Studying Philosophy Does Make People Better Thinkers
2025/07/11 by Michael Prinzing, Michael Vazquez · 7 voices · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Medicine · #Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics #Clinical Reasoning and Diagnostic Skills #Philosophy and History of Science
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/apa.2025.10007
Abstract
ABSTRACT Many philosophers think that doing philosophy cultivates valuable intellectual abilities and dispositions. Indeed this is a premise in a venerable argument for philosophy’s value. Unfortunately, empirical support for this premise has heretofore been lacking. We provide evidence that philosophical study has such effects. Using a large dataset (including records from over half a million undergraduates at hundreds of institutions across the United States), we investigate philosophy students’ performance on verbal and logical reasoning tests, as well as measures of valuable intellectual dispositions. Results indicate that students with stronger verbal abilities, and who are more curious, open-minded, and intellectually rigorous, are more likely to study philosophy. Nonetheless, after accounting for such baseline differences, philosophy majors outperform all other majors on tests of verbal and logical reasoning and on a measure of valuable habits of mind. This offers the strongest evidence to date that studying philosophy does indeed make people better thinkers.
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- A popular and very old argument for the value of philosophy claims that studying philosophy cultivates important intellectual abilities and dispositions. But empirical evidence for that claim has been [bsky, 96 points, 6 comments]
- I haven't read this closely enough yet to have a view (beyond "ugh. ETS scores 🙄"), but it is funny that 'Pharmacy' is apparently both: - the second-best undergrad major for high LSAT scores, and [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
- You might also be interested in the recent article by the same authors, "Does Studying Philosophy Make People Better Thinkers?", published in the Journal of the APA. doi.org/10.1017/apa.... [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
- Thanks for reminder about that report. I need to read it. Have it in a tab! And then there's this study, which speaks to our discussion @tedunderwood.com doi.org/10.1017/apa.... [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
- No witty comment; I'm just very happy to see this. doi.org/10.1017/apa.... [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- And here's the full study. doi.org/10.1017/apa.... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- **Studying Philosophy Does Make People Better Thinkers** "_Results indicate that students with stronger verbal abilities, and who are more curious, open-minded, and intellectually rigorous, are more l [mastodon, 0 points, 0 comments]
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