Degree in Philosophy

  • Thread starter Thread starter PatrickLars
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Why do you need to know? Are you thinking of getting one? 🙂
 
I’m a junior philosophy major and I will be applying to Ph.D. programs in Philosophy when I graduate. I want to research/specialize in philosophy of mind, language, and metaphysics. What are your interests, PatrickLars?
 
No, just a lowly B.A., along with another in Theology.

Gaudium de veritate,

Don
+T+
 
Patrick

It depends on where you most want to teach. If you want to teach just about anywhere, the Ph.D. is the more formidable door opener. If you want to teach in a Catholic College or seminary, Sacred Theology might be the better route. Secular philosophy is extremely competitive, and the openings are slim if you are a Catholic in a generally anti-Catholic college market.

A Master’s in Philosophy might be enough to get you a job teaching philosophy in a community college. At that level you might turn out to be the only professional philosopher on the faculty. By then you would know whether to stay at that level or seek a higher degree. If you are located near a university, you could teach and work on your higher degree simultaneously, especially if you have a family and need the income.

Do you have a favorite philosopher at this point?
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Patrick

It depends on where you most want to teach. If you want to teach just about anywhere, the Ph.D. is the more formidable door opener. If you want to teach in a Catholic College or seminary, Sacred Theology might be the better route. Secular philosophy is extremely competitive, and the openings are slim if you are a Catholic in a generally anti-Catholic college market.
QUOTE]

I really concur with the above. The academic job market for Philosophers is really really competitive. You will not only need a completed Ph.D. but some publications and even then may never find work. And, you will probably need to attend a top tier program. Check out the web site of the American Philosophical Association and read its statement on non-academic employment. By the way, my speciality is in political philosophy and I was examined in the history of philosophy as an outside major doctoral field. You may want to check out the doctoral program at Boston College which seems to meet your interests. fmwww.bc.edu/pl/ (Not my school by the way)
Click to expand...
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Patrick

It depends on where you most want to teach. If you want to teach just about anywhere, the Ph.D. is the more formidable door opener. If you want to teach in a Catholic College or seminary, Sacred Theology might be the better route. Secular philosophy is extremely competitive, and the openings are slim if you are a Catholic in a generally anti-Catholic college market.

A Master’s in Philosophy might be enough to get you a job teaching philosophy in a community college. At that level you might turn out to be the only professional philosopher on the faculty. By then you would know whether to stay at that level or seek a higher degree. If you are located near a university, you could teach and work on your higher degree simultaneously, especially if you have a family and need the income.

Do you have a favorite philosopher at this point?
Click to expand...
“It depends on where you most want to teach. If you want to teach just about anywhere, the Ph.D. is the more formidable door opener. If you want to teach in a Catholic College or seminary, Sacred Theology might be the better route. Secular philosophy is extremely competitive, and the openings are slim if you are a Catholic in a generally anti-Catholic college market.”

I. I personally think that I should take a secular philosophy course in order to learn more without bias or prejudice, as a Catholic, it is my responsible to make an act and challenge other views and to know why they’re responding to us like this. This is a wake up call for all Catholics and Christians that reading the Bible or waiting for the priest’s sermon isn’t enough. We’re in a progressive world today and most people are pragmatic to their surroundings.

And I want to teach someday and share my blessings with others, teach younger kids a strong Catholic foundation without exemption and to teach them to be open-minded. This may sound too liberal, I don’t care if the tunnel is to narrow for me, the harder the better, happy-go-lucky won’t gonna work here in our world, we must crave for more.

“A Master’s in Philosophy might be enough to get you a job teaching philosophy in a community college. At that level you might turn out to be the only professional philosopher on the faculty. By then you would know whether to stay at that level or seek a higher degree. If you are located near a university, you could teach and work on your higher degree simultaneously, especially if you have a family and need the income.”

II. Thanks for the advice, I’ll try that. I’ll take Philosophy first, then take the seminary and then Theology. It would take me years and years to achieve my two degrees goal. Ph.D in Philosophy and Th.D/T.S.D. in Theology.

