What Is The Starting Wage of a Philosopher?

reply to post by Wang Tang


There are no wages for philosophers.

Philosophy, by nature, is the art of sitting down and thinking, then writing what you think, with no proof other than thought processes and your individual understanding of the world.

In the world we live in, people do not get paid to sit around and think.

Of course, if you write something amazing that other people can understand, you may get paid for your writings.

Otherwise, you will only get paid for what you do.

If you teach, you will get paid to teach. If you are a computer programmer, you will get paid to program computers.

The fellow at IBM is not a Philosopher at IBM - he is likely some type of business manager or HR person.

Now, if you decided to be a philosophy teacher, then you will get paid to be a philosophy teacher.

I am a philosopher.

But, I do not get paid to philosophize, I get paid to do jobs for which I have specific skill-sets for. Indeed, I do use philosophy to figure out problems I run across, but that is not my job. My job is to solve the problems using any means I can - as long as they are solved efficiently and result in success.

So, I philosophize here and there and everywhere. Because, really, I just love to learn. I will never stop learning, and it takes no money to learn.

first, it is always weird to see how far u mean to take metaphors seriously

like here u r clearly meaning not the study nor the job but the spirit in the word philosophy, while u also are clearly meaning it through its real applications in life as we all know it for purpose and characters pretenses
and everyone confirm those confusions u have in mind

but anyway, philosopher like any other word is a point not someone with suitcase going somewhere particular everyday, u r all and any philosopher point as much as scientist point as much as salesman point etc..jobs we get outside are not what we are or what jobs are in truth
it is also a mascarad of pretenses cheapest ones according to time life inferiority type so slavery need

so philosopher as a point is free the most in being independant totally from being the reality of what he thinks being the truth existing so absolute freedom

that is why philosophy was always rejected in schools, freedom that goverments get pissed from,

so what does it look like to b independant? it looks like being for smthg else not urself for sure since u r urself but smthg else also true value or fact or new or real but else in general
this is the point of being free, as much as u r free as far existence would b truly superior

what has no needs while existing is the base of truth existence superiority

It is funny you posted this. I was having some memory relapse about my college experience. A Liberal Art major in a technical college. Long story. I was told by a blue-eyed Buddhist monk back when I was actually studying in a liberal art university (previous college) that I should learn knowledge for myself. If that's the case, it really didn't matter which college I go to. In this college, all these "science" majors have no clues about the field of humanity. There was this silly polemics about liberal art studies aren't real science. Therefore, there are no right answers to anything. As you can see, a lot of these students lack a sense of ability to judge and to evaluate a situation that involves the humanity (moralities, religions, wars, and human suffering).

All I can say is that you should only major in the liberal art studies if you are on a path. A path to enlightenment. That you yourself have a specific agenda, a sense of mission. That you yourself have certain life issues that needed to be resolved. Anything else is secondary. If you want to major in the liberal art studies because you want to be well rounded, this is not for you. Just because you can appear educated in a social gathering or a party because you can converse in all subject matters, that does not make you to become enlightened. Take up the liberal art studies as if the fate of the humanity is in your hands. Personally, I have always felt this way through and through.

Originally posted by ChiForce
It is funny you posted this. I was having some memory relapse about my college experience. A Liberal Art major in a technical college. Long story. I was told by a blue-eyed Buddhist monk back when I was actually studying in a liberal art university (previous college) that I should learn knowledge for myself. If that's the case, it really didn't matter which college I go to. In this college, all these "science" majors have no clues about the field of humanity. There was this silly polemics about liberal art studies aren't real science. Therefore, there are no right answers to anything. As you can see, a lot of these students lack a sense of ability to judge and to evaluate a situation that involves the humanity (moralities, religions, wars, and human suffering).

All I can say is that you should only major in the liberal art studies if you are on a path. A path to enlightenment. That you yourself have a specific agenda, a sense of mission. That you yourself have certain life issues that needed to be resolved. Anything else is secondary. If you want to major in the liberal art studies because you want to be well rounded, this is not for you. Just because you can appear educated in a social gathering or a party because you can converse in all subject matters, that does not make you to become enlightened.

