A Wall St. Titan’s Foray Into Philosophy

While billions of dollars in gifts flow to academic programs in health, business, and the STEM fields, people who work in the humanities could be forgiven for wondering when it will be their turn.The largest donation ever to a department in that field, it will create endowed professorships, support...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Chronicle of Higher Education
Main Author Wescott, David
Format Trade Publication Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington Chronicle of Higher Education 18.03.2018
Subjects
Careers
Colleges & universities
Departments
Doctoral Programs
Donations
Donors
Government (Administrative Body)
Liberal Arts
Philanthropy
Philosophy
Thinking Skills
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Summary:While billions of dollars in gifts flow to academic programs in health, business, and the STEM fields, people who work in the humanities could be forgiven for wondering when it will be their turn.The largest donation ever to a department in that field, it will create endowed professorships, support graduate students and postdocs, and eventually increase the number of full-time faculty members to 22 from 13.When I got out — casting about for something to do — I thought about going to law school, thought about going to business school, and neither of those things really appealed to me.[...]maybe more surprisingly, the critical-thinking skills, the analytical skills, the rigor of philosophy were extremely valuable to me in analyzing capital markets, where there are a lot of different opinions, a lot of ambiguity, a lot of uncertainty — the very sort of thing you find in philosophical problems.
ISSN:0009-5982
1931-1362