Bitcoin Forum

What Do Philosophers Do and what type of jobs do Philosopher get when they graduate ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dining_philosophers_problem
This is what philosophers do from programmer's perspective  ;D

They think about useless stuff.

That actually messed with my mind for a second.

They sit on a toilet with pen and paper.

They "work" as a community organizer until they're pulled up the ladder promoting Hope & Change and eventually they become President.

Anyone and everyone can be a philosopher... its not a vocation and it requires no degree. I consider myself one... I waste a lot of time just writing down my thoughts... "philosophizing"... we are thinkers, nothing more and nothing less. I write down my works on YA, Blogger, whatever. Many find my thoughts insightful... and that is all that matters.

But those who have degrees in philosophy often only teach the subject to the next generation.

A Philosopher is not an occupation, it is simply any person that ponders the world around them. Not for money, not because they were told to, because they have the desire to wonder about things others would usually not wonder about or explain the unexplainable. They share ideas with each other, testing their theories and thoughts with those of other thinkers.

"Philosophy" means in the original Latin, "the love of knowledge". It was the first science. It still is. It may not be empirical, abiding by the methods of science we use today... but it is still the pursuit of truth. Science, philosophy, religion... they all seek to discover and uncover the truth to our world through their own methods.

I took philosophy at uni but i didnt consider myself a philosopher until many many years later and i would now consider myself a qualified philosopher mostly via years of interaction and debating on the internet. Not because i studied the subject academically.

One thing i did learn at uni was socrates was the coolest. :)

it's probably a thing to study in your retirement age  8)

My brother have a master degree  as a  Philosopher - he finished Uniwerytet Jagieloński in Poland  and he is working as eCommerce manager for 4F (http://4f.com.pl/) company - biggest clothing brand in Poland :) not much to do with a Philosophy - but we must understand that philosophy is a passion - not a job.

They do a lot of thinking, writing, and debating with others on why they are right and everyone else is wrong

Professional philosophers who are trained in philosophy and teach or write for a living use their skills for many things. It's mainly learning how to apply logic to help better understand things. It's applicable in any scenario in life. Understanding how to use critical thinking and logic is probably one of the most underrated skills in general.

Modern analytical philosophy is not all wishy washy irrelevant mental masturbation. Philosophy in general gets a bad rap since people often associate it with unproductive musings on things that can not be known or things that are supernatural and easily dismissed. But someone trained in modern analytical philosophy is someone who understands modern symbolic logic, modern neurology and the biochemistry involved with our brain function, the philosophy of language and how we communicate and many more relevent topics.

they are writing books, and if they caught some attention, than they give lectures, that is all they can do.

Wrong, many philosophers pushed civilization forward

Do you consider logic useless?

> ...

> this is the insulting robot

> what philosophers try to achieve in reasoning, robots solved a long time ago

One thing i learned between dreams inside philosophy class was that this boring thing is the first step of all remaining science,

it is the main idea, "I think and then exist"...

They mentally masturbate and don't get high paying jobs.

Generally they teach others to do the same things.

If you don't get bogged down by this obsession with "jobs" and "money" and all other things mundane and meaningless, you may find the work done by philosophers to be quite fruitful. And I consider that true for existential and metaphysical philosophers as well as those who analyze less abstract subjects like logic and symbology.

Really, the importance one places on the notion of philosophy, and certainly metaphysics, I think, boils down to the importance one places on the mundane. If you care only about money and other mundane pleasures, of course you will scoff at philosophers. You've set an arbitrary threshold for what defines meaning, that being the limits of your perception, of your static reality. But what is perception, but something radically subjective (by definition not truth)? People like to act like they know the world like the back of their hand -- they know nothing about nothing.

Anyway, I'm a nihilist in many senses. I think knowledge of truth is impossible by definition, at least for us lowly humans. Perception is everything -- and one's perception of the mundane being the only existing reality, the only important reality -- is simply one perception. One interpretation. It's the easiest road to take, so most take it.

I had a friend that majored in philosophy in college. Yeah he is now in hotel management. ;) He makes good money and all, but I don't think there's much in the way of jobs. You're not gonna be a professor -- a billion and one people want that job.

