Scottish Nous

Wow!

Check it out! I cleaned house! (I know I deleted some comments I didn't mean to.  Sorry.)

What Can't You Do With A Philosophy Degree?

Worries about just what standardized tests prove aside, I'm going to follow Vintage Piranha by pointing out that GRE takers who intend to pursue a graduate degree in philosophy drastically outperform all other GRE takers on the verbal reasoning and analytical writing sections of the test.  Data is available here.  Their analytical writing mean is 5.1 out of a possible 6.0, and their verbal reasoning mean is 589 out of a possible 800.  Compare with physics and astronomy (4.5/534), engineering (4.2/467), biological sciences (4.4/491), chemistry (4.4/487), english language and literature (4.9/559), early childhood education (4.1/418) and the social sciences (4.5/486).

Philosophers don't totally dominate the field when it comes to quantitative reasoning, but they do pretty well.  Like the verbal reasoning, this section is scored out of 800 possible points.  Vintage Piranha places them in fifteenth place out of a field of fifty, yet this is only because he counts each of the seven engineering disciplines (civil, mechanical, electrical, etc...) separately.  If we collapse the engineers into one class, the philosophers (636) lose only to the economists (706) and financiers (barely - 637), engineers (720), mathematicians (733), chemists (682), earth scientists (again, barely - 637), physicists/astronomers (738) and computer scientists (704).  I place them at 9th place in a field of thirty-six (by collapsing education as well).  For a discipline in the humanities with terribly low (university imposed) mathemtical requirements, that's pretty slick.

It is also well-known that philosophers (along with classicists) dominate the LSAT.  A list of the estimated IQ's of some of known history's greatest thinkers includes a proportionate number of philosophers, that is, the high number of philosophers one would expect.  You can also input some of your own scores to get some interesting interconversions and percentile data.  (Who knows how reliable this is.)  My GRE scores, for the record, were 650 (verbal), 780 (quantitative) and 6.0 (analytical writing).  According to the calculator here, that's the 99.865 percentile, a number which is at least roughly confirmed by the non-specialized standardized test data I have available.  Having never studied or reviewed for any general academic test in my life (in my case, the TCAP, PSAT, ACT, and GRE), this warms me over.  I'm done tooting my own horn.  For a little more data and a WSJ clipping, go here.

The State of the Career

Once again, I'm apologizing for keeping a very uninteresting blog these past months.  As the end of the semester approached, I noticed that several philosophy bloggers reduced their posting habits, so at least I'm not alone.  For the record, there seems to be no point, at least at a state school like CU, to holding extra office hours.  Students, including those that would benefit greatly from doing so, almost never show up.  But the semester is over, and all I have to focus on now is my upcoming thesis defense five days away.  With that out of the way (at least, I'm not foreseeing any problems), I'll be prepared to leave Colorado for my shiny new graduate program (news that hasn't appeared here to date).  So yes, I'm both very excited and insanely busy.  Anyone reading this whom I'll be meeting in the near future?

Wherein I Diagnose Myself With the Flu

I don't usually get sick easily, or stay sick for long, but I've been unbelievably miserable for the past five days.  Fortunately, I can now report that this morning, my longest ever running fever seems to have finally broken.  The first two nights were horrible.  I was curled up under my blanket in a burning hot room shaking to death trying to warm my poor body up.  I suppose this is what is known a "the chills", but "the chills" were accompanied by a strange burning sensation that didn't provide any heat.  Fever during the chills: 102.  Otherwise: 99.5. 

The third night I avoided the chills, but traded them up for the sweats.  Fever still 99.5.  This is a good sign, as it means one's fever is starting to break, but I'm not sure which actually feels worse.  Trying to go back to sleep in a bed that feels like it has been soaked with a bucket of cold water is not at all pleasurable.  Last night I went to bed with my constant 99.5 fever, slept relatively peacefully, and woke up feeling much better.  Temperature in the morning: 98.6.  My immune system is finally winning!   Couple all this with a nasty case of pinkeye, an infection I understand frequently accompanies flu-like infections, and you clearly have me at my sickest ever. 

