Philosophy in the News

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The classic discipline can help with contemporary dilemmas and modern careers

No, it's not another spinoff of Law & Order. It's Ethics Bowl, an increasingly popular intercollegiate tourna-ment where competing teams reason their way through thorny case histories. The winners are judged not on the sound and fury of their responses but on the thoroughness of their consideration and understanding of differing points of view.

If it all sounds a tad philosophical, you're right. The growth of Ethics Bowl competitions—which began in 1993 at the Illinois Institute of Technology, have since spread to 94 colleges nationwide, and are now filtering down to high schools—is emblematic of a burgeoning interest in philosophy and applied ethics. "To see 10th graders think this deeply just floors me," says Valerie Gallina, grant specialist in Florida's Pinellas County Character Partnership. "It shows our youth are thinking globally."

David Schrader of the American Philosophical Association sees "a growth in the number of students majoring in philosophy." The reason, he speculates, is that "in a world where people change careers many times, the skills that philosophy teaches you are wonderfully transferable." Those tools include critical thinking, logic, and analytical writing, which have practical applications in a range of careers—such as law, teaching, medicine, business, and management—and are valuable to have in times of economic (and employment) uncertainty.

Moreover, experts say, logical skills can be taught starting at an early age. In Springfield, Mass., philosophy Prof. Thomas Wartenberg and his students from Mount Holyoke College expose second graders to philosophy not through Kant and Descartes but by discussing children's picture books like the Frog and Toad series. Engaging youngsters in open-ended conversations helps them "see that there are wrong answers but no right answers, that you can disagree and you can have different points of view," says Wartenberg. "This is really philosophy in the Socratic tradition, thinking deeply about very puzzling issues and concepts that are present in your life."

The financial and climate crises, global consumption habits, and other 21st-century challenges call for a "killer app." I think I've found it: philosophy.

Philosophy can help us address the (literally) existential challenges the world currently confronts, but only if we take it off the back burner and apply it as a burning platform in business.

Philosophy explores the deepest, broadest questions of life—why we exist, how society should organize itself, how institutions should relate to society, and the purpose of human endeavor, to name just a few. The Wealth of Nations, a book that serves as the intellectual platform for capitalism, lays out how markets should be organized and how people should behave in such markets. The book's author, Adam Smith, was not an economist, as many believe, but a philosopher. Smith was chairman of the Moral Philosophy Dept. at Glasgow University when he wrote the book.

Like other philosophers, Smith attempted to create a new framework for understanding the world, addressing how we as humans seek alignment in our relationships and among competing interests.

The philosophical approach Smith pursued has faded from use, yet it's more relevant than ever in light of the crises our organizations and countries face. Credit, climate, and consumption crises cannot be solved through specialized expertise alone. These problems, like most issues businesses confront in the global marketplace, feature complex interdependencies that require an understanding of how political, financial, environmental, ethical, and social interests influence each other. A philosophical approach connects the dots among competing interests in an effort to create synergy. Linking competing interests requires philosophers to examine areas that modern-day domain experts too often ignore: core beliefs, ethics, and character.

When I say we need to return to a philosophical approach in relation to problem-solving, I mean that we need to broaden our understanding of problems by looking deeper at our own beliefs, values, ethics, and character, and then understand how they relate to those of others who share a stake in our problem-solving efforts.

Needed: broader questions and goals

This has grown difficult to do at the organizational level because so many our businesses are packed with specialized domain experts. We are having trouble connecting the dots among these knowledge silos to conceive enduring solutions.

Like philosophers, we as individuals and organizations need to keep values, ethics, and the overall human condition in mind as we make decisions and take actions. Among other behaviors, this means hiring for character (in addition to specialized skills), considering the long-term implications (in addition to the short-term rewards) of our decisions, and figuring out how we can create value (in addition to extracting value).

By taking these steps and embracing a more philosophical approach to problem-solving, we will establish our character as the 21st century's defining competitive differentiator. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus so elegantly put it almost 2,500 years ago: "Character is fate." This holds true for individuals and organizations.

I see growing evidence of businesses asserting their desire to address the human condition, which certainly marks a step in the right direction.

My bias stems from my experience as an undergraduate at UCLA, where philosophy lit a fire inside me. By rewarding me for the careful consideration of one idea instead of compelling me to read hundreds of pages of text, philosophy helped me understand why I was struggling in all other academic areas. I studied philosophy for seven years before I went to law school, where I took eight classes in jurisprudence, which is essentially the philosophy of law.

Read the rest of the article at Business Week.

Recent News about the Advantages of Philosophy

• "To Beat the Market, Hire a Philosopher" -- that's the striking headline of a recent article in The New York Times Mutual Funds Report. Bill Miller, the manager of one of the most successful mutual funds in the country, was a philosophy graduate student at Johns Hopkins University before turning to investing. He uses his philosophical studies in his investment work, applying the ideas of the American thinker William James, examining the value of companies using philosophical thought experiments. Miller's success shows how a philosophical approach pays off financially to beat the market. The New York Times, 10 January 1999, BU 35.
• "For all the jokes about them, philosophy majors appear to do remarkably well" -- so says C. M. Cropper, in a New York Times article that explains that philosophy majors are increasingly successful in a world in which business and government depend more and more on abstract reasoning abilities. See C. M. Cropper, "Philosophers Find the Degree Pays off in Life and in Work", The New York Times, 26 December 1997, D1.
• The New York Times Career Planner reports that "Philosophy is one fundamental area of study that has found a new role in the high-tech world." In an information-based economy, people who can think conceptually are more and more valuable. See E. Fowler, The New York Times Career Planner (New York: Random House, 1987).

NY Times: In a New Generation of College Students, Many Opt for the Life Examined