“Do you have a favorite philosopher at this point?”

I don’t have a personal or favorite philosopher, they’re all equal for me. Because they contributed enormous informations to Philosophy.
 
Anthony_A said:
I’m a junior philosophy major and I will be applying to Ph.D. programs in Philosophy when I graduate. I want to research/specialize in philosophy of mind, language, and metaphysics. What are your interests, PatrickLars?
Click to expand...
In Philosophy - Logic, Mind, Language, Metaphysics, Aesthetics and philosophy of History.

In Theology - Negative, progressive, patristical, moral and systematic theology.

Other minor interests are - mathematics, Linguistics, Hermeneutics, Literature, and Architecture.
 
PatrickLars said:
In Philosophy - Logic, Mind, Language, Metaphysics, Aesthetics and philosophy of History.
Click to expand...
If you like phil of mind, I invite you to join in on the debate in my thread “Should AI ever be granted rights?”
 
PatrickLars said:
In Philosophy - Logic, Mind, Language, Metaphysics, Aesthetics and philosophy of History.

In Theology - Negative, progressive, patristical, moral and systematic theology.

Other minor interests are - mathematics, Linguistics, Hermeneutics, Literature, and Architecture.
Click to expand...
Did you ever find it difficult reading literature and books that argue against your faith or communicated ideas that had a direct implication on your belief system?
I tend to enjoy reading other peoples philosophy, even though i don’t agree with them, so long as its communicated in a friendly non-biased manner. This is why i like reading all the histories of philosophy, especially the ones written by F.C.Copleston.
 
MindOverMatter said:
Did you ever find it difficult reading literature and books that argue against your faith or communicated ideas that had a direct implication on your belief system?
I tend to enjoy reading other peoples philosophy, even though i don’t agree with them, so long as its communicated in a friendly non-biased manner. This is why i like reading all the histories of philosophy, especially the ones written by F.C.Copleston.
Click to expand...
Yeah! Copleston’s the best! Even Secularists say so (most of them at least).

I used to enjoy reading other people’s philosophy until … I realized anything besides perennial philosophy (Platonism, Aristotlelianism, Neo-Platonism, Thomism, etc.) is completely worthless because of their fundamental errors. I suppose reading elaborate systems based on false premises can give you the thrill of watching a kind of abstract horror movie. The real challenge and thrill in life is making a fine-tuned set of philosophical ideas to reflect reality and common sense. No modern belief system has managed that. Modernist philosophers are always two-faced because they doubt the reliability of the mind’s ability to decipher what’s actually out there. And after awhile, that gets really annoying. That’s why getting a philosophy degree nowadays is a joke because it mainly studies intricate masterpieces of error that are entirely useless to your life.

Now, there is virtue in “knowing the mind of the enemy” and being familiar with philosophical problems, but that only goes so far until it seems like an intellectual fetish. Perhaps we are attracted sometimes to studying false philosophies because we like how they separate truth from reality, so as to subconsciously feel ourselves justified in our sins, thinking our sins don’t actually exist or something. In my view, or perhaps taste, it’s essential to get down perennial philosophy otherwise our flirtations with modern philosophy might infiltrate us, even if it’s only slightly.

I found that, in general, every wrong philosophy is some play off of a Pre-Socratic philosophy. If you get those guys down (including those others contemporary with Socrates and Plato), then you basically got every systemized bad idea down. Nothing is new under the sun. Even bad ideas.

I might be a little extreme here. I just want society to start studying Aquinas and them other dudes a lot more. I’m sick to the stomach with Kant, Hegel, Marx and those other jerks.😛
 
I thought I’d mention in case it’s helpful - when I was at university I knew “philosophers” who taught in a number of other departments. The actually philosophy department was not at all religious, however one could find a much more open environment in departments like Contemporary Studies, German, French, and especially Classics. They often taught languages and literature as well.

I was in the classics department, which was very philosophically oriented and had many working philosophers. The staff was made up of two Roman Catholics, four or five Anglicans, a Calvinist and a sort of Hegelian.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top