Take up the liberal art studies as if the fate of the humanity is in your hands. Personally, I have always felt this way through and through.

edit on 27-4-2012 by ChiForce because: (no reason given)

Yes I also go to a predominantly engineering school, which happens to be a military academy. It amazes me how much emphasis military academies place on engineering when, as you said, "a lot of students lack a sense of ability to judge and to evaluate a situation that involves humanity," and this ability is kind of important during a war. And I find it ironic that you are telling me to "take up the liberal art studies as if the fate of humanity is in your hands," because the fate of many lives will end up being in my hands.

Anyways, thank you, everything you've said is consistent with what other philosophers have told me, I take to heart what you have said.

There are many detractors of Liberal arts learning, and much had been joked about those students that it frightens many of our young into going that field of study, presuming that it would not bode well for a financially secured future. Nothing can be further from the truth.

In the science courses such as architecture. accounting, or engineering, students are only taught about the principles and functions of their concepts solely for industrial and financial-economic purposes. It keeps them focused on that particular field alone, and upon graduation, they can easily find jobs.

Unfortunately, due to such singlemindness on their core subjects, they often care not about other aspects that would impact upon their directions, and worse is when they refuse to acknowledge errors so as to rectify them and progress, for their limited knowledge had been their rice bowl. To acknowledge mistakes is to lose their jobs or financing. Thus, equally a single mindedness to reject new thoughts or studies that replaces what they know, to accept changes when changes are the only constant in life, something even current science cannot accept.

However, for Liberal arts grads, they had been exposed to many forms of expressions and changes through the evolution of our race, its rises and falls, its social thoughts and behaviours, the impacts on discoveries over different societies, functioning or failed societal economic developements, etc - the mistakes and corrections of our past civilisations, to question everything and leave nothing unturned.

Thus they are more rounded, adaptable and suitable for management levels and above, to assist and watch over biz enterprises for impacts and penetration opportunities into societies that a single minded product focused engineering or scientist CEO cant.

Some say, in order to be the CEO, one must know the product well that the company sells. A few believed that only the technocrat can be become a CEO. But that's the worst mistake a public company can make.

An engineer will know the product well, but knows little in the way societies behave, which is broad and complex, and would take years of perseverance and studies to comprehend.

A Liberal Arts grad knows full well how a society or target market will be, and better still, is fully capable of understanding the product well within a short time, by simply reading up on that product, which is singular, usually does not take up the entire range of engineering field to comprehend.

Scientists, doctors, engineers, etc, do have a function in societies. And so does Liberal Arts grads. Without them, we are no more than mindless machines without anyone looking at the bigger picture. A good and progressive company needs both kinds within the board - hands and intellect, or it will only sink eventually.

Authoritarian employers and big biz would most certainly hate L.A.grads for their ceaseless questioning and challenges to the leadership authority. As such, many of those grads learnt to toe the line, clamp down that voice inside that knew something was wrong, in order to stay employed, telling employers what management loves to hear, and not what CEOs should be hearing.

Thus, many L.A grad prefers to strike out on their own or take up teaching, where values and integrity need not be compromised.

Originally posted by SeekerofTruth101
A Liberal Arts grad knows full well how a society or target market will be, and better still, is fully capable of understanding the product well within a short time, by simply reading up on that product, which is singular, usually does not take up the entire range of engineering field to comprehend.

Scientists, doctors, engineers, etc, do have a function in societies. And so does Liberal Arts grads. Without them, we are no more than mindless machines without anyone looking at the bigger picture. A good and progressive company needs both kinds within the board - hands and intellect, or it will only sink eventually.

"Without them, we are no more than mindless machines without anyone looking at the bigger picture." Sounds like something right out of Atlas Shrugged. And I do worry that something will happen to America similar to what happened in Atlas Shrugged, as the focus of American education has shifted to focus almost entirely on engineering.

My current Philosophy teacher brought up an interesting point today on this matter. We were talking about how as American universities lose money the first programs they cut are liberal arts programs like art, literature, and philosophy. He said America has been known for being strong in liberal arts and weaker in engineering (we are currently ranked about 30th in the world in engineering proficiency). On the other hand, Asian countries have been known for being weak in liberal arts and strong in philosophy, and most of their schools are currently adding liberal arts programs.

I don't know if there is cause to worry yet since it will take at least a generation for the liberal arts programs of Asia to have a significant effect on how their countries are run. But I'm more worried about the narrow minded political and economic views our country's leaders are starting to fall into.