DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

What follows is adapted from a statement by Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.  Here is his academic background in his own words:
"I earned my baccalaureate degree in political science at the University of Michigan-Flint in 1979. My minor fields of study were economics and history. I attended law school at Wayne State University in Detroit, earning both an M.A. degree (in history) and a J.D. degree in 1983. While in law school, I clerked for a legal-services agency and later for a small firm. Before attending graduate school (in philosophy) at the University of Arizona, where I earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, I sat for (and passed) the Michigan Bar Examination and was admitted to the Michigan bar (both state and federal courts). I had no intention of practicing law at the time, but I wanted to keep my options open. Later, while in graduate school in Tucson, I passed the Arizona Bar Examination, was admitted to the bar (again, both state and federal courts), and practiced law. After receiving my Ph.D. degree (with a dissertation on constitutional interpretation), I began teaching philosophy, first at Texas A & M University and then, beginning in August 1989, at UTA, where I am now a tenured associate professor. I teach courses in philosophy of law and several other subjects, mostly in axiology (value theory). Many of my publications are on legal topics, such as suicide, right-to-farm statutes, relevance, defamation, capital punishment, rape, and the nature of law (legal theory)."
 

1. Is a particular major either required or recommended by law schools?

No. Students find this hard to believe, but it is true. Law School students major in business, English, art history, philosophy, political science, history, and biology, among other subjects. What law schools want is intelligent, highly motivated, analytical, critical, articulate students. No particular substantive knowledge or background is required or presupposed. Of course, it helps if one knows the history of our legal and political systems, as well as basic economic principles, but this sort of knowledge is typically acquired in government and civics courses at both the high school and the college level. Law schools want students with a broad base of knowledge--a liberal education. There is plenty of time to specialize once you get to law school. Before then, and even during the early stages of law school, you should be a generalist. Think of your undergraduate education as the foundation for the edifice (career) you hope to build. The broader and sturdier the foundation, the more secure (and valuable) the resulting structure.

The best preparation for law school and for the practice of law is philosophy. The reason philosophy is best is, or should be, obvious. The skills needed by law students and attorneys--careful analysis of texts, sensitivity to vagueness and ambiguity, extraction of principles from cases, argument (often for propositions that one does not personally accept), criticism of arguments made by others, and the articulation of difficult concepts--are precisely those that are inculcated and refined in the study of philosophy. Both philosophers and lawyers are trained to analyze, argue, and criticize--not to mention speak and write. The skills acquired in one area readily transfer to the other. Thus, since you have to major in something in order to earn your baccalaureate degree, philosophy is the natural choice.

Yes. You can minor in philosophy. See the Undergraduate Catalog for the requirements for a minor, which are significantly less stringent than those for a major. You might major in English, history, political science, or criminal justice, for example, and minor in philosophy. The more philosophy courses you take, the better off you will be in law school and in the practice of law.

In this case, you should take as many philosophy courses (and read as much philosophy) as you can.

Any course we offer will serve you well. Two courses, however, are devoted to the development of analytical, critical, and argumentative skills: PHI 1050 (Critical Thinking) and PHIL 1850 (Symbolic Logic). These courses may seem to have nothing to do with law, but that misses the point. The point is that they will teach you skills that will benefit you in law school (and later). The same is true of other philosophy courses you may take. A course in the history of philosophy will have little or no direct bearing on anything that is said or done in law school, but by studying the arguments and analyses of philosophers, even those long dead, one learns how to detect fallacies (errors in reasoning), argue for claims, solve intellectual problems, and make useful distinctions. Think skills, not substance. Even Foundations of Law (PHI 3270) may have no "direct" bearing on the law. There one reads judicial opinions and law-related essays, to be sure, but the aim is to develop philosophical skills rather than to convey legal knowledge.  And courses in Ethics, e.g., Introduction to Ethics (PHI 2320), Contemporary Moral Issues:  Professional Ethics (PHI 1100), Social and Political Philosophy (PHI 2330),and History of Ethics (PHI 5280) are relevant in the same way.

No. One of the gravest misconceptions of non-lawyers, including some who hope to become lawyers, is that law school teaches substantive knowledge, such as what the law is in a particular field (e.g., bankruptcy, taxation, corporate law, or domestic relations). While some substantive knowledge is conveyed in law-school courses, for the most part the objective is to teach you the origin, structure, and functions of law; the basic legal principles and procedures of law; and how to go about answering legal questions. Like philosophy, it is skill-oriented rather than knowledge-oriented; or rather, the knowledge that you acquire is knowledge-how rather than knowledge-that. Law school teaches you to think like a lawyer. If and when you study for a bar examination, you will learn (perhaps "absorb" is a better word) substantive law. Many lawyers learn particular bodies of law gradually, once they become licensed and begin to practice. To use a computer analogy, law school formats the mind to prepare it to receive data. The data are entered during study for the bar examination, during law practice, and during continuing-legal-education courses (which in many states are mandatory).

Until now, we have assumed that you intend to become a licensed attorney. If you have any doubts about this, then you need to consider the alternative employment opportunities for a philosophy major. There is no "philosophical career" per se, except as an academic, and the job prospects are dim even there (although they are expected to improve in the next decade or so). However, the skills one acquires during the study of philosophy are useful in any number of areas, ranging from business to politics to religion to art to science to academia to the military. Of course, not every employer sees it this way. In part, this is because philosophy has a reputation (undeserved!) for being irrelevant, arcane, and speculative. The prevailing image of the philosopher is that of the bearded guru sitting atop a mountain, dispensing advice to all comers. But as I have been at pains to point out, philosophy inculcates valuable--hence, marketable--cognitive skills, skills that, when supplemented by specialized knowledge, are all the more valuable. We are not saying that you will get the job you seek by majoring in philosophy; rather, we are saying that the skills you acquire in your philosophy courses will stand you in good stead whatever you choose to do with yourself. And let us not forget the ideal of the learned, multifaceted person. I assume that this ideal has some weight in your thinking and some motivational force for you.