What is philosophy?

Philosophy asks the fundamental questions about ourselves and the world that have puzzled and fascinated humans almost since the beginning of civilization. Among the many problems that philosophy confronts are: What is reality? What is a human being? What can we know? How should we live our lives? What is thinking? These, however, are only some of the broadest questions. Philosophy overlaps issues that are studied in many other disciplines, bringing to bear on them its own perspectives and tools. Philosophy consistently attempts to clarify and understand the most basic concepts and assumptions in whatever it examines.

Why study philosophy?

Philosophy develops general analytical and critical capabilities which are applied in all disciplines and throughout life courses. Thus, studying it can reinforce and deepen your understanding of material in other departments. Because you will often read difficult books, your abilities to understand, analyze, and criticize increase dramatically. Our focus on clear and rigorous communication of ideas, and our emphasis on discussion of ideas and written assignments will strengthen your skills in verbal and written communication. Philosophy is often viewed as the key-stone of a liberal arts education, providing the completion and the ultimate support of the whole edifice. It embodies in a concentrated form many of the features of a liberal arts education: breadth of subject matter, depth of comprehension, and sheer delight in ideas. But when it comes time to explain your studies to your friends and family, some data may be helpful. An ever growing number of people in this country find it necessary to seek graduate education in order to achieve their goals. By teaching them how to read critically and think rigorously, philosophy prepares its majors exceptionally well in the necessary skills for graduate education. This is demonstrated by philosophy majors' performance on graduate entrance exams, which tends to be exceptionally strong. Philosophy majors generally perform better than most and sometimes all other majors. As a group, they out-perform all other humanities majors on each of the graduate entrance exams!

RANK	LSAT	GMAT	GRE/Verbal	GRE/Quantitative	GRE/Analytic
First	Physics (159.9)	Mathematics	Philosophy (589)	Physics	Physics (646)
Second	Philosophy (156.6)	Philosophy	English (561)	Mathematics	Mathematics (635)
Third	Economics (155.6)	Engineering	Anthropology	Philosophy (9th)	Philosophy (625)

More precise data on the GRE for the years 2001-2004 is provided by ETS here.  In a nutshell, the data shows that philosophy majors score significantly higher on average than all other Humanities majors on all three parts of the exam. Specifically, philosophy majors on average score higher than all other majors on the Verbal and Analytical portions of the exam and than all Humanities, Social Science, and Life Science majors on the quantitative portion of the exam. And not just by a small margin either. On the verbal portion of the exam philosophy majors average 589 (English 559 is second). On the analytical portion philosophy majors average 5.1 (English 4.9, History 4.8). On the quantitative portion, the physical sciences (average 699) and engineering (720), significantly outperform philosophy majors (636), but the philosophy majors are significantly above the average for all Humanities and Social Sciences (566, 565), even outperforming all Life Sciences (Biology, 632).

What can philosophy do for you?

 Philosophy trains you in basic analytical, critical, rational skills. It strengthens verbal and written communication and develops general research skills. It fosters the abilities to formulate and solve problems, identify and criticize concealed assumptions, explicate concepts and ideas, criticize arguments, formulate persuasive arguments, and generate new perspectives on problems. What can you do with a philosophy degree? If the above evidence has not convinced you that a philosophy degree "pays off" in the world at large, you might want to consider more broadly the sorts of employment that philosophy might help you with. Philosophy is certainly excellent preparation for careers in law and business (as the scores above suggest). But beyond this, almost any career will be assisted through training in philosophy (The career center has further information about this). Especially if you are not certain of your vocation, philosophy can be beneficial for you since it develops very general skills and capacities without restricting them to a particular field or discipline. Thus, you provide yourself with flexible and adaptive skills and abilities that can be applied in any career. Research shows that people are increasingly likely to change careers repeatedly throughout their lives. The kinds of skills philosophy teaches are widely applicable and never become obsolete.

Philosophy at Hiram College:

Our department places special emphasis on the history of philosophy and on contemporary European philosophy. Our majors graduate with a working knowledge of many of history's greatest thinkers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, and Nietzsche. Those who decide to go on to graduate school in philosophy have been accepted at some of the leading institutions in the country and generally find that their undergraduate education prepared them well.