If you ain’t a philosopher, does your major matter?

An interesting article from the NY Times about the rising popularity in the classes and major of Philosophy.

Excerpts:

Once scoffed at as a luxury major, philosophy is being embraced at Rutgers and other universities by a new generation of college students who are drawing modern-day lessons from the age-old discipline as they try to make sense of their world…

“If I were to start again as an undergraduate, I would major in philosophy,” said Matthew Goldstein, the CUNY* chancellor, who majored in mathematics and statistics.

Some schools with established programs like Texas A&M, Notre Dame, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, now have twice as many philosophy majors as they did in the 1990s.

Max Bialek, 22, was majoring in math until his senior year, when he discovered philosophy. “I thought: Why weren’t all my other classes like that one?”

*City University of New York