Phil asked:

I want to be a philosopher. I know that, but I get, say, my degree in philosophy and then what? I know
there is teaching but what are the possibilities with a degree in philosophy and how do I find those?
Its not like I can open up the newspaper and see an ad for "philosopher for hire".

I'm only a 16 year old still in that "I know I'm gonna be a rock star cause my mommy told me so"
phase, so obviously I want to be the next modern day Plato or Aristotle, or wait — even better —
Leonardo da Vinci. I'm doing this not only for personal use but I'm also in a "speech/tech" class and I
have to do a powerpoint presentation on my chosen career: a philosopher. Not really a very easy
thing to do for one who has no clue where to start. Basically, I know that Princeton has the highest
regarded philosophy department, but my enlightenment stops right there.

============

At a Freshers induction day for the Sheffield Philosophy Department, I was asked by young student
just starting out on her BA degree what were the job prospects for philosophy graduates. "I complete
my degree, then what?" "Then you sign on the dole!" (social security) I replied. This did not go down
too well. I think she was expecting me to say, "Then you get a job teaching philosophy, have a
brilliant career, become famous and live happily ever after." You will not be surprised to hear that I
was not invited to any more induction days.

It wouldn't have been so bad, had our conversation not been overheard by a young woman from MIT
who had recently joined the Sheffield teaching staff. She was outraged. How could I justify living off
the state? A parasite financed by taxpayers hard-earned money? I said something to the effect that
the tax payers were getting "good value for their money" from unemployed philosophers who worked
hard at what they did best. She replied coldly that people with jobs didn't have the choice whether or
not to pay taxes.

Back in 1987, only three or four years before this incident occurred, I was unemployed, driven to the
desperate expedient of putting up 'Philosopher for Hire' cards in the windows of local shops.
Everyone deserves at least one lucky break in life. Mine was having a sharp-eyed reporter from the
Sheffield Starnotice my little advert. A week later, I was being interviewed and having my photograph
taken. The article appeared under the headline, "Philosopher in Bid to Hire Out His Talents". The
reporter, Donna Saul, came up with the happy phrase, 'Soul searching for ordinary people', which
later inspired the title of one of the Pathways programs. (For a more recent Sheffield Stararticle, with
photo, see Mind Games on the Glass House Philosopher site.)

Donna Saul's article led to my getting a job teaching philosophy evening classes for the Workers'
Educational Association (which I am proud to be still doing today) and other teaching work, including
work at the Sheffield Philosophy Department. I could have continued down that route, making a
respectable living as an academic philosopher, but I chose not to. Instead, I resigned my university
work to pursue my dream of having my own school of philosophy.

You can make it in the academic world if you are the best. If you think you've got what it takes, then
go for it. I'm talking about a first class degree, a PhD, articles published in philosophy journals. Maybe
one day you could make it up the greasy pole to the Chair of Princeton. That won't make you a Plato
or a da Vinci. It's worth remembering that most of the great philosophers in history were not academic
philosophers. The majority of the philosophers teaching in universities today who have gained fame
and recognition for their work will be forgotten in a hundred years time.

And what if you fail to make it to the big time? That is when you will have to decide just how much
philosophy means to you. Would you still want to be a philosopher, even if it meant poverty,
obscurity? Working at a petrol pump or as a janitor, or — horror of horrors — living off social security
and food coupons? I wouldn't blame you if you said, 'That's not for me.'

Geoffrey Klempner

Actually, there are websites, etc., for "jobs for philosophers," and in this country (USA), about 2/3 of
PhD's get jobs. Pretty bad, all told... and they don't pay well. Suppose you wrote poetry, and loved it,
and had talent in that area... what would you do? Or, to put it another way... the only things I have
ever really been interested in (after trying probably 50 different jobs) are philosophical issues,
problems, questions... and I've finally bitten the bullet, and I'm about to get my PhD in philosophy, and
I've started publishing (in my 50s). Um... if you gotta do it, do it... there are how many... 6 or 8 billion
people in the world....? Do what you want... if you fail, so what? If you die poor, so what? The ethics
of doing philosophy, in part, at least, is that it's ideas trickle down, so to speak, and have great and
general influence... rather than science, which goes the other way, initially.

Steven Ravett Brown