Q: When and why did you decide to major in philosophy?
A: I decided to major in philosophy after taking a few classes in community college. It bothered me to take things for granted without considering first principles, so philosophy was a great fit for that. I knew that even if I didn’t major in philosophy, I would have read and tried to learn on my own. So I figured I should major in it, since I’m going to devote a good amount of time to it either way.
– Tiffany Han, philosophy major, Class of 2017
Q: What’s your favorite thing about the UCLA Department of Philosophy?
A: The incredibly high quality of people I’ve met in our philosophy department is alone enough to have made my time at UCLA worthwhile. The faculty boasts a colorful assortment of personalities, though across the board they appear to share the most important and laudable fundamental values. I doubt you’d find such a high rate of truly good people, professors and students, in any other department, and it makes me feel I’m among my kind. It’s also nice to be able to leave my purse lying around without worry.
– Cassie Thompson, philosophy major, Class of 2017
Q: What is the most interesting philosophical claim or argument you've encountered thus far?
A: I have really fallen in love with the literature over biological functions, in large part due to its relevance to my studies in neuroscience. Larry Wright pioneered the etiological view of biological functions… This view holds that ascribing a function to an object is a way of explaining the existence of that object under some relevant description, through appealing to its being normal for that object to behave in some way. This way of looking at biological functions gave me a deeper appreciation for the hidden structure of scientific explanation and the ability of philosophy to conceptually guide other fields.
– Austin Beltrand, philosophy and neuroscience double major, Class of 2017
Q: Career-wise, what's your next step? How do you think you will use philosophy in your future career?
A: I will start a joint Ph.D. program in neuroscience and philosophy this summer. Understanding voluntary behaviors and their underlying neural circuits will be the primary goals of my graduate research. Philosophy will play an essential role in at least two aspects of this research. The rich history of action theory in philosophy will help me in rigorously conceptualizing voluntary action. This will be a prerequisite for designing successful scientific experiments. Recent work in philosophy of science, particularly in probabilistic causation and causal modeling, will also help me understand the fascinating features of the neural networks underlying our voluntary behavior.
– Eden Sayed, philosophy and neuroscience double major, Class of 2017
Q: Career-wise, what's your next step? How do you think you will use philosophy in your future career?
A: I will be getting my J.D. from the UCLA School of Law to pursue a career of legal advocacy to secure greater protections for those nonhuman animals who are exploited and suffer at human hands. I aim to make the greatest impact I can, specifically to combat those laws which punish whistleblowers of animal abuse and immunize agricultural operations from any meaningful standard of humane treatment. My background in philosophy will help me greatly to construct and evaluate arguments in order to advance this cause, and to conduct my efforts in a way that is grounded in the moral principles I adopted while studying ethics.
– Kartik Raj, philosophy major, Class of 2017
Q: How has taking philosophy courses influenced the way you think?
A: Philosophy has given me the ability to empathize with people who I may not necessarily agree with, and the ability to critically evaluate arguments presented in support of either side of an issue. I think this is a very important skill to have in life. I think my education in philosophy has also been quite humbling—it has truly taught me that I know very little, (if anything at all).
– Shushan Ginosyan, philosophy major, Class of 2017