Skip to main content

Philosophy graduates are pretty darn smart

Many thanks to ShahHusseinKCL for this chart. Controversial obviously, but look where philosophy is placed. This chart draws on diagrams that I previously posted here.


Comments

Fergus Gallagher said…
I'm feeling even more smug (guess what I studied).
June 3, 2012 at 4:03 PM
Alex said…
Hi! I am trying to locate one of your earlier, and related, posts in which you argumented (with data and links) that studying philosophy was a really good choice and a great predictor of professional success in life... Can somebody help me find that post? Thx.
June 3, 2012 at 4:12 PM
Paul S. Jenkins said…
I studied architecture, so I'm slap bang in the middle. (So maybe I should keep quiet...)
June 3, 2012 at 6:34 PM
Unknown said…
Oh. It never occurred to me that this might be controversial. errm... oops?

@Alex -- Surely, you just want the page pointed to by the "here" hyperlink at the end of the above post? Since you're asking, I think you might find this video interesting too.

Also, if anyone is interested in how I calculated this then read my original post. But be warned, there's a (tiny) little math involved.

To quote a friend who was reading my post "Oh, to be honest, I didn't read that. Just saw maths and then it was over..."
June 4, 2012 at 2:11 AM
Stephen Law said…
Well it is controversial exactly what conclusions can be drawn from GRE scores. Tostemaihat's what I meant....
June 4, 2012 at 10:55 AM
Unknown said…
Oh, I see. I thought you meant about how people get very angry every time someone plots IQ against some other variable.
June 4, 2012 at 11:35 AM
Anonymous said…
Isn’t IQ something of a red herring? See Aboriginals and the Great Game tray test. Surely its what you do with what you’ve got that counts. Some members of Mensa seem to have difficulty tying shoelaces.
Apparently the RAF believe philosophy to be a desirable study for recruits. Perhaps when confronted with a brain that insists the ‘plane is straight and level. While instruments indicate a perilous attitude. Being able to appreciate that your mind might just be plain wrong, is advantageous.
June 4, 2012 at 5:25 PM
Unknown said…
Actually, the more I look at this graph, the more irritated I get. I wish I had the full data so I could calculate error bars for each point.
June 5, 2012 at 12:22 PM
Carbon Dated said…
Philosophers may be 'pretty darn' smart, but physicists are astronomically (ahem) smart. That gap between them and everybody else is Secretariat-winning-the-Belmont sized gap.
June 5, 2012 at 9:19 PM
Anonymous said…
Carbon Dated said...
physicists are astronomically (ahem) smart.
They certainly need to be. As dark matter, force and space, appear leaps of intellect commensurate with devising a deity. Lets pray they pan out.
June 6, 2012 at 3:43 PM
Anonymous said…
Am I right that neither law or medicine are explicitly included? Surely these are amongst the most stereotypical careers for the brightest and hard-working kids?
June 7, 2012 at 10:17 AM
Unknown said…
@Adzcliff -- I believe this is how the american system works:

MCAT -> Medical College
LSAT -> Law School
GMAT -> Management
GRE -> Every other graduate school.

That's why you don't see medicine or law.
June 7, 2012 at 10:36 AM
Anonymous said…
Aah, thanks ShahHussainKCL! Would be interested to see how medicine, law (and thinking about it veterinary science) feature in amongst all this. Of course I'm not suggesting this is your job - am off to see if Stephen's other links give any insights here...
June 7, 2012 at 11:26 AM
personal injury attorney mesa az said…
Graduating with a degree can really make you smarter than ever. It is an edge to everyone because they know that you have finished and accomplished something. Great post. Thanks for sharing!
June 8, 2012 at 9:33 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS

(Published in Faith and Philosophy 2011. Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011. Stephen Law. Pages 129-151) EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS Stephen Law Abstract The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed – a principle I call the contamination principle – entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of indepen...
159 comments
Read more

The Evil God Challenge and the "classical" theist's response

On another blog, FideCogitActio, some theists of a "classical" stripe (that's to say, like Brian Davies, Edward Feser) are criticisng the Evil God Challenge (or I suppose, trying to show how it can be met, or sidestepped). The main post includes this: In book I, chapter 39 , Aquinas argues that “there cannot be evil in God” (in Deo non potest esse malum). Atheists like Law must face the fact that, if the words are to retain any sense, “God” simply cannot be “evil”. As my comments in the thread at Feser’s blog aimed to show, despite how much he mocks “the privation theory of evil,” Law himself cannot escape its logic: his entire argument requires that the world ought to appear less evil if it is to be taken as evidence of a good God. Even though he spurns the idea that evil is a privation of good, his account of an evil world is parasitic on a good ideal; this is no surprise, though, since all evil is parasitic on good ( SCG I, 11 ). Based on the conclusions of se...
446 comments
Read more

Sye show continues

I was sent a link to this , for those interested in the never ending saga of Sye TenBruggencate and his "proof" of the existence of God. Hit "sinner ministries' proof of the existence of god" link below or on side bar for 30+ earlier posts on this topic that I wrote during an extended interchange with him last summer (check the literally many hundreds of comments attached to these posts if you really want to get into how Sye thinks and argues). Sye's amazing intial "proof" is available here . PS. For those interested, my own "presuppositional" proof, parodying Sye's proof by his principle "the impossibility of the contrary" (which turns out to be the key to Sye's proof) is: My claim: Sye's mind is addled and his thinking unreliable because he was hit on the head by a rock. Prove this is false, Sye. Try to, and I will say - "But your "proof" presupposes your mind is not addled and you can recognise a pr...
250 comments
Read more