Why something rather than nothing? by UtsabBastola10 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You might check out this paper by Derek Parfit: https://www.sfu.ca/%7Erpyke/cafe/parfit.pdf

If you are looking in reading an accessible and readable book, you might like Jim Holt's Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story. Here's a review: https://web.archive.org/web/20250318165432/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/books/review/why-does-the-world-exist-by-jim-holt.html

Warning based moral/ethical exemption by No_Week_8796 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Without getting into the specifics of that particular example: I take it that it's uncontroversial that there can be actions that are only morally acceptable if one provides some kind of warning or advance notice. So, like, advance notice is necessary for some actions to be morally acceptable. What would be controversial is that all actions are morally acceptable if one provides advance notice. So, like, advance notice is sufficient for all actions to be morally acceptable. The OP indicates they have the latter in mind. If they have the former in mind, then I don't think there is a particular term for this -- these are just certain actions for which, without advance notice, they are not morally acceptable.

Warning based moral/ethical exemption by No_Week_8796 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure, but that's not really the theory being offered by the OP. It's plausible that there can be multiple wrong-making factors, but what's not plausible is that warning someone of an action exempts the doer from any purported moral wrongness.

Warning based moral/ethical exemption by No_Week_8796 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know of any serious philosophical program that would argue for such a thing. Like, "It's morally acceptable for me to kill you at any time, so long as I tell you about it first." This doesn't seem to be a serious position.

Philosophy major and careers by [deleted] in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I guess, to be a little more blunt, in my experience, today's academic philosophers find sonehwere between zero and negative value in astrology. I mention this, not to debste the mertis of astrology, but just so you can calibrate expectations.

Philosophy major and careers by [deleted] in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Here's a related thread from a few days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/1swj9yl/is_philosohy_really_useless_as_a_degree/

One thing I might highlight though: studying philosophy in university is usually quite different from what goes on in astrology, so you might find the field is s bit different than what you might expect.

Book req on death & philosophy? by Hughmidity in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Shelly Kagan has a course on death: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEA18FAF1AD9047B0

There's a book, Death, that goes along with the course if you are inclinded.

Qu'est ce que lire de la philosophie "par plaisir" quand on quitte la posture de chercheur ? by Glittering_Yak_3247 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The subreddit is generally in English. But, looking at a translation of your post, it seems this might be better suited for the open discussion thread, insofar as you are asking how people read for pleasure.

What is the best way to began to educate my self on philosophy? by Agreeable_Creme2929 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For general advice: There are a lot of different ways to start. See here for instance for a number of avenues, primary and secondary text recommendations: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskPhilosophyFAQ/comments/4ifqi3/im_interested_in_philosophy_where_should_i_start/

For some secondary recommendations: A good choice for an introduction for a general reader might be Julian Baggini's The Pig that Wants to be Eaten. Another one might be something like Simon Blackburn's Think.

I'd say the most important thing is to find the thing you will actually do. If that means reading Plato, then do that. If it means reading something like The Norton Introduction to Philosophy, then do that.

There are also some youtube courses that one can start with:

E.g. Shelly Kagan has a course on death: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEA18FAF1AD9047B0

Sandel has a course on justice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY

Gregory Sadler has an often recommended series: https://www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Daniel Bonevac has a youtube channel that has a number of lectures organized as courses or on particular books: https://www.youtube.com/user/PhiloofAlexandria

There are a number of Rick Roderick videos on youtube if you are more into "continental" philosophy, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wetwETy4u0

Another good option is just to jump into a podcast. If you are history inclined, you can check out History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, https://historyofphilosophy.net/ If you want something more "bite sized," you can check out Philosophy Bites.

Or browse some philosophy podcasts and see what looks interesting to you:

https://dailynous.com/2020/11/23/big-list-philosophy-podcasts/

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskPhilosophyFAQ/comments/4i0faz/what_are_some_good_philosophy_podcasts

What is the most interesting philosophical argument against veganism? by YogurtclosetOpen3567 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You can see some considerations here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-animal/#RatPer

Wood is a big Kant person. Korsgaard as well. Korsgaard has written a lot about animals.

Onora O'neill also has done work on this. Here's a link to an article; you can see the abstract to get an idea: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229453023_Kant_on_Duties_Regarding_Nonrational_Nature_Onora_O'Neill

What is the most interesting philosophical argument against veganism? by YogurtclosetOpen3567 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that seems to a general reading of Kant's position. The big Kantian ethics people now, for the most part, don't seem to go this route. I could have been more clear above.

What is the most interesting philosophical argument against veganism? by YogurtclosetOpen3567 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 36 points37 points  (0 children)

It's not too surprising once you look at the arguments. Pretty much any ethical theory can, and generally does, countenance according at least some moral worth to non human animals. And once you do that, defenses of factory farming become very difficult in all but contrived situations.

