Maybe philosophy is so needlessly wordy and impenetrable because it’s just people that weren’t smart enough to see it as a dead end trained enough to make it seem esoteric and meaningful, to keep their heads just above water and their hands on books instead of chef knives.
Maybe philosophy is so needlessly wordy and impenetrable because it’s just people that weren’t smart enough to see it as a dead end
Quite a few philosophy undergrounds go on to law, business, and marketing, because the underlying concepts tie so well together. Lots of philosophy grad CEOs and heads of Law Firms. Some of the richest people in the country majored in philosophy.
Egyptology is significantly more niche. But it should be noted that we used to have a significant amount of money going towards archeological research. That’s money state governments and private institutions have pulled back fairly recently.
We get to play this game with a lot of niche professions. There’s a huge demand from back in, say, the 80s or 90s and then a huge structural shift to stop doing astrological research or civil engineering or sociology or education or whatever. All the money gets dumped into state subsidies for bitcoin miners. And then we call the folks who matriculated through those real professions “stupid” while smugly insisting the future is in digitally jerking ourselves off.
While there are massive important fallacies to explore in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of “moral objectivism” in Atlas Shrugged, I did agree with the her implication when she wrote how John Galt, Francisco D’Anconia, and Ragnar Daneskjold (the most “capable” men in her fictional world) double-majored in Philosophy and Physics.
Chef here. We don’t want philosophy majors playing with our knives or fire, thanks. The alcoholics, potheads, and methheads are enough to contend with without someone that really over thinks things.
As somebody with a PhD in the subject, there’s some truth to this. Ever read Derrida or Deleuze? Some of thise continental guys are especially full of shit.
I still love the subject, though. When else do you get to just think about the big topics and work through fun arguments about them? We’d all be poorer if nobody did that.
“If those people believed half of what they wrote, they’d have shot themselves years ago.” My dad, who may have been more of a philosopher than he realized.
Naw, all that matters is making money. Don’t bother thinking about big, important things. Just know your place, keep your head down, and crank out $$$.
Maybe philosophy is so needlessly wordy and impenetrable because it’s just people that weren’t smart enough to see it as a dead end trained enough to make it seem esoteric and meaningful, to keep their heads just above water and their hands on books instead of chef knives.
Quite a few philosophy undergrounds go on to law, business, and marketing, because the underlying concepts tie so well together. Lots of philosophy grad CEOs and heads of Law Firms. Some of the richest people in the country majored in philosophy.
Egyptology is significantly more niche. But it should be noted that we used to have a significant amount of money going towards archeological research. That’s money state governments and private institutions have pulled back fairly recently.
We get to play this game with a lot of niche professions. There’s a huge demand from back in, say, the 80s or 90s and then a huge structural shift to stop doing astrological research or civil engineering or sociology or education or whatever. All the money gets dumped into state subsidies for bitcoin miners. And then we call the folks who matriculated through those real professions “stupid” while smugly insisting the future is in digitally jerking ourselves off.
While there are massive important fallacies to explore in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of “moral objectivism” in Atlas Shrugged, I did agree with the her implication when she wrote how John Galt, Francisco D’Anconia, and Ragnar Daneskjold (the most “capable” men in her fictional world) double-majored in Philosophy and Physics.
I mean, I was referring to real people not AnCap Fanfiction people.
Yes, I know.
I was referring to the implied importance of Philosophy and Physics as foundational areas of study.
Chef here. We don’t want philosophy majors playing with our knives or fire, thanks. The alcoholics, potheads, and methheads are enough to contend with without someone that really over thinks things.
As somebody with a PhD in the subject, there’s some truth to this. Ever read Derrida or Deleuze? Some of thise continental guys are especially full of shit.
I still love the subject, though. When else do you get to just think about the big topics and work through fun arguments about them? We’d all be poorer if nobody did that.
“If those people believed half of what they wrote, they’d have shot themselves years ago.” My dad, who may have been more of a philosopher than he realized.
Naw, all that matters is making money. Don’t bother thinking about big, important things. Just know your place, keep your head down, and crank out $$$.
I didn’t know the disembodied voice of capitalism stalked Lemmy, too!