Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[GrayArea]

Hello.

I am currently in the first year of University, and I'm starting to think that my current major isn't really for me. Because of that, I'm considering switching majors on my second year.

I have been, and still am, intrigued by the nature of consciousness, and I would love to study it further while also writing about the topic—outside of just writing about it in online forums that is.

So the question is, in order for me to more effectively pursue these things, would I be better off majoring in Philosophy or Neuroscience?

FYI, My primary interests regarding the topic of consciousness are mainly about how consciousness is formed / what causes subjective experience, the relationship between subjective and objective experience, as well as what causes self-awareness.
I am aware that this is closer to philosophy than neuroscience, but on the other hand, I feel that one needs to be proficient in both philosophy of mind AND neuroscience in order to answer these questions fully and in more detail, as I believe that subjective existence and physical/objective existence are inevitably and closely interconnected.

And of course, I'm also taking the job opportunities into consideration. Compared to majoring in neuroscience, majoring in philosophy seems too economically risky just because compared to the former, it doesn't offer as many reliable job opportunities.

Are you planning to work in your field of study? In other words are you looking at University as job training? If not, then major in whichever you prefer. If so, you'll need a doctorate degree to work in your field. Are you up for that? I agree that with a doctorate there are more jobs in neuroscience, but many of them are in academia. Are you interested in grant writing? I certainly was not and I suspect few are.

Good luck.

Yes, I am planning to work in my field of study, and I am aware that especially for areas like philosophy or neuroscience, working in my field of study would require a doctorate degree. So far I am up for that choice, if the major is something that I am truly passionate about.

But it does concern me a little that I may not be able to get a major-related job (or a well-paying job in general) during the years of studying for the doctorate degree. I certainly don't know if I would like grant writing, but I imagine when it comes to majoring in neuroscience, I would be down to work as some sort of an assistant researcher in a lab.

As for majoring in philosophy, I'll have to think more about what jobs I could get from doing that.

I could be a professor, a blogger, or an author, though I would usually prefer getting jobs that are closely related to my field of study. Although, I imagine there are a lot of jobs out there that are only slightly related to philosophy, yet at the same time give you a good amount of advantage if you were to major in philosophy.

Interesting. Are you a lab rat by nature? I ask because there is a very big difference in the practice of the two areas (bench top research vs library "research" and paper writing). To be honest they tend to attract very different personality types. The answer lies within your understanding of yourself.

I'd say I'm just attracted to jobs that allow me to make discoveries about the world and make them known to others. As long as I can achieve that, I don't care about the "how", whether it be through experiments or through writing papers.

[LuckyR]

Are you planning to work in your field of study? In other words are you looking at University as job training? If not, then major in whichever you prefer. If so, you'll need a doctorate degree to work in your field. Are you up for that? I agree that with a doctorate there are more jobs in neuroscience, but many of them are in academia. Are you interested in grant writing? I certainly was not and I suspect few are.

Good luck.

Yes, I am planning to work in my field of study, and I am aware that especially for areas like philosophy or neuroscience, working in my field of study would require a doctorate degree. So far I am up for that choice, if the major is something that I am truly passionate about.

But it does concern me a little that I may not be able to get a major-related job (or a well-paying job in general) during the years of studying for the doctorate degree. I certainly don't know if I would like grant writing, but I imagine when it comes to majoring in neuroscience, I would be down to work as some sort of an assistant researcher in a lab.

As for majoring in philosophy, I'll have to think more about what jobs I could get from doing that.

I could be a professor, a blogger, or an author, though I would usually prefer getting jobs that are closely related to my field of study. Although, I imagine there are a lot of jobs out there that are only slightly related to philosophy, yet at the same time give you a good amount of advantage if you were to major in philosophy.

Interesting. Are you a lab rat by nature? I ask because there is a very big difference in the practice of the two areas (bench top research vs library "research" and paper writing). To be honest they tend to attract very different personality types. The answer lies within your understanding of yourself.

I'd say I'm just attracted to jobs that allow me to make discoveries about the world and make them known to others. As long as I can achieve that, I don't care about the "how", whether it be through experiments or through writing papers.

You sound more practical than theoretical. True?

[GrayArea]

Yes, I am planning to work in my field of study, and I am aware that especially for areas like philosophy or neuroscience, working in my field of study would require a doctorate degree. So far I am up for that choice, if the major is something that I am truly passionate about.

But it does concern me a little that I may not be able to get a major-related job (or a well-paying job in general) during the years of studying for the doctorate degree. I certainly don't know if I would like grant writing, but I imagine when it comes to majoring in neuroscience, I would be down to work as some sort of an assistant researcher in a lab.

As for majoring in philosophy, I'll have to think more about what jobs I could get from doing that.

I could be a professor, a blogger, or an author, though I would usually prefer getting jobs that are closely related to my field of study. Although, I imagine there are a lot of jobs out there that are only slightly related to philosophy, yet at the same time give you a good amount of advantage if you were to major in philosophy.

Interesting. Are you a lab rat by nature? I ask because there is a very big difference in the practice of the two areas (bench top research vs library "research" and paper writing). To be honest they tend to attract very different personality types. The answer lies within your understanding of yourself.

I'd say I'm just attracted to jobs that allow me to make discoveries about the world and make them known to others. As long as I can achieve that, I don't care about the "how", whether it be through experiments or through writing papers.

You sound more practical than theoretical. True?

One could say that I desire practicality in fulfilling my interest in the "theoretical", for example studying philosophy of mind or neuroscience, (which I would think counts as a "theoretical") as well as making sure that the knowledge I discover becomes known by others too, whether they're professionals in the same field or just other people.

