First of all, the employment rate for Ph.D.'s in philosophy is higher than the average in the humanities and higher than the rate in biology or the social sciences: 98.9%.

Second, the median salary of philosophers is only 14% less than that of scientists and engineers, (a highly paid group.)

Third, philosophy is the only field in which the employment rate is the same for men and women.

Finally, given the nature of their discipline, philosophers develop analytic and verbal skills applicable to almost every imaginable problem, and as a result, are professionally involved with almost every area of human endeavour. This explains why philosophy majors outperform most, if not all, other disciplines in the following: the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test); the GMAT (Graduate Management Admissions Test); the GRE (Graduate Record Examination).

On the verbal portion of the GRE, philosophy majors outperformed all other humanities majors (only English came close) as well as individuals majoring in all other fields (social sciences, natural sciences, business, engineering, computer science). On the quantitative portion of the GRE where the highest scores were attained by engineering and science majors, humanities majors made a poor showing. But even there philosophy majors scored higher than average--indeed their quantitative scores were higher than those of all the social sciences except economics.

On the LSAT and GMAT (which few students would think to prepare for by studying metaphysics and ethics) philosophy majors performed substantially better than majors in any other humanities field, better than all the social science majors except economics, better than all natural science majors except mathematics, and better than all business and applied fields, including engineering.

Philosophers work in industry, government, and education. They become lawyers, doctors, administrators, teachers, diplomats, consultants, stockbrokers, bankers, and managers. They are accepted and respected in all professional schools and welcomed into management training programs.

So who says philosophy isn't practical?

Henry Jackman / Department of Philosophy, York University
last revised April 2007