[Repost] What Do Philosophy Graduates Go On to Do?

5,068 characters2007.04.27

古雴
I’m reposting some information here (slightly revised according to later additions)

Sender: anthonyricky (迷花倚书不倚石), Philo section
Subject: Re: Asking for advice on where philosophy graduates go
Posted at Peking University Weiming BBS (Monday, April 16, 2007, 23:00:30), forwarded
2002 cohort, graduated in 2006, undergraduate students
My own incomplete statistics
40 people in the class
9 sent on to graduate study within the department (direct PhD track), 3 recommended to graduate study at Peking University outside the department (two to the School of Marxism, one to the School of Government)
Recommended to other universities: 1 to Renmin University, 1 to Nankai
3 to the United States, 1 to Canada, 2 to the UK, 1 to Japan, 1 to Korea
Others employed, mostly in companies, with some starting businesses, some taking civil-service jobs; among them, 1 got into Guanghua this year through the graduate entrance exam (ranked first on the initial exam)

古雴
If philosophy undergraduates go straight out looking for a job, there really isn’t much in the way of a directly related profession. Studying philosophy involves an enormous number of variables; after all, only an extremely tiny minority end up doing scholarship. Most students find different paths. The learning in the philosophy department is very free—within Peking University’s generally free atmosphere, the room for choice in philosophy is also astonishingly large—so the results can be highly uncertain. If you are somewhat lax, then getting through to graduation in the philosophy department is very easy, and your prospects may well be rather worrying; but if you have a clear ambition, then the study of philosophy can become an excellent foundation for your future path. Apart from continuing on the path of philosophy, if in the future you turn to law, politics, economics, international relations, and various other fields in the humanities and social sciences, the philosophical foundation (if you study it earnestly) will also benefit you enormously. If you are only satisfied with muddling through for a nice-looking diploma, so that you can manage to make a living in the future, find a job more easily, and start out with a somewhat higher salary, then the philosophy department is definitely not suitable for you. But if you are a person with your own views and ambitions, then whatever you end up doing after graduation, the philosophy department is a very good starting point.

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Note:
The 2002 graduates also had a separately admitted major in logic, and the larger share of those who went abroad generally did so through logic; in later cohorts, the number going abroad may be even smaller.
The philosophy department has no “directly related” profession. And what is characteristic of philosophy is precisely that it has no directly related profession, because philosophy is not a specialized technical craft.
If there is any “directly related” profession, it can only be scholarship. But ordinary scholars still cannot really be called directly related professions; the truly directly related profession is “philosopher.” That is why, at the last discussion session, Teacher Li said that the philosophy department is a field with an extremely high elimination rate: if a few cohorts can produce even one philosopher who leaves a name in history, that is already more than enough.
A soldier who does not want to be a general is not a good soldier. But perhaps now there are too many folk philosophers; in the academy, it is rare to find philosophy students who dare say they want to become philosophers, for fear of being mocked (indeed they will be mocked; I mock others too, and I myself have been mocked by others). But in fact, the philosophy department’s stated training objective clearly says that, in one respect, it is still to train philosophers. Great philosophers are indeed rare, but those who can leave their names in history are still not few. Teacher Li is right: if you want an easy and satisfying job, with a salary that is stable and high, then of course you should not choose the philosophy department. But if you want to leave your name in the annals of history, then studying philosophy still offers the greatest hope.
Of course, for me, studying philosophy is interesting enough in itself.
There are many people in Peking University’s philosophy department who may well have wasted their years. I seem to remember that one alumnus put it well: at Peking University, first is falling in love and making friends, second is learning how to be a person, third is seeking knowledge; these three things decrease in importance in that order, and after that there is nothing else. As for those who sit hugging their computers all day and those who sit hugging the GRE and gnaw on it all day, I’m afraid they are all wasting their time. Of course, everyone has his or her own way of living; perhaps for them it does not count as wasting time, but at the very least they have squandered Peking University’s fine environment. As for what path to take after leaving Peking University, that can be discussed slowly later.