Famous Philosophy Majors

Thanks to Brendan Lalor for compiling this great list (with a few additions from me):

  • Steve Allen (writer & comedian)
  • William Bennett (former Drug czar & NEH leader, Books of Virtues)
  • William Jefferson Clinton (former President)
  • Woody Allen (director & comedian)
  • Mary Higgins Clark (mystery writer)
  • Gene Siskel (movie reviewer, Siskel & Ebert at the Movies)
  • Philip K. Dick (science fiction writer)
  • David Duchovny (actor on X-Files)
  • John Elway (quarterback, Denver Broncos)
  • Ivan Frolov (editor of Pravda)
  • Rebecca Goldstein (novelist & MacArthur prize recipient)
  • Don Harron (Canadian comedian, author of Anne of Green Gables libretto)
  • Harrison Ford (actor)
  • Christy Haubegger (editor of Latina)
  • Vaclav Havel (former President of Czeckoslovakia)
  • Peter Hoeg (author of Smilla’s Sense of Snow)
  • Mark Hulbert (financial columnist for Forbes magazine)
  • Carl Icahn (business person & corporate raider, bought TWA)
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. (civil rights leader)
  • Bruce Lee (martial arts & actor)
  • Michael Lerner (editor of Tikkun)
  • Peter Lynch (director)
  • Steve Martin (comedian & actor)
  • Kate Millett (author of Sexual Politics)
  • Bob Moses (civil rights activist)
  • Robert Motherwell (painter)
  • Iris Murdoch (novelist)
  • Lachlan Murdoch (son of Rupert Murdoch, media magnate)
  • Robert Musil (Austrian novelist)
  • Freeman Patterson (photographer, author of The Art of Seeing)
  • Neil Peart (drummer for rock group, Rush)
  • Chaim Potok (novelist)
  • Pope John Paul II (vicar of Christ)
  • Patricia Rozema (film-maker, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing)
  • Mick Schmidt (former Philadelphia Philly)
  • John Silber (former president of Boston University)
  • Susan Sontag (essayist)
  • George Soros (money manager, Soros Foundation)
  • Dave Thomas (SCTV)
  • Alex Trebeck (Jeopardy!)
  • David Foster Wallace (novelist & MacArthur prize recipient)
  • Robert Weaver (doyen of Canadian literature, head of CBC’s ANTHOLOGY)
  • Moses Znaimer, (Owner of CITY)
  • Emile de Antonio (documentary film maker)
  • Sheila Bair (Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
  • Larry Sanger, (Co-founder of Wikipedia)
  • Chris Hayes, (MSNBC political commentator)
  • Carly Fiorina,  (former CEO of Hewlett-Packard)
  • Reid Hoffman, (Linked-In Co-founder)
  • Stewart Butterfield, (Flickr Co-founder)

More famous philosophy majors, by occupation: “Philosophy degrees and the people who have ’em” (external)