How To Become A Philosophy Professor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a philosophy professor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted experts

Heather Ross,

Dr. Andrew Higgins

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a philosophy professor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $36.49 an hour? That's $75,900 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 159,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a philosophy professor?

Heather Ross

Associate Professor of Philosophy, Point Loma Nazarene University

My initial thoughts are that philosophy provides a broad education and so many of our students go into a wide variety of fields. Philosophical education is explicitly concerned with the formation of the human being as a human being and so provides a motivation to care for the human condition itself. As a result, many of our students want to pursue professions related to explicit care and improvement of the world. So we have students who are going to law school, becoming educators, students going to medical school, making art and music, pursuing vocational ministry or are going into public health fields. Philosophy, at its core, enlivens that deep existential connection that we have to one another and to the world. It strengthens that sense of responsibility that we have to care for this life--other people, fellow creatures and the world.

ScorePhilosophy ProfessorUS Average

Salary

5.9

Avg. Salary $75,900

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.1

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.28%

Asian 11.26%

Black or African American 7.20%

Hispanic or Latino 10.25%

Unknown 4.94%

White 66.07%

Gender

female 20.43%

male 79.57%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

5.1

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.0

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a philosophy professor

Explore philosophy professor education requirements

Most common philosophy professor degrees

Bachelor's

51.2 %

Master's

25.6 %

Doctorate

15.9 %

Start to develop specific philosophy professor skills

Skills	Percentages
Business Ethics	49.14%
Course Curriculum	31.59%
Literature	19.26%

Research philosophy professor duties and responsibilities

Manage and administer college level foreign language lessons and curriculum.
Experiment with different surface chemistry to improve quality of yields -participate in poster session and presentation to faculty and graduate students.
Initiate research and development of grant proposals to garner more funds for young adult fiction.

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