I am currently in college, I am not a philosophy major, but I have taken several philosophy classes and plan on taking more. I think part of the reason I am not a philosophy major is the joke, which goes as follows: Q. What's the difference between a large pizza and a philosophy major? A. A large pizza can feed a family of four. Honestly, I can't pick a favorite philosopher, I love many... Socrates, Plato, Nietzsche, Montaigne, Lucretius, Cicero, Marx, Montesquieu, and my list could keep going on and on. My entire high school career was something of an existential crisis. I definitely began to question all religion and existence.

Sent by Eric Koch | 12:05 PM ET | 04-12-2008

It is always good to see a fellow philosophy bachelor in the real world. My graduating class at UVM was about 5 I believe, and they made us march with physics (oddly appropriate in some ways). It is interesting how people equate philosophy with other liberal arts degrees, when in fact it is the opposite of fluff and quite difficult. I can't tell you how many times I have heard "Philosophy? I almost failed intro freshman year and never want to hear about it again".

Anywho, go philosophy!!!

Sent by Dan Proulx | 2:13 PM ET | 04-14-2008

As an "off-hill" student studying philosophy at Mount Angel Seminary College I was not preparing to become a priest as were so many of my friends, and so I was unprepared as to how a Catholic philosophy program would affect me. For the first couple of years they threw us in the ring with the works of phenomenologist thinkers like Husserl and James, while giving us steady doses of ancient Socrates and Aristotle. By the third year we were digesting the solipsistic doubt of Descartes and the methods of Immanuel Kant. All this was only to ready us for the final year, to ready us for the reality of the great 13th philosopher Thomas Aquinas. His message was the clearest, the most concise (if ever there is such a thing in philosophy) and not full of hubristic speech, I had found yet. That he unabashedly uses the greatest minds before him to help prove most of his questions (i.e. Aristotle and the great Muslim Philosopher Avicena) he helped many see the light of systematic thought centuries before the enlightenment was to shine on all of us.
As much confidence as I subscribe to Aquinas' genius, I went through somewhat of an existential angst when studying the work of Sartre. I felt and agreed with his message of encountering the "other" as a mortifying reality. But I quickly got over it and chose to love my fellow brother instead.

Sent by Kyle Stephens | 1:36 AM ET | 04-23-2008