[LuckyR]

Well if bench top research lights your fire I'd go neuro science, if it doesn't I wouldn't.

[ConsciousAI]

Did you consider neurophilosophy or philosophy of neuroscience? It is a new and upcoming field.

"Neurophilosophy is a scientific discipline connecting neuroscience and philosophy and that intends to research former genuine philosophical topics, such as the ancient and major topics of consciousness, the self, and free will. These philosophical topics faced the enormous development of imaging-methods (neuroimaging) in the last past 35–40 years, hence resulting in an increasing interest of neuroscience in them which allows different kinds of interaction between both disciplines today."

There are several universities that offer courses or programs in neurophilosophy, including:

- University of Pittsburgh: Graduate Program, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
- Georgia State University Neuroscience Institute
- Duke University: Department of Philosophy
- Millsaps College

[ConsciousAI]

In case that you would be interested in the new study of Neurophilosophy, the following video debate includes eliminative materialism pioneer Patricia Churchland who invented the study of neurophilosophy.

Planck and the consciousness puzzle (2021)
iai - tv/video/planck-and-the-consciousness-puzzle

[HZY]

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, which gives you something physical to work with, and is therefore job friendly. Philosophy, on the other hand, is basically an exercise in unrestricted mental speculation on anything and everything but otherwise doesn't really have any physical components to it, is therefore not as job friendly in comparison.

So if you want to get a job, go for Neuroscience.

[Xenophon]

Hello.

I am currently in the first year of University, and I'm starting to think that my current major isn't really for me. Because of that, I'm considering switching majors on my second year.

I have been, and still am, intrigued by the nature of consciousness, and I would love to study it further while also writing about the topic—outside of just writing about it in online forums that is.

So the question is, in order for me to more effectively pursue these things, would I be better off majoring in Philosophy or Neuroscience?

FYI, My primary interests regarding the topic of consciousness are mainly about how consciousness is formed / what causes subjective experience, the relationship between subjective and objective experience, as well as what causes self-awareness.
I am aware that this is closer to philosophy than neuroscience, but on the other hand, I feel that one needs to be proficient in both philosophy of mind AND neuroscience in order to answer these questions fully and in more detail, as I believe that subjective existence and physical/objective existence are inevitably and closely interconnected.

And of course, I'm also taking the job opportunities into consideration. Compared to majoring in neuroscience, majoring in philosophy seems too economically risky just because compared to the former, it doesn't offer as many reliable job opportunities.

Do neuroscience. It subjects you to the discipline of actually being able to back up what you say with hard evidence. Philosophy too often becomes verbal jousting. (I know: I used to be a squire and often walked through horse****.) A good scientist can weigh in on most philosophical discussions without being handicapped. The late Robert Palter of U. Texas-Austin used to say that philosophy's cutting edge had migrated to physics.

[Lagayascienza]

This is a really tough question. But I would probably go with neuroscience. I say that partly because I'd enjoy getting my hands dirty in the lab as well as having an intellectual challenge. Philosophy is all mind stuff. That is not to belittle philosophy. I've always been interested in philosophy but I did law because I liked the hands on stuff of the courtroom and dealing with clients, as well as the intellectual challenge of keeping up to date with the never ending developments in the law and, perhaps, being a part of and contributing to those developments. I did a bit of philosophy in jurisprudence at university but, if I had done pure philosophy, my career prospects would have been limited to academia or writing philosophy for the folk. But there is no guarantee I would have gotten a tenured position at a university and I may not have been good enough at, or interested in, writing philosophy for the folk. You made mention already of career prospects and I think that, unless one is already wealthy, future employment prospects have to be an very important consideration. (Although, I'm only assuming here, and don't really know, that neuroscience would offer better prospects than philosophy)
Another point to consider is that one doesn't have to be a professional philosopher to pursue philosophy. Anyone with reasonable intelligence and good literacy skills can produce philosophy worth reading. If you can get into university neuroscience and if you want to study consciousness, you are going to have to get acquainted with metaphysics and philosophy of mind anyway, if only to understand the question, What is consciousness? Consciousness is one of the big questions for modern science. It's a question that I think can only be addressed by science. Being involved in that would be awesome.

[Xenophon]

This is a really tough question. But I would probably go with neuroscience. I say that partly because I'd enjoy getting my hands dirty in the lab as well as having an intellectual challenge. Philosophy is all mind stuff. That is not to belittle philosophy. I've always been interested in philosophy but I did law because I liked the hands on stuff of the courtroom and dealing with clients, as well as the intellectual challenge of keeping up to date with the never ending developments in the law and, perhaps, being a part of and contributing to those developments. I did a bit of philosophy in jurisprudence at university but, if I had done pure philosophy, my career prospects would have been limited to academia or writing philosophy for the folk. But there is no guarantee I would have gotten a tenured position at a university and I may not have been good enough at, or interested in, writing philosophy for the folk. You made mention already of career prospects and I think that, unless one is already wealthy, future employment prospects have to be an very important consideration. (Although, I'm only assuming here, and don't really know, that neuroscience would offer better prospects than philosophy)
Another point to consider is that one doesn't have to be a professional philosopher to pursue philosophy. Anyone with reasonable intelligence and good literacy skills can produce philosophy worth reading. If you can get into university neuroscience and if you want to study consciousness, you are going to have to get acquainted with metaphysics and philosophy of mind anyway, if only to understand the question, What is consciousness? Consciousness is one of the big questions for modern science. It's a question that I think can only be addressed by science. Being involved in that would be awesome.

Very well put. Ignore my sometime razzing.

[Lagayascienza]

Cheers, Xenaphon. I try not to take things here personally or too seriously.