computing or philosophy

I'm unsure on still what i want to do ... a computing course at uni or a philosophy course? what do you think?

The question you should ask yourself is... would you rather ponder existence, or do something productive and gain useful skills in the process?

I'm unsure on still what i want to do ... a computing course at uni or a philosophy course? what do you think?

Philosophy has very good job prospects especially if you do it as a joint-honours. Also, logic courses will help you tremendously in computing so the two do go together quite a lot. Linguistics and philosophy of language come under most philosophy school departments too and they relate to computing as well in a few ways.

I would say philosophy of course because I study it myself but it's a very useful degree

Thank you for your help.
Can i ask what uni your at? What Career are you looking at going into after university?

Computing is probably the most logical one to pick imo. Computer Science has more job prospects and has higher pay. If you're good at math and like the idea of creating mobile apps/games or writing the software that controls the next space shuttle for example, then Computer Science is for you. I won't say philosophy is sh*t but compared to computing it kinda is :P


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University of Leeds and I study philosophy and economics joint honours. I work with children as part of the philosophy course teaching them philosophy in local primary schools and I intend to use that to get justify getting into a place with the police while I'm at university as a special (which means I get full police training and powers but no pay and have to work 4hours a week which I will just do at weekends). Then once I get my degree I can join the police full-time under a fast-track course as I will have a degree and already have been taught all the basic PC training and be able to reach superintendency within about 6 years hopefully

If that fails and either police work is too hard, or too depressing then I will probably work for NGOs or governments around job placements concerning economic development as that's where my economics specialises and it also ties in with my political philosophy, ethics and logic.

Oh wow that sounds really good!! and interesting! Good luck with everything
Are you glad you did a joint honours with philosophy, do you think its helping with your job prospects?

Oh sure. Logic, ethics and political philosophy are the most transferable by far. I have my own theory of ethics though and have already abandoned modern mathematics due to my studies of the philosophy of maths. Suffice to say it helps with maths a lot, which helps with lots of jobs. Then those jobs that the maths-help doesn't help with the general rationality philosophy teaches alongside ethics and a better understanding of science/epistemology will help with the other jobs.

Now that said you have to be careful with what you study in philosophy. I definitely mainly stuck to the "analytic" side - Meta-physics, logic, meta-ethics, ethics, philosophy of science, philosophy of maths, epistemology and will be doing philosophy of language later on in my degree. The knowledge of political philosophy I've gained has been largely tangential and related to my ethics.

You could go to university and study history of science, ancient philosophy, philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion <--- that set of courses, while hugely insightful and good for personal development, is not going to reward you with the best job prospects.

Philosophy always looks good from a good university though because it's not the simplest of degrees. I find philosophy far more challenging than economics but I nevertheless enjoy it far far far more because it is far more profound and I can see the implications of its theory with nearly every other discipline I've studied formally and informally - mathematics, science (that is, physics, biology, geology, cosmology, theoretical-physics [which basically is meta-physics + maths], medicine, nutritional science, anthropology and so on), law, English Language, computing, sociology, psychology, sexology, economics and linguistics. Philosophy will go well with any of those subjects I just mentioned but you have to pick the correct modules.

May I ask, what is it that you want to study as part of your philosophy degree?

I really do love philosophy though. I have never been so assured of my atheism. I have never had a better understanding of how both maths and science work. I disagree with the vast majority of modern meta-physicians because they ignored wittgenstein! I disagree with the logical foundations of modern maths and science (I'm an intuitionist mathematician). I've crafted my own theory of normative ethics and I've also realised that sociology is to philosophy what physics is to maths - totally dependent on it and spawned straight from it XD

The insight man, the insight is so good. Nothing is more enjoyable than knowing more than anyone else. And by knowing I mean actually knowing - the truth - not just a guesstimate as to what the truth is.

You don't need to chose...

http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/243570/computingphilosophy?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&ret=providers

http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/277128/computer-science-and-logic-philosophy-of-science?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&ret=providers

http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/282234/computer-science-and-philosophy-3-or-4-years?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&groupingNumber=168268242&ret=results#coursedetailsmenu (Deadline is passed)

http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/250743/computer-science-and-philosophy?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&ret=providers

http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/241393/computer-science-and-philosophy?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&ret=providers

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http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/256538/computing-and-philosophy?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&ret=providers

http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/277858/natural-sciences?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&groupingNumber=1183625423&ret=results

http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/270676/computing-and-religion-philosophy-and-ethics?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&ret=providers

http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/248581/computingphilosophy-joint-honours?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&ret=providers

http://search.ucas.com/course/summary/255967/computing-philosophy?Vac=5&AvailableIn=2015&Query=computing%20philosophy&ret=providers

There are some awesome universities that offer Computing with/and Philosophy including Oxford, St Andrews, Durham, Glasgow and York. Especially the course at St Andrews looks awesome in my opinion

I did economics as an AS Level but really disliked it, i see how philosophy really goes with economics.

Ive just started the Meta Ethics topic its going alright however I think I prefer more of the Ancient Greek Philosophy. I really want to study like the mind and consciousness, free will, mind body and soul etc. Im not a great fan of maths and politics.

I know what you mean Philosophy really like opens your mind to things i know i would never of considered before it really makes you think. I can't wait to study it further.

Thank you for that really appreciate it, ive applied to kent university their combined course looks really good too.

Well if you're doing computing you'll have great job prospects on that side so it doesn't matter too much what you study in philosophy as all of it is extremely insightful albeit niche and not directly applicable to single career.

However if you are studying computing you would be a fool to not take formal logic classes in philosophy since logic is the entire basis for computing and then you'll probably start to find yourself more and more interesting in the philosophy of maths (as opposed to applied maths or pure maths) as it is highly related to logic and therefore computing itself.

Meta-ethics is a bit dull at A-level as it's super simplistic. It's so fun and insightful at UG level though. I sometimes wonder if I'm taking my UG education too seriously as I do try to find a solution to the great problems we come across in every topic and of course within academia there is still yet a consensus on such things.

I did go to the Birmingham open day and they did the Lecture talk on philosophy and linking in to computing, they mention the formal logic (which did sound quite okay and interesting).

Super Simplistic? I beg to differ lol, maybe once i get my head round it it'll be okay.

Aww no it great that your finding solutions to problems especially in philosophy as isn't that what most philosophers do?