Selection Bias

Another interesting economic conception that has interesting implications for philosophy is that of a selection bias in philosophy. Selection bias is usually something that is taken into account with experiments and considering whether a group that is used in an experiment is representative of the population more broadly. One way to apply this conception to philosophy is to think about what kinds of students choose to study philosophy. Are the students that take philosophy courses in college those that would most benefit from taking them? Maybe, insofar as philosophy students have an interest in the subject matter and may have read extensively in philosophy and can therefore have more fruitful and interesting reflections.

However, in another way this may not be the case, specifically as regards ethical and moral considerations. Here we can think of Aristotle’s conception of virtue and proper conduct etc. Are philosophy students those who would most benefit from discussing Aristotle? Perhaps not, if we think about the way in which a knowledge and serious thought on Aristotle would be conducive to real-world conduct. In part this depends on what philosophy students end up doing with their life, namely whether they are in a position professionally to make important ethical or moral considerations. If we assume that these students end up becoming professional philosophers there seems to be a more limited scope for making such decisions. There seems to be more room for such decisions in a profession like business where there are lots of interactions and potential for moral or ethical dilemmas. Here I would argue that business majors and perhaps science majors also would benefit more from reading and thinking about Aristotle than would philosophy majors, at least at the margin. Hence it seems like there is a selection bias of sorts in philosophy.

I think this consideration can also apply to many other areas of study and majors. If you assume that there are diminishing returns to studying one area, then it seems that this same consideration might apply across the board. Hence, philosophy majors might gain enormously from taking a business or science class in the same way that they might gain from taking a philosophy class. This gives rise to interesting considerations about what classes we take in college, and achieving an optimal mixture that maximizes the benefit of our college experience.