To the Editor:

Yes, we have all made/heard the joke that philosophy majors are a bunch of stoners, but I was offended to see this depicted in last week’s edition.  The cartoon depicts a philosophy class and the featured homework assignment is a marijuana leaf, accompanied in the next frame of students smoking and remarking that “It all makes sense now!”  It offends and degrades the brilliant professors our university employs as well as downplays the efforts of philosophy majors.  A major myself, I can’t imagine smoking weed before reading Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” or Plato’s “Republic” and expect to get anything out of it, or expect the whole universe to finally make brilliant sense.

A knowledge in philosophy requires reason, deep thought and superb analytical skills—if anything, weed would prevent this.  Studies have shown philosophy majors outshine all other majors on LSATs, GMATs, etc. because of these exact skills.  I hardly think that these students are high when taking the standardized exams.

An understanding in philosophy—metaphysics, epistemology, ontology, ethics, aesthetics—is complicated and rooted in deep thought that requires legitimate reflection, not a stoner understanding such as “wow, everyone should just get along,” that is just the tip of the iceberg!

Hannah Zachary ’12