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A Conversation with Dr. Sandy Goldberg on Getting a Job in Philosophy

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 goldbergPhilosophy News recently published a series of reports that provide insight into how philosophy students get placed after they graduate. Northwestern University is one of the schools that surfaced in these reports as being particularly successful at helping students find jobs in academic philosophy. The chairman of the philosophy department at Northwestern, Dr. Sandy Goldberg, agreed to spend some time with us to talk about philosophy as an academic discipline, about the career prospect for students studying philosophy, and about how the program at Northwestern is designed to help students to be as successful as possible after they graduate.

One bit of guidance Dr. Goldberg gives students in this engaging conversation focuses on what he sees as a prerequisite for entering a philosophy program in the first place. “One really has to love philosophy, if you’re going to commit even the years in graduate school to it. You have to love it. I think you actually have to love it intrinsically. You have to love what is really beautiful about thinking of these ideas and the clash of opinions. If you don’t love it in that way, so much so that you can’t imagine doing anything else, then my advice would be, don’t do it to begin with.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Listen: [mp3:Goldberg_interview.mp3]


Other Resources

Dr. Goldberg’s faculty page at Northwestern

Article on the value of philosophy by Paul Pardi

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Philosophy News Placement Reports:

pr_phd Graduate Student Philosophy Placement Records 

pr_terminalma

 Terminal MA Placement Report

pr_prestige

 The “Prestige” Report

Books by Dr. Goldberg:

Relying on Others: An Essay in Epistemology

Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology

 

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