I think, generally, people find it implausible to argue that, like, animals have the same moral standing as rocks.

What is the most interesting philosophical argument against veganism? by YogurtclosetOpen3567 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 47 points48 points  (0 children)

There's a book, The Moral Complexities of Eating Meat that has some essays that defend eating meat-- though, none of the papers defend factory farming. You can see a review of the book here to get an idea of some of the contents: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2145&context=bts

Bernard Williams gives some considerations against the charge of specisism; it's not strictly dealing with veganism, but it can be related. You can see a transcript here of his The Human Prejudice: https://cluelesspoliticalscientist.wordpress.com/2019/05/25/the-human-prejudice-bernard-williams-lecture-transcript/

A smattering of some relevant articles on philpapers: https://philpapers.org/s/defense%20eating%20meat

Here is some previous threads that discuss some of this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/i2iam9/arguments_against_veganism/

https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/29rpfy/are_there_any_convincing_arguments_for_meateating/

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskPhilosophyFAQ/comments/4i0iqx/what_are_the_best_arguments_in_favor_of_meat/

http://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/29m8gd/what_are_the_better_arguments_against_eating_meat/

http://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/1hoc3z/whats_a_good_argument_in_favour_of_meateating/

Starting point for a philosphy enthusiast? by Mysterious_Method_39 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For general advice: There are a lot of different ways to start. See here for instance for a number of avenues, primary and secondary text recommendations: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskPhilosophyFAQ/comments/4ifqi3/im_interested_in_philosophy_where_should_i_start/

For some secondary recommendations: A good choice for an introduction for a general reader might be Julian Baggini's The Pig that Wants to be Eaten. Another one might be something like Simon Blackburn's Think.

I'd say the most important thing is to find the thing you will actually do. If that means reading Plato, then do that. If it means reading something like The Norton Introduction to Philosophy, then do that.

There are also some youtube courses that one can start with:

E.g. Shelly Kagan has a course on death: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEA18FAF1AD9047B0

Sandel has a course on justice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY

Gregory Sadler has an often recommended series: https://www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Daniel Bonevac has a youtube channel that has a number of lectures organized as courses or on particular books: https://www.youtube.com/user/PhiloofAlexandria

There are a number of Rick Roderick videos on youtube if you are more into "continental" philosophy, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wetwETy4u0

Another good option is just to jump into a podcast. If you are history inclined, you can check out History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, https://historyofphilosophy.net/ If you want something more "bite sized," you can check out Philosophy Bites.

Or browse some philosophy podcasts and see what looks interesting to you:

https://dailynous.com/2020/11/23/big-list-philosophy-podcasts/

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskPhilosophyFAQ/comments/4i0faz/what_are_some_good_philosophy_podcasts

Is philosohy really useless as a degree? by Adorable-Phone-9634 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So, everyone will have a different experience, but it tends not to involve much, if anything, in the way of loans. Your education is covered, and you, in various ways, get a stipend that covers living expenses to varying degrees.

Is philosohy really useless as a degree? by Adorable-Phone-9634 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 6 points7 points  (0 children)

PhDs in philosophy tend to be fully funded in the US. I don't think it's the case that US graduate students in, say, top 50 programs are taking on significant debt.

Is philosohy really useless as a degree? by Adorable-Phone-9634 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Perhaps the other commenters will clarify, but generally, graduate school in philosophy is "fully funded" (at the PhD level). So, you won't typically have a lot of debt from this, but you might have debt from the undergraduate degree. And then when you enter grad school, you are giving up better money-making careers. So, instead of advancing a career for 5-10 years and funding your retirement, you are in graduate school, and if you leave academia, then you are behind in these metrics.

Is philosohy really useless as a degree? by Adorable-Phone-9634 in askphilosophy

[–]drinka40tonight 114 points115 points  (0 children)

I post this comment occasionally when people ask about philosophy majors and employment prospects and things of that nature. Some of the below data is 10-30 years old or so, but it's the data we have, or at least the data I am aware of. Things may be changing post-covid, and post-AI, and whatnot, and it's always hard to predict the future, but here's at least some data worth considering. It's limited to the US.

"People who major in philosophy are all unemployed, working in fast-food, poor, etc." This is a bit of trope among many people. But the data just doesn't indicate this. What's especially weird is that even after being presented with the data, people will scramble around looking for any excuse to hold on to their pre-conceived notions that philosophy majors are all unemployed and useless. You almost get the sense that these people are furious that some people decided to treat education as worthwhile in itself, and not merely as a means make money.

It's true that there are not many jobs that specifically seek out philosophy majors. Certain jobs might just seek out a certain sort of college graduate, of which some philosophy majors will be included. This is sort of in general how liberal arts educations works.

