Tom Jonard's Philosophy Pages

My major at the University of Virginia was Philosophy. I took some ribbing over this -- things like, "What are you going to do with that, hang out a shingle, 'Philosophy Consultations -- $5'?".

Well I guess this is my last laugh (and I don't even charge):

Studying Philosophy was a wonderful experience for me. Of course that had a lot to do with the fact that after trying several other subject areas I had finally found one in which I could excel. I wasn't the best undergraduate student in the department but neither was I the worst by far. And discovering all the ideas and subject areas of Philosophy broadened me markedly and prepared me for life in a way that no restricted education could.

You can either get an education to get a job or you can get an education to have an education. Studying Philosophy is definitely the latter.

Here are my answers for the skeptical, the doubters and anyone who laughs at Philosophy majors:

What is Philosophy?

What is it good for?

Here are some links to useful references.

Though it is an increasingly active area of scientific research the nature of the mind is still a viable subject for philosophical exploration. It is a subject that has fascinated me since first discovering it in college and which seems to me to be central to understanding who we are. Science has just begun a daunting task in explicating its nature -- a project that probably is going to take some time and whose outcome is not at all certain. The reason for uncertainty is the unique nature of the mind and even some scientists share the view that in the end the scientific description of the mind may prove unsatifactory if not incomplete (see here for more).

In the meantime philosophers and others do not hesitate to speculate about the nature of the mind. Here is a bit about Mind, the Turning test and Behaviorism

Here is a link to my Science of Consciousness and Mind page.

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Created April 6, 2001,