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Originally posted by baltassoc
I pointed out that everyone at the table had a professional degree and that each of us had left behind our formal intellectual pursuits when we graduated from our mutual undergraduate alma mater.).
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Many of the subjects I took in law school were properly characterized as intellectual pursuits. For instance, juriprudence or bioethics. You don't find many classes like that in an MBA program. Moreover, in many of my law classes I was taught the history of the legal system or the history at least of that part of the law. How is learning the history of US constitutional law any less intellectual than learning about the constitution in an undergrad history class?
In many, many of my law school classes we focused not just on what the law is, but why it is the way it is and should it be some other way. I spend many hours studying and discussing the policy behind the laws, not just what the laws were.
What about a comparative legal studies class in which you are studying the difference between a common law system and a civil law system? Is this not an intellectual pursuit?
I agree that some courses, business associations comes to mind, are more vocational in nature. But those courses that are less intellectual do tend to be the ones focused on business.
Would you characterize a PhD in electrical engineering an intellectual pursuit? People in engineering degree programs aren't studying astrophysics. They are learning how to produce better computers and the like. How is learning to produce a better computer more intellectual than studying which philosophers have influenced our legal system?
