Philosophy Makes a Comeback

As I write, the most emailed article from today’s New York Times is this piece, which talks about the revival of philosophy on American college campuses. The reasons for this revival are varied — Some see philosophy offering “good training for looking at larger societal questions, like globalization and technology.” Others see it building skills valued by law schools (argumentation and reasoning). Still others believe that philosophy and existential angst can be good for “good for getting girlfriends.” Meanwhile, all seem to agree that philosophical thinking is not simply for “frou-frou” intellectuals. The net result: the number of philosophy majors is up, with some schools seeing increases of 50-100% over the past 5-6 years.

Subscribe to Our Feed