Ep. 38 - What is the Philosophy major?

In Episode 38 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast, Matt Markin chats with Professor Kaitlyn Creasy  from the Philosophy department! What is the Philosophy major? What minors are offered? What career opportunities are there? What resources are there for students in Philosophy? Find out in this episode!

For more information on the Philosophy major, visit their website! 

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Transcript

0:06  
Alright, welcome back to another episode of the CSUSB advising podcast. My name is Matt Markin, an academic advisor here at Cal State San Bernardino. And on today's episode, we're learning more about the philosophy major. And who better to chat with about philosophy then Professor Kaitlyn Creasy. Professor Creasy, welcome to the podcast.

0:23  
Thanks so much for having me.

0:25  
So can you tell us a little bit about yourself, you know, your your maybe your background getting to Cal State San Bernardino?

0:30  
Yeah, sure. I guess I'll start by talking a bit about what I currently do. First, of course, I work at CSUSB. I'm an associate professor of philosophy. Here, I teach courses in 19th and 20th century European philosophy. For example, I teach an existentialism course, that's a subfield that a lot of people have heard of. But I also teach courses in moral psychology and environmental philosophy. I teach other courses too, but those are my main focuses. My research is primarily on the thought of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who's a German philosopher from the 19th century, who your listeners might have heard of it. He's better known than most philosophers. Recently, I've also started to work in the fields of philosophy of emotion and social philosophy, in part because I'm extremely interested in philosophical analyses of forms of social oppression, like sexism, racism, classism, and so on. So a little about my journey to CSUSB. I grew up in a working class family in suburban New Jersey, about an hour outside of New York City, as the oldest of five siblings. My mom was a bookkeeper. And my dad was an operating engineer. My mom had a college degree, my dad had his high school degree. And none of my family members were professors. I'm the first and so far only person in my extended family to earn a PhD. How I got to philosophy is a little bit. It's interesting, I didn't have the option to take any classes in philosophy. Before I got to college. I think that's true for a lot of people. But I took my first philosophy course in my very first semester at college at New York University and I got super into it. So I found my philosophy courses in general, really exciting and interesting, and eventually decided that I wanted to be a philosophy professor. I should say a few things though. I should admit that I was pretty scared about going into philosophy as an undergraduate, in part because I took out over $100,000 in student loans to attend NYU, because my parents couldn't help me pay for college. And I was desperately afraid of being unable to get a job. I also hustled my way through undergrad, I was working 30 hours a week in the psychology department at NYU. It was a total grind. And so I had some I had some worries about employment. Ill founded worries, as I'll explain a little bit later, I think. But I was a bit nervous, but I thought, I really want to be a philosophy professor, here's how you do it. So after graduating from NYU, I decided to pursue my PhD in Philosophy at the University of New Mexico, developing a deep love for that state along the way. And I landed a job at a private liberal arts college in Indiana, when I graduated. But after a year and a half of work in Indiana, I missed the mountains out west. There were other factors, too, but they're less exciting. So I decided to apply for the job at CSUSB. That was listed that year. And the rest is history. Yeah, to my mind. By the way, switching jobs is one of the best decisions I've ever made. At CSUSB, I have a lot more freedom in terms of what I teach and I feel very connected to CSUSB students who often have a similar economic background to my own.

3:44  
Yeah, and I appreciate you sharing, like your background and kind of journey to CSUSB. Because I think sometimes we might think like a path is just a straight line, and we kind of are all over the place, but eventually find what works for us. And being at Cal State San bernardino with doing the philosophy major, like how would you describe the philosophy major?

4:04  
Good question, I would describe it as fun. Getting into the nitty gritty of it, though, like any major, you'll have a number of required courses in ethics in ancient and modern philosophy, and the study of knowledge, logic, and so on. But we allow for a fair amount of flexibility in the courses students take to fulfill their major. In addition, the philosophy major is what I would characterize as a slim major. That means you don't need too many units to graduate with that major. In the case of philosophy, you only need 45 units. And we offer our required courses on a very regular basis so that students in the major can complete it in two years. Also, because it's a slim major, it's super easy to add on as a double major. And this can be a really cool way to distinguish your resume from others on the job market. So as one example, If you graduate with majors in both business and philosophy, your resume is sure to stand out if you're competing with others for jobs, who just have a major in business.

