Convincing Undergraduates of the Value of Philosophy

Here are comments from survey respondents describing how, if at all, they have dealt with the issue of convincing undergraduates of the value of philosophy.

• Every single lecture I give contains that implicitly message and the students know it. They also know the way I live and they know that I am serious about the value of what I do.
• When there is a news story that would help to promote philosophy (such as the recent NY Times article about philosophy at Rutgers), we pass it along to our students.
• We have a curriculum that in part is designed to address the antecedent interests of philosophically naive students who are then provided with the philosophical resources to address these desires and interests.
• Teaching has to approach the students form their own perspective, but there's only so much that can be done.
• We try to get them hooked in our intro courses.
• We have begun to offer topically focused courses to meet one of the general-education requirements in philosophy; these courses are aimed at the interests of particular student populations (for instance, next year one of the courses will be on the philosophy of science, the other on philosophical anthropology). We also regularly make the argument to bright students who are interested in graduate studies for careers such as clerical ministry and law that the study of philosophy is an excellent preparation.
• My undergraduates are non-philosophy majors so I show them the relevance of critical thinking, reasoning and philosophical ideas to life. I emphasize the practical implications of being able to think philosophically and about 25% actually get it.
• By claiming that only philosophy satisfies the species-definition supplied by Aristotle, thus fulfilling our evolutionary destiny. By claiming, further, that philosophy is universally useful (who doesn't want employees capable of reasoning, analysis, and communication?) and that as a result, is more use than any other field of study. By involving, finally, 1st person testimony from students to students.
• Shown them with good arguments
• Those students we do have tend to do a good job of coming to us with a burgeoning love of philosophy. Students 'on the bubble' regarding a major are often given evidence of the merits of the study of philosophy as preparation for professional studies in addition to graduate study in philosophy. Many, for example, are relieved to find that a philosophy degree can serve as a precursor to successful study of law.
• This isn't so hard, given that I teach at a Catholic university, and all students have to take two courses. Our challenge has been that other areas appropriate the ethics requirement to discipline-specific ethics courses that, frankly, are easier than the courses offered in the Philosophy Department.
• I don't spend any time trying to *directly* convince undergraduates of its value. They can think for themselves. I just reveal my personal passion for the subject in classes, at philosophy club, and in the hallway. My two colleagues have a similar approach. I think the results speak for themselves: 50 majors at a community college.
• I try to convince my students that they are already interested in philosophy but that perhaps they just don't realize it yet.
• We have held career days on which we bring alums back to talk to our current students about what they do, how they chose their jobs, and how philosophy has (and sometimes hasn't) helped in that choice. There's always a lawyer, ha ha!, plus civil servants, a couple grad students, and the models are instructive to our kids.
• We still largely rely on self-selection of the interested.
• Put info up on the dept website. Do more applied philosophy.
• Talking to students about skills honed in philosophy classes helps, as does a general emphasis on the practical benefits of studying philosophy. Some students are able to make sense of the idea of the inherent value of certain kinds of practices.
• There doesn't seem to be a problem here--the course work and classes intrinsically draw student interest
• Finding real examples - particularly from this jurisdiction - of ethical issues that police face, particularly accounts of police who wanted to (or expected to) do the right thing, but found themselves in fact doing something wrong. Also, having 'real police' [rather than a mere philosopher!!] tell war stories, indicating how and where ethical issues can occur in police work.
• Presenting it as it is, or as I see it.
• Make course material relevant
• Hm. I think we do this mostly by teaching as well as we can. I figure that if we teach well, we won't have to convince them of the value of philosophy. Our major seems to be growing fairly rapidly under this approach.
• For a number of years, my institution has had an active philosophical society. Meetings are held on a regular basis, a student philosophy journal is published annually (or almost annually), speakers from other universities are invited for public presentations, and my colleague and I occasionally take students to philosophy conferences that are close by. Sometimes the students take leadership roles in keeping the philosophical society active, but at other times it falls on the professors to be more active.
• The crucial point to get across is that a "practical" major is impractical unless you're very sure what career you want. The good liberal arts majors have the advantage that they leave many doors open (in contrast to "practical" majors like business, education, social work, etc.). With a philosophy major it's easy to get into law school, business school, education programs, and seminary, as well as any business which needs smart people with problem-solving ability whom it intends to train on the job.
