Andrew Delbanco, author of College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be, isn’t against the idea of students majoring in pre-professional fields, and he certainly doesn’t argue that everyone should be a philosophy major. But he does make a good case that even future engineers, accountants, and physicians can benefit from liberal arts learning. From an interview on NPR last week:
We have to remember it’s not a pro and con situation where the liberal arts are ‘useless’ and the technical fields are ‘useful.’ If you study philosophy, history, English—and that doesn’t [necessarily] mean major in those fields; it means take a couple exciting courses from great teachers—you are going to learn to think more clearly. Your perspective is going to change. You’re going to learn to write better. You’re going to gain research skills. These are all valuable skills in the marketplace. They should be recognized as such. So, we’ve got to get away from this ‘good guys vs. bad guys’ in terms of the utility of education."