USUPhilosophy

Lots of interesting questions and ideas in this interview:

Read the full article here, occasioned by the frequent assertions made by public figures that majoring in the humanities somehow leads to chronic unemployment. An excerpt:

The report shows that humanities and social science graduates earn only slightly less than their peers with degrees in professional fields upon graduation from college, and by mid-career the earnings of humanities and social science graduates surpass those of graduates with professional degrees. Humanities majors are also more likely to go on to earn graduate degrees, a move which takes their median annual salary up to $71,000. All told, it’s hard to see a degree in the humanities as a bad investment.

(h/t USU History department)

Politicians from Cruz to Obama have been hard on liberal arts majors of late.  The idea they are peddling is that it is a bad idea to major in a liberal art – and to use public dollars to support people doing so – since these are not useful degrees in the job market.  So a lot of the old “degrees to nowhere” business.

Last night at the debate, Marco Rubio took a shot at philosophers in particular, saying, “Welders make more money than philosophers.  We need more welders than philosophers.”

I thought it would be worth fact checking this claim.  Two sources:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for welders is $37,420.  The median wage for philosophy instructors is $63,630.

According to pay scale.com, the mid-career average salary of a person who majored in philosophy (but is not necessarily a philosophy instructor) is $85,000.  (This excludes philosophy majors who went on to any sort of graduate school like law or a PhD, many of whom are likely to be making more than folks with just a bachelors).  Payscale.com did not provide a mid career earning for welders, but says that total earnings for welders ranges from $26,000 to $63,000.  So even if we assumed that by mid career all welders are making the highest end salary in their industry, they are making less than your average philosophy major.

So fact checking Rubio’s claim: Rubio is simply wrong.

Sadly, most of our politicians on both the left and the right simply do not understand the value of a liberal education and do not know what sorts of skills (“soft skills”, communication and critical thinking skills) are most valued in the 21st century job marketplace.

Aaron Orlovitz: “I was a philosophy major until I dropped out and started squatting,” he says. Indeed, he is a smart guy who deeply understands philosophy, a theme that weaves in and out of his material. “A lot of philosophers try to define humor. Aristotle talked about it—how humor has to be relatable, how it needs to be ridiculous and all of these different things. Personally, I’m not sure that humor is a thing that even has a philosophy. I think that humor is a way to express philosophy. I think that you can use comedy and humor to make a point about something, about the way the world is, about the way your reality is, about even weird shit like how we know the things we know,” he says.”

Read the Slug Magazine article here.

USU Philosophy Club

“But how do you know she’s a witch?”

Come celebrate Halloween by exploring the ontology of witches, through the ecstatic visions of Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

Wednesday, October 28th

Main 115

7 p.m. – all are welcome

(with introductory remarks by local witch experts)