The benefits of an undergraduate education in philosophy are those Francis Bacon attributed to reading, conversation, and writing: reading gives us material for our own thought; conversation, facility at sharing and debating ideas; and writing, the ability to fix ideas with precision. A typical philosophy course involves reading: from the center and margins of the major world traditions, to modern thinkers framing today’s urgent issues. It also involves conversation, as philosophers like to test ideas out in company and learn from those who see things differently to them. The final test of a philosophical theory or argument is to submit it to the rigor of writing. Philosophical writing, in the ideal, is clear, exact, and free of the rhetoric that may be able to temporarily sway an opponent in the heat of conversation.
