Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer majored in philosophy at Stanford University. So did Carly Fiorina before she became chief executive of Hewlett-Packard. As chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Sheila Bair leaned on her philosophy degree from the University of Kansas to make crucial decisions during the financial crisis. NBC journalist Katy Tur said her background in philosophy helped her formulate probing questions of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign.
“Philosophy majors get a bad rap,” Tur said. “People like to assume we are bloviators. . . . I would argue that for the vast majority of people, an education of teaching you to think critically about the world you are in and what you know and what you don’t know is useful for absolutely everything that you could possibly do in the future.”...
As FDIC chair from 2006 to 2011, Bair was responsible for ensuring that bank customers did not lose their money as financial institutions teetered. She said her studies in philosophy helped her to distill what was most important amid all the “clamoring and agendas swirling around.”
“It helps you break things down to their simplest elements,” Bair said. “My philosophy training really helps me with that intellectual rigor of simplifying things and finding out what’s important.”
h/t AAC&U
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