5:11  
Yeah, and I like that how you put that with the only thing like the 45 units because it does allow students a lot of flexibility, you know, whether they want to double major, add a minor, or just take the classes, extra classes that they thought would be interesting to them. And with with philosophy, aside from the major, do you also offer any minors?

5:32  
We do. We do. We offer a handful of minors actually. So we have a minor in philosophy, obviously. But we also offer minor in law and philosophy, a minor in philosophy, policy and economics, which is an interdisciplinary minor between philosophy, economics, and political science. And we have a minor in philosophical logic. We're also developing a few new minors, which we're really excited about. The first is a minor with a funky name of it a very cool application when it comes to getting jobs so that it's a minor in applied ontology. This is a field in which people apply philosophical concepts in disciplines like computer science and biotech. And it's a super fast growing field, with applied oncologists working in big tech, biotech and government jobs. We're also currently developing minors in cognitive science and medical humanities, which I think will be really interesting to students. So keep your eyes out.

6:26  
Oh, yeah, no sounds sounds very exciting. I think a lot students will be interested in those. And of course, the question that sometimes comes up by a student or sometimes maybe their parents might ask about it is careers. I have a career areas have you seen, you know, some of your students go into after graduation?

6:45  
A bunch. Since philosophy is a pretty broad major, which helps students develop a number of skills important for the workplace. Our philosophy majors go into a ton of different career areas. Probably one of the most common is law. This is in part because philosophy majors perform among the best of all majors period, on the LSAT, which is the admission test for law schools, second only to economics, by the way. So really, philosophy majors do quite well on that exam. But philosophy majors also work in a bunch of industries in the tech industry. They work in government and journalism, in business management, really in just about every professional field, you can imagine. I should mention also that philosophy is an excellent major for those intending to go to medical school, because philosophy can prepare students for the kinds of diagnostic gray areas and ethical challenges that doctors face every day in their professional lives, while also preparing them well for applying to med school. So like, is the case with law school. In recent years, philosophy majors have done exceedingly well with getting into this kind of professional program. So in recent years, for example, philosophy majors have had either the highest or second highest rates of acceptance of any major to medical school, which is huge. So it might be surprising to learn this, but philosophers go into all kinds of professions. There are many, many, many career paths after major in philosophy.

8:15  
Yeah, and I mean, even mentioning the the med school, so like, even we're just talking units, right? So the number of units you need for the major if you need these extra units for electives for graduation, those extra units could be the prereqs for med school.

8:30  
Yeah, that's right. And they can do that, you know, taking classes in philosophy, or getting on that double major can do that work of preparing you for applying. Right, that thing that gives you a competitive edge as you apply to med school. I think that's, that's pretty key. Yeah, absolutely.

8:49  
So let's say there's a student that, you know, they're like, really interested in philosophy. Maybe I want to declare it, but I'm not sure. Do you have any suggestions for that student?

8:58  
Sure. Yeah. First of all, just come talk to us, I hope, I hope, I hope it's clear that we're a pretty friendly bunch. It's not just me, all of the philosophy, faculty are super friendly. And we're all very willing to help help students whenever we can. So if you stop into the philosophy department, or get in touch with us via email, and you can find all of our emails on the philosophy department website, we'll help you figure out how to work the major into your schedule. For example, if you're thinking I might want to declare philosophy, I'm not sure if I have the space, or what that would look like, we can try to help you see what that might look like what's possible for you. And remember also that you can declare philosophy as a second major. If it seems too daunting, for whatever reason to have it as your primary major, that's always an option. If that's part of what you're hesitating about. Or you might do that if you're worried that it'll be a hard sell to your parents or relatives, so you want to keep a primary major. That's a not such a hard sell and then add on this very actually practical major philosophy alongside it. Also I should mention, if that is a problem for you, I imagine that knowing my colleagues, I imagine that the philosophy faculty here can help you figure out how to explain to those relatives why a philosophy major is actually quite a good and practical choice. So we would be happy to help you make a case if that's part of what you're worried about. And that's understandable, because there are sort of assumptions that people make about a major like philosophy. And sometimes you just need to talk to people and craft them a bit.