They help evolve human consciousness.  The great are prossecuted or attacked for their abstract conceptualizations.

philosophers always think on any subject with multiple ways . They never believe any thing from one angle. They try to co relate all the stuffs

with God and good or bad Karmas. According to them everything happens for a reason and a super power is governing all activities of the earth

when they become graduate they try to become teacher and teaches philosophy

They perpetuate superstition.

"Karma".

'Real' philosophers trained in philosophy definitely do not do such things.

Anyone can call themselves a philosopher and attach any illogical superstitious ideas to the label of philosophy. But that doesn't make it true.

I know someone who thinks he is a Philosopher.
what he do is have a bag of weed on is side and light up every now and then.

Sounds lke most of them.

Most professors do the same thing.

Bingo, haha. Most of the more intelligent people I've met in my life were weed smokers. I know people say things like this to make them look dumb, but... just not my experience.

They work at Starbucks.  ;)

Totally. This thread is a case in point. :)

People can balk all they want at philosophy, but even on a personal level, I found that approaching existential questions with an open mind really helped me grow as a person, and helped to put things in perspective. Science offers little in the way of answers -- remember when scientists thought the Earth was flat? And when Newtonian physics was gospel? -- so the questions are worth asking.

But you need a day job. :)

i'm not even sure.. i hated my philosophy teacher in college, since he was kind of avant garde and just ranted about nonsense that no one else understood. it's probably just convoluted logical thinking about the ethos of man.

Your school probably had a continental philosophy department. That's the outdated style. Modern analytical philosophy based on hard logic and attempting to understand what knowledge is(epistemology) is where most schools are at now.

Science and religion are not versatile enough to provide a credible picture of the universe we exist in.
Philosophy was created to provide additional padding in an attempt to rein in the inquisitive mind.
Basically philosophers are dreamers and they are important assets. They are sometimes used to provide possible explanations and connections in situations where the hard limits of science and religion make it difficult to have a satisfying answer through established ways  ;D

meh, i hated my intro to philosophy prof. he was a real douche, very rigid. that class scared me off from pursuing philosophy academically, which is a shame because it is a favorite pursuit of mine.

you totally just blew my mind

I AM GOING TO MAJOR IN PHILOSOPHY NOW

my teacher wasn't rigid, it's just that he didn't teach shit. i never learned about plato, socrates, or any other of the revolutionaries. all he talked about was the nature of man to play many characters.. most of that shit was incoherent. it was an easy A though.

Look at Dank. His posts are written in a 'philosopher' way. Although, some of us may find it frustrating, some might absorb their knowledge, information or bullshit. I believe philosophers are presenting you with a point, a view or opinion on something or someone. Or maybe they are sharing their knowledge and/or opinion or maybe their way of life. Basically, they speak and write about their perspective about objects, life and other shit.

They try to enlighten, Persuade, or guide.

no that's bullshit, dank is not a philosopher.. it's more like new age spirituality tinged with psychosis.

Drug fueled rants.

Granted most of it is shit. He's talked about his life and how he likes to live it a few times. He's provided what he thinks about the governent and many other things. So, yes. He has gave his view. Even, if we disagree he has shared us how he likes to live his life and he has also hinted that many others should try his way too. I'm talking a bit back now and not the most recent posts that he has made.

those are the very best kind. ;)

Anyone can call themselves a philosopher. But I think it's important to draw the distinction between a random person who likes to think about life and professional philosophers(or people who have actually studied modern philosophy).

From reading this thread I can tell people in general have a fairly bad impression of what it means to be a philosopher.

Plenty of ignorant posts, but every philosopher is different based on their personality. I'd say its an extreme version of an analyst who analyzes every fine detail about a topic typically regarding world/life/spiritual understanding.

"thinker" might be the easiest way to understand a philosopher but its not the art of blindly thinking about random stuff, not really sure its an art at all, although I am sure there are plenty of people out there that do this..... which I think is a good thing. Although, I think most true philosophers come naturally.

And for the weed comments, smoking may be a method of stepping outside of the box to "think", but those who choose this path should not over-do it and should re-analyze their thoughts after they come down from their cloud to have a 2nd perspective on the thoughts  8)

EDIT:  and to answer the topic of the thread;  they employ you.  :o

IMO, that distinction is not always clear. Certainly, one does not need to be an academic to be a prolific thinker/philosopher.

