Cher asked:

This may not be a philosophical question but it is in regards to philosophy. I am currently facing the
difficult task of having to fill in my university applications. I live in Ireland but wish to study in England.
I want to study drama in the combined honors scheme with classical studies or philosophy. If drama
does not work out, I wish to do journalism. Would philosophy be useful for journalism and how is one
to know if philosophy is something that they may enjoy?

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If you live in Ireland, then you will know about the Sunday Worldjournalist Martin O'Hagan, who was
brutally murdered on Friday evening, 28th September, in front of his own home, as he returned from
the local bar with his wife Marie. I have written about the terrible incident in my Glass House notebook
page for 30th September and also in Pathways News Issue 16.

You may not know that Martin O'Hagan studied philosophy: in fact, for three years he had been
working towards the Philosophical Society Associate Diploma under my supervision (although we did
not, in fact, correspond very much over that time). Martin O'Hagan did contribute a superb essay to
the Pathways web site, Philosophical Considerations on Discourse/ Praxis. The essay recounts the
turbulent stages that led him eventually to the discovery of the philosophy of the Stoics. "I went in
search of meaning and discovered a potential for morality and inner peace."

I think it is a good question to ask, why a journalist should be interested in philosophy, or what use is
philosophy to the journalist. Martin O'Hagan's life provides an admirable example.

You say that you intend to do journalism "if drama does not work out". I appreciate your honesty, and
your pragmatism. I am sure that many journalists see themselves as merely plying a trade, which
requires certain skills, such as a talent for words. In his essay on the Pathways web site, Martin
O'Hagan candidly admits that for him getting a job on a tabloid newspaper meant in the first place a
regular source of income. Yet he also had — or discovered along the way — something else, a sense
of mission and purpose. That mission, to tell the truth about the troubles in Northern Ireland, led him
into a personal war with the Protestant paramilitaries. The pen and typewriter were his weapons.

Where philosophy and the best journalism intersect is in the idea of the pursuit of truth. I say the best
journalism, because so much journalism seems to be little more than entertainment. You pick up a
newspaper or magazine in your coffee break. Writing does not need to be true in order to be
entertaining. The sad truth is that it is possible to be a successful journalist and yet care little for the
truth, or its pursuit.

So I would go a lot further than say that philosophy might be usefulfor journalism.

Geoffrey Klempner