10:29  
Yeah. And if anything, the student can just also play this podcast episode and answer the question, right? Is there like an intro course that maybe a student could take, and maybe it also might count, like as a GE requirement for them?

10:44  
Yeah, we have a bunch of really great introductory courses. And I should mention that the vast majority of them, including some that I'll mention, I think all the ones that I have in mind right now need the writing utensil requirement. So you'll be able to meet your GE requirements as you take these introductory courses. Our most popular introductory courses are probably our Introduction to Philosophy course, and our introduction to ethics course. But we also offer introductory courses and the philosophy of religion as an agent philosophy and knowledge and reality. So we have a handful of introductory courses, and that's where students can dip a toe in, try a philosophy course out, see if they like it and pick up a writing intensive requirement along the way.

11:27  
And then I know also like the GE Critical Thinking requirements. So you could do like philosophy 10 2100. But yeah, and I think like for the major 2100 is like a great class to start with, because that's required anyway for the major. And then it also meets, you know, requirement for GE and it kind of double dips, and hey, you know, save yourself a class, for sure, for sure. And then generally speaking, you know, if as soon as like, it's might be too that maybe I need to my parents are asking, what what are students learning in, in their classes in the major?

12:03  
Yeah, in philosophy courses, hopefully anywhere. But at CSUSB. Students will learn to read super closely to analyze texts, ideas and arguments, to think systematically and critically, about what they're encountering. And hopefully to develop their own ideally, well supported perspectives on the text ideas and arguments that they're encountering. In class. Without a doubt, these abilities that philosophy courses cultivate, which are kind of unique to the study of philosophy, which include the ability to think in more structured and logical ways, and to creatively and thoughtfully develop student's own points of view are some of the most valuable things students get from the courses and of course, then also from the major. But another really cool thing about philosophy courses is that we get to talk about things in these courses that students won't tend to come across. In other areas of the curriculum or other courses or other majors. We at CSUSB, we offer a huge range of philosophy courses, and the topics we cover can be just about anything. So as a few examples, in the philosophy courses at CSUSB, the students can learn to develop perspectives on topics like artificial intelligence, or the meaning of life or language, or God, identity, science, politics, the environment, mathematics, gender, whatever, right? We offer a huge range of courses, especially when you look to our upper level GE courses. They're all super interesting. There are a ton of topics. And so students in philosophy courses get to dip their toe into topics they might not otherwise encounter. And that's a that's a part of what makes philosophy so special. And so unique, I think.

13:51  
Yeah, well, listening to you talk about philosophy. I'm wishing when I was a student at Cal State years ago that I had heard this, and as you probably would have been interested in taking some of these classes as well. So now, are there any misconceptions that students or anyone might you think might have about the philosophy major?

