Career Readiness with Philosophy

Practical philosophy is about connecting abstract philosophical theories to real-world problems, from everyday decisionmaking to grand societal challenges. Students in our classes might apply ideas from John Stuart Mill to questions of social media content moderation, or consider political polarization in light of Aristotle's notion of civic friendship. .

Conceptual engineering is the practice of systematically developing terms and definitions, allowing us to understand an issue more precisely. A concept such as "responsibility" can mean several different things — causal, legal, moral; looking to the past or to the future — and students in our Free Will course might study the complex relationships among these different ways of thinking about responsibility.

Philosophy attracts students who are intellectually curious and highly engaged. Many of our students report reading non-fiction recreationally, conducting research on their own, or working with faculty on an independent study or research project. One of our student-organized groups, Examined Life, meets weekly for open-ended philosophical discussion. While philosophy majors pursue many different kinds of careers after graduation, as a group they are highly self-motivated and intellectually autonomous.

Philosophy students develop their verbal communication skills through classroom discussion and debate. Most philosophy classes require analytical writing assignments, where students have to identify the logic of an argument, clearly present their own view, and consider an objection and reply from a contrasting point of view. Philosophical writing emphasizes clarity, precision, and logical structure. Philosophy majors have the highest average scores on the Verbal and Writing sections of the GRE, a standardized test used for admission to PhD programs.

Philosophy is the home of logic. All philosophy majors take an introductory course in logic, and practice applying the tools of logic in their advanced courses. Students learn to identify premises and conclusions and analyze the validity of arguments using formal logic. Philosophy is consistently among the top majors for the LSAT, a standardized test of logical reasoning that’s used for law school admissions.

Many of our courses involve projects: students might develop policy proposals, create flash talks, or record podcasts, along with more traditional research papers. Some of our faculty offer students the option to design their own, non-traditional assignment, engaging with philosophical ideas in novel formats like visual or recording arts, creative non-fiction writing, and interactive websites.

Philosophy courses such as ethics and philosophy of religion equip students to reflect on their own values, thoughtfully engage with the values of others, and take principled action in line with their commitments.

Philosophy courses frequently involve thoughtful discussions of points of deep disagreements. Philosophy students learn to listen carefully, understand the views of others, and consider the strengths of those views relative to their own. In philosophical debates students learn how to engage across disagreement with thoughtfulness and respect, preventing disagreement from falling into conflict. These experiences prepare students of philosophy to work in intellectually diverse teams and successfully navigate our highly polarized society.

Many of the largest challenges our society faces today have technological aspects: polarization and social media, climate change and electric vehicles, AI-driven disruptions to the white collar job market. Several of the UC Merced philosophy faculty work on the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of novel scientific research and technological development. We believe that ELSI expertise is an essential complement to technical expertise. In Fall 2025 we launched a new major, Science, Technology, and Ethics, designed to train the next generation of ELSI experts.