How to Beat Stress if You’re a Philosophy Graduate

This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes for online degree. She welcomes comments at: anna.miller009@gmail.com

Image: innoxiuss (Flickr)

If you’re a student of philosophy or thinking of majoring in the subject, you probably know how it feels to be at the receiving end of pitying or scornful looks. You may not mind so much because you wanted to study this major or because it was the only choice you had that was financially and otherwise viable. But if you’re stressed over worries about your future employability, here’s how you can shrug off the tension and look forward to a bright future:

• Think ahead: Even though it’s not a major that many would choose today, philosophy is still a discipline that’s going strong in many colleges and universities. And although it may seem like it’s out of the running (what with engineering and management pushing it to the back seat), most people don’t realize that philosophy graduates are enjoying their moment in the sun with fields that require analytical reasoning snapping them up as soon as they graduate or within six months of graduation. In particular, the disciplines that prefer to employ philosophy graduates are finance, property development, business and research, health and social work, sales and retail, management and administration, manufacturing, catering, and even personal services (see below for a full list).

Intensive interrogation doesn’t lead to information

The use of harsh interrogative techniques by the U.S. government has been a hotly debated topic in the global media in recent months. The debate is especially intense with respect to the moral significance of such techniques. As significant is the controversy about the veracity of the information acquired through the application of these techniques.

These two issues are often considered to be related. The weight of our moral considerations is likely to be inversely related to the utility of the practice (though followers of Kant would reject this claim). In other words, if we find that reliable and crucial information can only be obtained by inflicting significant harm to a single purportedly depraved individual, our moral responsibility towards that individual seems diminished. If, on the other hand, milder techniques are just as effective, our reasons for employing harsh interrogation seem morally suspect.

New research reported on the BBC website indicates that the harsh interrogative techniques in question are not only ineffective at eliciting reliable and crucial information, but also that they have a negative long-term effect on the possibility of obtaining that information. The research shows that, under conditions of extremely high stress, detainees