by Brendan Lalor
I believe it was the good philosophers at Belmont University, who started the list of well-known people who were philosophy majors. The folks at at Eastern Kentucky University added significantly to the list. The list is reprinted below. And Catherine Nolan has created a “Philosophy Majors” poster.
[gview file=”https://thereitis.org/tii-content/uploads/2009/12/philosophy-majors_c-nolan.pdf” save=”0″]
I’ll take any additions you may want to submit, along with the documentation.
What Can I Do With a Philosophy Degree? The truth is; you can do ANYTHING with your degree. But don’t take our word for it – the following is a list of people, all who’ve earned some degree in philosophy and what they are doing now. Recognize any of these names?
Steve Allen (writer & comedian)
Emile de Antonio* (documentary filmmaker)
William Bennett (former Drug czar & NEH leader, Books of Virtues)
William Jefferson Clinton (former President)
Woody Allen (director & comedian)
Mary Higgins Clark (mystery writer)
Gene Siskel (movie reviewer, Siskel & Ebert at the Movies)
Philip K. Dick (science fiction writer)
David Duchovny (actor on X-Files)
John Elway (quarterback, Denver Broncos)
Ivan Frolov (editor of Pravda)
Rebecca Goldstein (novelist & MacArthur prize recipient)
Don Harron (Canadian comedian, author of Anne of Green Gables libretto)
Harrison Ford (actor)
Christy Haubegger (editor of Latina)
Vaclav Havel (former President of Czeckoslovakia)
Peter Hoeg (author of Smilla’s Sense of Snow)
Mark Hulbert (financial columnist for Forbes magazine)
Carl Icahn (business person & corporate raider, bought TWA)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (civil rights leader)
Bruce Lee (martial arts & actor)
Michael Lerner (editor of Tikkun)
Peter Lynch (director)
Steve Martin (comedian & actor)
Kate Millett (author of Sexual Politics)
Bob Moses (civil rights activist)
Robert Motherwell (painter)
Iris Murdoch (novelist)
Lachlan Murdoch (son of Rupert Murdoch, media magnate)
Robert Musil (Austrian novelist)
Freeman Patterson (photographer, author of The Art of Seeing)
Neil Peart (drummer for rock group, Rush)
Chaim Potok (novelist)
Pope John Paul II (vicar of Christ)
Patricia Rozema (film-maker, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing)
Mick Schmidt (former Philadelphia Philly)
John Silber (former president of Boston University)
Susan Sontag (essayist)
George Soros (money manager, Soros Foundation)
Dave Thomas (SCTV)
Alex Trebeck (Jeopardy!)
David Foster Wallace (novelist & MacArthur prize recipient)
Robert Weaver (doyen of Canadian literature, head of CBC’s ANTHOLOGY)
Moses Znaimer, (Owner of CITY-TV and MUCH-MUSIC, Toronto)
* – thanks to Michael W. Howard for this one.
