graduating, jobs, conscience

Friday, 2 February 2007

With graduation on the horizon the question of jobs is once again a real dilemma. Between high school and college there are two years, where I worked and then didn’t work then worked again, and then decided that maybe college was a good decision. This last decision was probably a result of working for minimum wage at a fast food restaurant. Since going to college I know I have changed in many ways. I found a really passion for philosophy and theological type stuff. So now finishing school with a BA in philosophy leaves me wondering what I am supposed to do with the rest of my life. There are thoughts of graduate school afterwards, but even that has doubts. To put the time into graduate school while studying philosophy won’t help my career options too much except if i want to teach philosophy but even that would be tough with the teaching market as it is.

So where does that leave me–wondering about who I am and what I should be doing. I don’t know how many university types feel this but, I feel kind of guilty for the stuff I’m doing. I mean is philosophy really doing anything? I know philosophers try to make themselves out to be important but many times I think it’s only done to get funding at their university. I wonder how many people are like myself in feeling almost guilty for what I do. I have a good friend who does construction worker. He works on really nice multi-million dollar houses. He has some real skills, he can actually fix things which I only hope of fixing or just break it worse in the attempt. He has a certain amount of contempt for schooling, and therefore I feel guilty for what I do–read old books and write papers about them.

I’m about to graduate school and I wonder what type of thing I’m supposed to venture into; sometimes I dream about doing some kind of woodworking type thing. I don’t know if every man feels this way, but I have that desire to be some kind of natural man, a real mountain man who can build his own house and then live on his own in it. I guess the question comes down to working with your hands versus working with your brain.


Category: life

2 Responses

  1. Jake T writes:
    No. 1 — February 7th, 2007 at 3:31 am

    You know, I’m reading this book right now which is GREAT (despite the cringe-inducing title): The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience.

    His thesis is that, for the most part, American Evangelicalism has not, since Jonathan Edwards, contributed much of anything to the intellectual community.

    Period.

    And that that’s a travesty. The first half of the book (I’m not quite half-way through) traces the historical evolution of Christian intellectualism (or rather, anti-intellectuatlism) in America. It’s a great read–highly recommended (it’s just a bit challenging for me, which is great–you’d blow through it like it was ‘Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus’).

    Anyways, when I read your post, it made me think, ‘this is exactly what he’s talking about–there’s this ingrained idea in us that working with our minds and contributing to the intellectual dialog ISN’T important or worthwhile. but that’s just bull crap.’

    So I think you should go for it. I don’t have the faintest idea how you’re going to get paid, grad school, then slug it out and be a professor at some college or university somewhere, I suppose. But do it, don’t feel like you’ve got to build planes, or wait tables, or do marketing. What you’re doing IS worthwhile. It’s not for everybody (thankfully). But if you don’t hate it by now, you’re heads and shoulders above a million other people out there who start on a philosophy major because it sounds cool.

    I say go for it. Whatever the crap it is. Seriously.

  2. Anonymous writes:
    No. 2 — January 25th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

    Teach philosophy and work part-time OR work full-time and teach philosophy.

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