Are you kidding? There are no job openings for humanities PhDs. Recommended reading: http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/01/2009013001c.htm.My brother has a masters in philosphy. He has reached the pinnacle of the job market for this career path as well; he is the buyer for the university book store and has maxed out at like 22/hour.
If you're going to do it, make damn sure you get a PhD so at least you can teach the next generation as a job option.
I take exception to your opinion, Luduan.analytic (in my opinion more boring) philosophy
You really don't know what you're talking about. Philosophy is not a glorified history course; you MIGHT be able to make an argument as to how Ancient and Medieval Philosophy are, but those branches of Philosophy are anachronisms of the tradition.But, I'd kinda like to recommend not taking it. Philosophy is basically a history course, and as far as history courses go, it's not a very interesting one. You arent going to learn anything new studying philosophy except for the names of the people who first wrote down ideas you have had your whole life.
Most of the stuff you would call philosophy you would also call semantics, and that really isnt interesting at all.
I live my life by this motto, that I learned from someone who I hate very, very much:you will earn garbage but you should do what you love. consider whether a career or your love of philosophy is more important to pursue for you.
My apologies, but I would much rather read Spinoza, Nietzsche or Bergson over Russell, Frege or Moore any day (to use anachronistic -- and somewhat unfair -- examples). In all seriousness though, I simply find continental philosophy more interesting; the few analytic philosophers I enjoy tend to be those who bridge the chasm between the two (the later Wittgenstein, Rorty [postanalytic?], Davidson, etc). I am mainly concerned with ontology; the analytic project slightly offends my postmodern (if I have leave to employ so nebulous and protean a term) sensibilities.I take exception to your opinion, Luduan.
Tell that to Michael Martin, Anthony Flew et al. =) Continental philosophy (in Heidegger's wake) is much more concerned with "how" things exist than "what" exists.Particularly with Analytic Philosophy: this is a branch of Philosophy that is typically not concerned with assertions of existence, like does God exist, what is ethical and all the stock questions we ask ourselves and all the "ideas we've had our whole lives" (in fact, most Analytics don't think metaphysical concerns are issues of Philosophy).
Your first statement in the quote above is an unwarranted generalization (I'm sure that even you can realize this). Like I said before, most people who are interested in Analytic Philosophy pair their major with something Math related (such as Math, Physics, Computer Science, and Linguistics, which is something I overlooked that can be Math related, too). In fact, I don't know anyone who doesn't. I'm sure these people exist (by virtue of probability), but there is a general trend towards a pairing of majors; it takes a specific brand of person to be interested in Analytic Philosophy, I feel, and those are the people who genuinely enjoy Math (Physics would have been cool; I regret not pursuing that sometimes). And your explanation as to why people study Analytic Philosophy is equally absurd and generalized.Analytic philosophy always struck me as being for people who werent smart enough for maths or linguistics. Or I guess, for people who thought philosophy sounded cool, realised it was rubbish, then didnt want to change degrees to maths or linguistics for whatever reason. I also am confused about why if they are so interested in disambiguating expression, they named their field something so misleading.
There isnt any a priori knowledge that you dont know already. Even in mathematics all you learn are the definitions of symbols. Once you know what dividing is you already know that 4 divided by 2 is 2. The technique of mathematics is improving efficiency, and having a good memory.I won't bother attempting to defend philosophy as a discipline against the ill-formed attack on it. Philosophical considerations have become such a part of my own life that I find it odd for anyone to question their value, either intrinsic or instrumental. If you dislike philosophy, fine, but to dismiss it without reason on the grounds that it is "nonsense" and "uninteresting history" evinces intellectual laziness and ignorance of the subject.