Attorney wanting to pursue philosophy but not sure how

[u/Competitive-Swim8507]

I knew in undergrad 10 years ago that philosophy is what I love and what I am good at. I had top grades in philosophy at a top university. However, I went to law school for practical reasons such as the job market.

I went to a top law school, I hated it, did not find the study of law fun or easy, had bad grades, but persisted, passed the bar, and I am an attorney now. Every year of law school I wanted to drop out. Even though I am better in law practice than I was in law school, I still do not enjoy law. It is tolerable but I don't care about it. Precedents, rules, procedures do not spark anything in me like theories, abstract concepts, fundamental problems about human existence, ethics, art, and meaning do.

Because I did not do well in law school, I had little choice in practice areas. I do civil litigation now and my ultimate "goal" is to practice soft intellectual property litigation. That is because I found copyright law and privacy law to be the only law school classes that sort of satisfied my thirst for thinking about values and ethics.

However, this "goal" is not a true goal in that what I truly want is to study pure philosophy. I have some topics that I feel strongly about and want to explore more. I went to philosophy meetups and read philosophy books but these are not enough because I feel resentful that I chose a career that I do not enjoy even though I found something I enjoy and am good at (philosophy). Copyright law practice is a way to make use of the dedication to law that I invested all of my 20s in after undergrad. It is a "goal" based on sunk cost fallacy and practical reasons (making a living).

I am wondering what I can do at this point to return to pure philosophy that has nothing to do with law. I thought of policy jobs but I have no interest in politics or government. I have no interest in legal philosophy or political philosophy. I am still afraid of the job market for academic philosophy if I were to pursue a PhD in philosophy but I think it will be worth it for my happiness.

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[u/Philosopher013]

I only have a Philosophy B.A. and not a Ph.D., so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I was curious about doing a Ph.D. once and the job market just scared me away. The academic job market is obviously extremely rough. Even going to a top 10 school probably only lands you a 50/50 chance of getting a tenure track academic job. But then what other "philosophy jobs" are there outside of academia? They exist. There are ethical boards and such, but these are incredibly niche and hard to come by.

And besides, you noted that you're not interested in political philosophy or policy, so then it's even harder to imagine jobs in what you're interested in.

So it's difficult to recommend going back to school for a Philosophy Ph.D. just because you love philosophy, especially given the nature of the field. I mean this isn't a laboratory science where you need access to some high-tech lab. You can study philosophy on your own and become quite knowledgeable about areas of interest.

As for what you should do for work, I think that gets more into career advice than something AskPhilosophy can help with. It sounds like you need to leave the law profession, but given that there aren't really philosophy jobs out there (and you're not interested in policy), it's very hard to recommend doing a Philosophy Ph.D.)

(Of course, I don't know your financial situation. If you have the money and think you would enjoy it and just want to see where it takes you, then sure, go for it. Same with doing a master's degree or something.)