to represent the existence of some entity?
Being able to think about these kinds of questions with clarity is really helpful in diagnosing problems in large systems.
Statistical significance.
I’ve worked with a few philosophy majors in various roles and they were more thoughtful about things. Like they learned how to think, not just what to think.
Any recommended reading for someone who's never formally studied philosophy?
Karl Popper, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" is a seminal work in the modern philosophy of science. It proposes to solve the problem of induction, and his proposal of falsifiability is, to my knowledge, the most popular philosophical framework for modern scientific practice. I'd be interested in what the above commenter has to say about Popper, though, as I am not well-read outside of his work, as my focus is on the history of science.
I'm not sure recommending Popper to someone who has never studied philosophy, and who is reading on their own, is a good idea ... I would probably start with a small intro to philosophy book like Blackburn's Think and then try to find lectures or resources that help teach Popper, rather than just diving into source material with no guidance.
Popper is important, but I don't think he is commonly seen to have solved the problem of induction ... he made an attempt, but that's a different story.
Excellent points! And yes, that's why I said he proposed that he solved the problem of induction.
yes, though the facts and studies they link to remain true regardless - this is the strongest argument for getting a philosophy degree, it makes sense they present it