No, but it helps to use the same set of tools. Mainly logic and avoiding common fallacies.

Sure, I would think anyone bothering to make analyses in metaphysics or epistemology should be trained in logic. But one does not need to be an academic for that.

i had a friend who majored in philosophy. he works at dunkin donuts. :-\

Definitely. I didn't mean to imply that someone had to be an academic exclusively. When I wrote "(or people who have actually studied modern philosophy)" I didn't mean only formal study. All the knowledge is out there already. My main point was that if someone was interested in philosophy that they should look to be using the same set of skills that professional philosophers use. Else we end up with philosophy being considered a waste of time and effort like many people in this thread seem to think.

I don't think anyone who's truly studied philosophy can say that it has little benefit. Philosophy teaches you how to think. And thinking is required in anything and everything we do.

i find that, by and large, the anti-philosophy camp is comprised of people who are concerned only with money.

Over all of the silly "nothing, they're useless", I feel like this is the best answer. I would think they have a lot of thoughts and ideas and writing and debating would be the best way for them to spent time.

where does that come from? totally out of left field. you sound bitter.

Some philosophers probably come off condescending, but its probably because of the amount of thought they have put into whatever they are writing/debating/thinking about. It is probably created from confidence in themselves and the amount of time and effort they have put into analyzing something, as opposed to the other person or group being wrong.

I'm unemployed :\ Doing RMT, want to write books, working on a sci-fiction now...

What's RMT? Real money trading? Only place I know the acronym is from people selling game items for money.

Philosophers try and explain the world around them using their MINDS and the tools of logic and various analytical theories. Nobody makes any money at it, so it is an avocation, rather than a vocation.

Well, it's an avocation for most, yes. A lucky few get to have nice, cushy academic research and teaching positions. What I'd give to live the life of a professor. Not many job openings once you finish your training. :)

I think that any philospher who doesn't look up for scientific support is doing it wrong. It's too easy to get lost in pure speculations. (depends on the subject of course but...)

So they're working on a "solved" problem that's used to scare away computer science freshmen?  ;D
Or do they come up with those problems? Ha, I know... They don't have enough food and/or cutlery to fed everyone!!!

They teach Philosophy
Perhaps  they also act as a conscience to a Politician as well and try to consult to find the correct moral action towards issues regarding people and welfare.

Sounds nice and everything, but those seem more like the pipe dreams that philosophy majors have more than anything else. ;)

they write books and hold seminars, and they are also jobless and poor.

to be fair, my intro to philosophy professor in college seemed to be pretty well off. :)

They think.
Just think about that and you will get it.

They think and try to find answers to some questions of life, giving theories and thinking again about this theories and answers.
Very intellectual work, but not for everyone :)

They do a lot of thinking and sometimes they speak a lot of shit.

 ;D

Philosophers think about the roots of reality but some are just trying to defend a cause and others are difficult to understand first hand

Not all philosophers are equal

"The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term."

Practically speaking there would be a lot of jobs for philosophers in clarifying conceptual confusions in sciences. Aso, there are so many pre-conceptions that go under the radar on sciences (e.g. in psychology and even in neurocience there are a lot of dualistic ones, it's pernicious).

Well even the scientifc method in itself has pre-conceptions about reality, that it can understand it or that it's at leat the best method (which probably is until now). What about reason? Can reason understand reality? "what is real is rational and what is rational is real"? (Hegell) Or is reality irrational? (Schopenhauer). Quantum physics showed us that reality is very different from our common sense and it's very hard for anyone to make sense of it like Feynnman said.

 Yeah science works but truth isn't necessarily equal to usefulness (e.g. we can still use newton equations for rockets, but we know that gravity doesn't work like he thought and Einstein replaced it...).

LoL Can I Get An AMEN!!!!  ;)

New age spirituality is ancient knowledge in a fresh context.  The Akashic records behold the wisdom and knowledge of our long late ancestors.

What type? A sit-down job.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSsKC0ZOO3CyK6Z-Ud06GndpU1cq8MKIP1UZp4-EC-OYb3WcW6Y_w