I have kept very close track of my symptoms, and based upon my observations, I think I can discriminate between the flu and the cold.  There is but one anomaly.  My fever only hit 102 when I had the shaking/chills, but I think it's common for flu sufferers to reach higher temperatures.  (Maybe I'm just hardy?)  Still, whatever it was hit instantly, was accompanied by an unremitting minor headache, some slight muscle achiness, a dry cough, and at least the first day, sudden and total lethargy.  I did have a bit of respiratory conjestion in the form of a leaky nose, but only on the third day.  Add to this that I landed a bacterial infection (pinkeye), and the balance of the evidence seems to favor the flu. 

Over the course of the past five days, I estimate I have spent 85% of my time in bed and consumed at least eight gallons of tea.  Hopefully I'll be able to go back to work soon as well as start being philosophically productive again.  Strangely, I can't go back to work until I get a signed note from my doctor stating that I'm fit to return to the workplace.  The last because the Cheesecake Factory treats their employees as if they were still in grade school.

Not Quite Representative

The first twenty as served up by MusicMatch Jukebox's randomizer:

1.   Every State Line - Ani DiFranco
2.   Beethoven: Fure Elise - John Novacek
3.   Wreak - Pearl Jam
4.   Ko Ko - Duke Ellington
5.   Sweet Amber - Metallica
6.   Willing to Fight - Ani DiFranco
7.   Thug Love - Destiny's Child
8.   Up in Arms - Foo Fighters
9.   Wild Wild West - Will Smith
10.  Dumb - Nirvana
11.  The Scientist - Coldplay
12.  Outshined - Soundgarden
13.  Posters - Jack Johnson
14.  Foolish Games - Jewel
15.  Mood Indigo - Duke Ellington
16.  Don't Push Me - 50 Cent
17.  Wonderwall - Oasis
18.  Mother - Pink Floyd
19.  Lies - The Waifs
20.  Guaso Sojo - Alirio Diaz

Lord of the Dragonflies

How about some virtual projecting prompted by Super Majikthise.  I think she's to blame for this phenomenon spreading throughout the blogosphere, at least as far back as I can track it through the philosophy world, but it definitely begs for perpetuation.  Use the UGO Hero Machine to suppress your Freudian super ego and release your id.  I apologize in advance for the atrocious graphical crime I have commited.  Nevertheles, behold my avatar in all his resplendent glory:

Brian Leiter insists that he cannot comprehend the point and purpose of this practice which I have pointed out is clamoring to be perpetuated.  To quote him, "I guess I'm getting old, since I have no idea what this is about."  I place Brian between the ages of 35 and 40, so if a generation is taken to span the usually accepted 25 years (the lower end of the stratification  - biblical generations last 40, I believe), then he's hard pressed to chalk this up to a generational gap.  Could he have been, horror of horrors, reading Nietzsche instead?  I believe the gauntlet needs to be thrown down.  But will he pick it up?  Thus spake The Lord of the Dragonflies.

Readership, or Lack Thereof

It's a very strange feeling talking to the void like this.  My readership doesn't even exist, much less subsist.  I suppose all newbie bloggers get this strange feeling when they start up their blogs, though I certainly hadn't anticipated it.  One is naturally next led to wonder whether or not readership will ever arrive. 

I have a bad habit of pacing back and forth while holding philosophical conversations with myself.  These are often abruptly cut off by approaching passersby out of fear of the impending accusatory stare.  And publically writing into the void feels even more awkward!  Oh well, the purpose of this blog is largely just to increase the amount of writing I do.  (The idea is that more writing will produce several other positive effects such as clarity of expression, increased vocabulary, etc...)  So I guess I'll just keep writing and feeling sorry for myself.