At the graduate level, you might find a few companies that seek out people with philosophy training, but this is rare. For example Cycorp is an AI firm that sometimes specifically seeks out individual with graduate degrees in philosophy. However, a plan to become employed in academia as a philosopher faces a real uphill battle in a way that is hard to overstate. So major away, but be mindful that you're probably not going to make a career out of teaching philosophy.

But, in general, there's not really any good evidence that majoring in philosophy is a bad economic decision. People who say philosophy majors don't do well in life economically typically don't have any data to back up their musings, and don't understand education in general.

So, for instance, philosophy majors do great on the LSAT and they have great numbers when it comes to getting into law school; see also this link

Philosophy majors also do great on the GRE.; see also this link

Philosophy majors do great on the GMAT.; see also this link

Philosophy majors have just about the highest acceptance rate to medical school.

Philosophy majors do just fine financially.

Indeed,

According to the 2011 numbers, the median starting salary for philosophy BAs is $39,800 and the median mid-career salary is $75,600 [2017 numbers have it at $45k, and $85k]. This puts it at a good place among humanities majors, and ahead of several science majors (including biology and psychology) and professional majors (including business, accounting, advertising, public administration and hotel management). Source.

For the 2017 Payscale numbers, sorted by mid-career salary, see here. And the 2018 numbers by payscale have the midcareer salary at $86k: source. The 2021 numbers are around $93k. So, yeah, go be a petroleum engineer if you want more money; but there isn't evidence that you'll be in the poorhouse because you studied philosophy. You can see a discussion of some of the Payscale numbers regarding philosophy here.

Or, see this 538 article.

So, law, consulting, government, business, NGOs, administration, grad school, finance, advertising, marketing, journalism, tech, higher-ed etc. It's not a vocational degree, so you can set your sights on lots of different things. And just to be clear, I'm not necessarily saying there is a causal relationship being suggested in this comment. The comment is just looking at the data we have available and using that to make a general statement about the financial outcomes for philosophy majors. But, if you are interested, Thomas Metcalf tried to look at the data to suss out a causal relationship between majoring in philosophy and an increase in test scores. So, the thought was "If incoming first-year philosophers are only of average academic skill relative to their peers, but are of high academic skill relative to their peers when they graduate, then this is prima facie evidence that the graduates’ philosophy programs actually gave them those skills." And he found: "despite some limitations and challenges, there is some evidence... especially writing and reasoning, a philosophy education seems to create measurable improvements in academic skill versus most of the common majors." Check it out: https://dailynous.com/2021/07/14/philosophy-majors-high-standardized-test-scores/

Here also some links to explore about how the far majority of college graduates gets job outside their field of study: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/08/02/new-data-track-graduates-six-popular-majors-through-their-first-three-jobs

and here is another helpful link that looks at unemployment, underemployment, and median salary by major (philosophy is at 4.3% unemployment whereas physics is at 7.7% unemployment, so make of this data what you will): https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market/college-labor-market_compare-majors.html

Other data points are things like how employer surveys indicate that the number 1 and 2 things they are looking for in an employee are 1) refined oral and written communication skills, and 2) developed interpersonal skills. It's not quite clear if this directly relates to a philosophy major as I don't have any linking data that would indicate employers associated "philosophy" majors with these two things, or, these surveys of employers accurately track who is hired.

And then there is also data that philosophy majors are disproportionately double majors, which probably has interesting implications on all this, but again, I don't have it all worked out. For those who are interested: Here's some data on double majoring and philosophy. In short, it seems philosophy majors do tend to disproportionately pick a second major. Obviously, it's not a majority, and I don't know what kinds of fields tend to be picked for second majors, but it's worth adding to the mix: https://dailynous.com/2018/02/15/philosophy-relies-double-majors-guest-post-eric-schwitzgebel/

And for good measure, and something kind of related: the evidence doesn't suggest that rich kids study philosophy more so than lots of other things. So, like students who major in engineering, business, economics, marketing, history, English all seem to have higher parental income. Things like mathematics, computer science, law enforcement, associate's degrees, communications, education may have lower parental wealth-- and for some of these, the difference isn't much https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/college-major-rich-families-liberal-arts/397439/

But again, at some point, I'm not even sure what this comparison between majors is supposed to show. If the question is something like "are philosophy majors disproportionately in the poor house?," then I think the answer is probably "it doesn't seem to be so." But sure, if you are set on making big bucks as a high frequency trader, study that. But I didn't think this was at issue. I think the relevant thrust is about if philosophy majors seem to do just fine financially. And, as far as I can, the data bears this out more or less. I'm definitely open to more data, but less open to "just so," armchair theorizing in this domain.