Degree complete 🥳

I have officially completed my Bachelor's in Philosophy from Fort Hays State University in Kansas. I already had a Bachelor's degree in Business Admin – Accounting from Wichita State, so my general eds carried over. I end with a Philosophy GPA of 4.0 and a cumulative GPA of 3.73.

What does a 4.0 GPA in a philosophy Bachelor's mean? By itself, almost nothing. It depends on the quality of the program and what the student actually accomplished. There are only three (slightly) noteworthy things in my case:

1) I took a metaphysics class that was not required for graduation. This is not a class the school teaches – I had to request this class and I selected the textbook for it – Alyssa Ney's introduction to metaphysics. It was guided very well by Rob Byer, a PhD student of Linda Zagzebski (I'll be doing a deep dive on one of her books starting... today in fact).

2) I took a philosophy of mind class that was not required for graduation.

If you were to ask me what an undergraduate of philosophy must have under their belt by the time they graduate, I would say (among other things): Advanced Logic, Metaphysics, and Philosophy of Mind. I was on track to graduate with none of those, which I found unacceptable. At least I was able to get 2/3.

3) I won the first annual essay contest with my essay "The Logical Problem of Hell." I've posted an updated version of that essay here: https://benstowell.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-logical-problem-of-hell.html

Since I've written this, I think there are a lot of problems with this argument and it would take a lot of work to sort them out. I'll post at some point a follow-up looking at those. Maybe the argument is salvageable.

One reason why I say a Bachelor's in philosophy means almost nothing, at least from this program, is because it would have been much easier to not take those two optional classes, and I would have still had the same degree with the same GPA. So GPA doesn't tell the full story, and really it doesn't tell much of anything. Someone could have a Bachelor's in philosophy without having taken advanced logic or intro to mind or intro to metaphysics, which is crazy to me. At least the program required epistemology and ethics.

In this case it's a moot point because the philosophy program at Fort Hays has been terminated; I'm one of the last graduates. Philosophy classes are still being taught to cover gen ed requirements, and I believe they still have a Master's program that requires philosophy courses (it's not a Master's in philosophy, but something else). I guess this is a known trend – the eradication of humanities departments in small colleges, with philosophy high on the chopping block.

I don't see how things could be any other way. As demand for philosophy classes goes down (as they don't lead to jobs), supply goes down.

I've heard people say that it's better to use that money and time to just buy philosophy books and read them. The advantage of formal courses is that 1) Professors introduce you to authors, books, and papers that you wouldn't have been introduced to otherwise; 2) Professors offer student hours in which you can ask questions to check your understanding; 3) Classes force you to be motivated to push and get work done using deadlines, getting you into the habit of what it feels like to push yourself to get work done on a good pace; 4) Classes force you to learn how to research properly; 5) Professors provide feedback on essays.

If you don't care about any of that then it's not worth it. But if you want to increase your skill specifically at essay writing in philosophy, then it is worth it if you can afford it (and many people can't – neither the upfront costs nor the opportunity costs).

Really, it just comes down to who you are. There's a Youtube clip of an exasperated Jon Blow getting asked the question, "Should I make video games?", and he basically says that if you have to ask the answer is no. A true game dev doesn't ask the question; they just make games. This generalizes; someone truly passionate about philosophy doesn't ask whether they should pursue it; they just do, come hell or high water.