• By offering myself as an example. By directing course content to issues and concerns that are live to them.
• Partially through displaying my own enthusiasm, but also but repeatedly explaining that the skills of philosophy are the skills needed in the world (analysis, research, writing, independent thinking, understanding the larger implications of a theoretical change, etc.)
• This semester, I began my Ancient & Medieval Philosophy class, which fulfilled a liberal arts requirement, by posing and answering the questions, (1) Why study philosophy? and (2) Why study ancient and medieval philosophy? In logic class, I discuss the application of what we are learning to graduate entrance exams (LSAT, GMAT, GRE) and to evaluating philosophical arguments.
• Making ideas relevant to their lives in the classroom. Using contemporary examples, bringing philosophical disagreements back to the concrete. If you can't communicate why a philosophical difference makes a difference in life, they would care. If philosophical differences don't make a difference, then we probably shouldn't care either. Given that we care (why else would we be in this profession?), we need to articulate why philosophy matters--like it or not, the responsibility for this is on us.
• Making Introduction to Philosophy and Introduction to Logic connect to everyday life.
• I emphasize the intimate connection between philosophy and things like critical thinking, ethics, and thinking outside the box. I also work to get my students doing philosophy, thinking about their beliefs and intuitions, etc., so that it becomes at least partly about them and not just about Plato, et al.
• I explain how the particular skills of philosophy (analysis, clear writing) are useful anywhere.
• Undergraduates recognize it more than faculty. Typically addressed in each class.
• By explaining and showing in multitudes of ways that ideas have consequences. They make choices every day of their lives based on their beliefs, so they need to know whether such beliefs are true. Also, integrating applied topics into discussions of theories and making connections to contemporary events helps them see how ideas (and philosophical analysis) matter.
• Tried to be as enthusiastic as possible!
• should we do that?
• Writing an introductory text in philosophy that addresses the kind of concerns our typical student has.
• See above; the summary would be: by actually doing some philosophy in "other venues" as occasion permits.
• We don't really have to do this. Students seem to find their own answers when they take a philosophy class.
• We compile date on the importance of philosophy--when we find some time. We emphasize the possibility of the double major rather than the idea of doing a single major in philosophy.
• Tell them it will help them get into grad school. Use low-level reverse psychology (e.g., say, "This doesn't apply to most of you in this course, but I want to make you aware of the possibility of adding philosophy as a double major.")
• Challenge them. Make them think. Never inflate grades. You end up attracting the kind of student that you would want to have. Mere "numbers" in the department are meaningless.
• Attempts are made to make the issues as practical as possible. Movie/television clips help.
• Again, happily, utterly not an issue for us. We're a liberal arts college where students generally appreciate the relevance of philosophy to a liberal education.
• Primarily emphasizing the important skills philosophy enables students to master, and giving them data from Philosophy majors performance on Graduate exams (as opposed to other majors).
• mostly one-on-one conversations.
• This task is made easier by the fact that our institution runs a core program which includes a course in the history of ethics and political philosophy. I thus have a ready audience of approximately half the students in the institution and the time to demonstrate to them the importance of philosophy. This doesn't translate into philosophy majors, but our program does not rely on philosophy majors to be viable.
• I give lists of famous philosophy majors and speak about the variety of jobs philosophy majors have pursued.
• Generally, I have accomplished this only in the classroom. I think that students come to see the value of philosophy by engaging in philosophy. I also try to make sure that I point out the ways in which the question we are addressing is directly relevant to their ordinary, work-a-day concerns. This is not much of a problem for me since I teach value theory courses.
• Connection to portable business skills Success of past majors Stress philosophy's role in a meaningful life Started a "for fun" discussion group to stress that, well, philosophy is fun. An indirect approach often works better. We try to make the classes fun and challenging. Fun speaks for itself, and the challenge "markets" philosophy as for an elite group. We are able to attract double majors from less challenging majors. Along those lines, we stress how a philosophy double-major will distinguish a student from every other pre-law, pre-med, or business major.