14:08  
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And I think we've already started to talk a little bit about the main one. To get to what that is, I'll start with a little anecdote real quick. That happened just two days ago, one of my classes. So in one of my classes, just the other day, I had a non major in one of my upper level classes, who literally told me that she would have loved to major in philosophy, but she also wants to get a job, so she can't, as if majoring in philosophy and getting a job just aren't compatible with one another. And to be honest, that's probably the biggest misconception about philosophy, that it's a major for people who aren't career driven or professionally minded, or and this was really important. A really important mischaracterization for me to deal with when I was an undergrad or that it's a major kind of for rich and privileged people who have the luxury of taking that This major that's really not going to amount to much at the end. But in fact, the skills that students acquire when they major in philosophy, like the ability to reason think critically, think outside the box and draw connections between perspectives, which aren't always obvious, or the ability to come up with and way multiple possible solutions to a single problem distinguish philosophy majors from other majors. And these are skills that are really helpful in the workplace. And people have started to notice this. So getting a job as a philosophy major, really isn't that hard at all. And if you search around the internet, you'll find that in the last decade or so, a bunch of news outlets like the New York Times and digital publications have run features on how useful a major philosophy is for getting a job. So perhaps the most obviously titled one is titled be employable, study philosophy. That's from salon. But a close second is an article from the online publication 538, that has the title. Philosophers don't get much respect, but their earnings don't suck, right? There you go. Yeah. And in that article, the author explains that for people who only have undergraduate degrees, philosophy majors have the fourth highest median earnings, which is $81,000. And that's more than business and chemistry majors, which is just shocking, right? That's just that it's very different from what we typically assume more like typically, here. So a different way of putting this point is that among people with just college degrees, just undergraduate degrees, philosophers make more money than all but four majors. And again, that's shocking to some people, but it shouldn't be. Philosophy is a super practical major. Philosophy majors do super well in the job market. Because I'm a philosopher, I'm in the business getting your reasons. For example, in recent years, 95% of students majoring in philosophy were employed six months after graduation. And that's huge. That's an extremely high number. And it's much higher than, for example, students majoring exclusively in business, which they often do, because they think it's going to get them a job. So this is really important to point out if this is a misconception that's really important to correct, I think.

17:18  
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I think this will be great information that I can share also, with with our advisors, because these are nice, little like tidbits to include, especially with students like, I might be on the fence, you know, of course, will say, hey, want to go and talk with a faculty member in philosophy, but we can also give them some of this information as well, having listened to the podcast episode, yeah, this is definitely a lot of fantastic information that you're giving here for everyone. And are there any resources that your department offers, like any clubs, tutoring, scholarships, things like that?

17:50  
Yeah, there are our department has a thriving philosophy club that typically meet several times a semester. And when we meet, it's usually one to two faculty members, a bunch of students, majors and non majors. And we discussed topics of interest, not just a philosophy majors, but also to non majors. So as examples of topics we've covered in the last two years, we discussed euthanasia, the ethics of sex work, the existence of God, and a bunch of other topics. So everyone's welcome. You don't need to have background, you can just show up and get a new perspective on something that you might have thought about a little bit that you want to dive a bit deeper on. It's always very casual. And we always have free pizza. So that's a huge draw to and usually we do the club meetings during the lunchtime. So you know, come for the pizza stay for the great philosophy, discussion. But in addition to philosophy club, we have tutoring that we offer through the logic Lab, which is a physical space in the basement of University Hall, specifically for students enrolled in philosophy courses. This face is super cool. I didn't know of one that we had when I was an undergrad that was exclusively for undergraduate students. When I worked at that fancy, private college before CSUSB, we didn't have a space like that. So it's unique and extremely cool. Especially for philosophy, student students interest in philosophy because there are typically handful of students just hanging out there chilling on the couch or sitting around the table and chatting. And it's a nice space to go when you just need a break. Or you want to see some people to talk to you or whatever. So we offer tutoring through that space. But it's also a great chill hangout space for majors and non major just people who are interested again, in philosophy or who might be interested in philosophy.

19:41  
You know, a student has a question on any of this. I know you said they can reach go on the website to find all the contact information. Anything else you want to add before we end?

19:50  
Yeah, for sure. Um, feel free to contact me so you can contact me directly kaitlyn.creasy@csusb.edu. I'm Happy to talk with whoever honestly. Otherwise, you can stop by the department and university Hall, room 235 or you can email our department administrator at philosophy@csusb.edu or call the department directly at 909-537-5869.

20:20  
All right, awesome. Thank you so much for this episode for being on and sharing everything about philosophy. A lot of important information Professor Creasy thank you so much.

20:29  
Thanks so much. Thanks for having me again.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai