Has anyone studied Philosophy at any level?
- Thread starter Ziggy
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Associate
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Currently Studying at AS level. Doing religious philosophy and ethics. For me personally it completely changed my way of thinking. I think it was the way the subject was presented to me with my teacher normally challenging my views and causing me to use the theories presented to make rational judgments.
I guess if i was going to say one thing on it to anyone thinking of picking up a course in any form it would be : Be prepared to think think and think again!
I think that some form of philosophy should be taught to everyone in school and made compulsorily
I guess if i was going to say one thing on it to anyone thinking of picking up a course in any form it would be : Be prepared to think think and think again!
I think that some form of philosophy should be taught to everyone in school and made compulsorily
Soldato
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Caporegime
Yes, I took several philosophy courses at degree level. It does improve your way of thinking about some things, and there was some stuff that is worth knowing and understanding about the limits of knowledge. I mostly, however, found it was frustratingly rooted in Medieval thinking and tiresome arguments over the existence of God and other such drivel.
Soldato
Studied it at AS Level, was very interesting, didn't really change me. May have had something to do with my college ruining the course, we ended up with 5 teachers in 1 year, no one got above a C in the class because we just didn't study things we should have, only two of which had any background in philosophy.
Soldato
I dabble but I don't feel any smarter for it just slightly more confused.
Studied it during first and second year at university.
Studying a science degree and had to choose an optional subject to take in the first 2 years. I found it very interesting and a nice change.
It is a totally different way of thinking and does make you wonder about a lot of things, nature of existence, existence of a higher power, truth and morality etc etc.
I found to to be a great compliment to my my main degree which required me to be very methodical and analytical in my approach to thinking and learning whereas philosophy I was able to think outside the box more and just let my mind wander. Particuarly enjoyed the philosophy of science but i think i was the only one in the class
Once you get past the first couple of years of a philosophy course however it does tend to get very heavy and a little boring in places.
Studying a science degree and had to choose an optional subject to take in the first 2 years. I found it very interesting and a nice change.
It is a totally different way of thinking and does make you wonder about a lot of things, nature of existence, existence of a higher power, truth and morality etc etc.
I found to to be a great compliment to my my main degree which required me to be very methodical and analytical in my approach to thinking and learning whereas philosophy I was able to think outside the box more and just let my mind wander. Particuarly enjoyed the philosophy of science but i think i was the only one in the class
Once you get past the first couple of years of a philosophy course however it does tend to get very heavy and a little boring in places.
my brother did it to degree level,
if has been unemployed well over half of the time for the last 10 years, currently he makes money by allowing drug companies to test drungs on him...
his best job was answering phones for the lottery commission,
I htink it get a 1:2 (what ever that means) maybe you need a 1:1 to get a good job?
if has been unemployed well over half of the time for the last 10 years, currently he makes money by allowing drug companies to test drungs on him...
his best job was answering phones for the lottery commission,
I htink it get a 1:2 (what ever that means) maybe you need a 1:1 to get a good job?
Depends on what you study, I guess.
I spent quite a lot of time reading classical philosophy (plato/aristotle/socrates) it's interesting stuff, but almost inevitably you end up having endless circular arguments on the nature of faith, (which if you don't have any, can be terribly frustrating) or other abstract ideas in order to explore the logic of the arguments or discourses set down in the text.
The concepts involved are sometimes quite odd, take 'The Republic' as an example; some of the ideas expressed would be considered laughable today, but the underlying theme was always about the teacher leading the student to reach conclusions seemingly on their own, but which in reality are the conclusions of the teacher. As much of the book is a series of conversations between socrates and a group of students (who generally represent common views and ideas of the time iirc).
Most notable for its foolishness was the idea that in order to portray the character of an evil man in a play so convincingly as to be believable to an audience, an actor would have to become that evil man, therefore the characters of evil men should not be allowed in literature or theatre because of the bad influences on the perfect society that they would create. The same follows for poetry and music.
Look up 'The Simile Of The Cave' as an expression of what the knowledge of the 'philosopher ruler' can aspire to through understanding of the 'perfect forms' and the reality of ideals. As an exploration of the understanding of abstracts, such as beauty and justice. Ideals directly responsible for the forming of the perfect city state, of which 'The Republic' concerns itself through all aspects of what a perfect society should be composed from and ruled by.
I spent quite a lot of time reading classical philosophy (plato/aristotle/socrates) it's interesting stuff, but almost inevitably you end up having endless circular arguments on the nature of faith, (which if you don't have any, can be terribly frustrating) or other abstract ideas in order to explore the logic of the arguments or discourses set down in the text.
The concepts involved are sometimes quite odd, take 'The Republic' as an example; some of the ideas expressed would be considered laughable today, but the underlying theme was always about the teacher leading the student to reach conclusions seemingly on their own, but which in reality are the conclusions of the teacher. As much of the book is a series of conversations between socrates and a group of students (who generally represent common views and ideas of the time iirc).
Most notable for its foolishness was the idea that in order to portray the character of an evil man in a play so convincingly as to be believable to an audience, an actor would have to become that evil man, therefore the characters of evil men should not be allowed in literature or theatre because of the bad influences on the perfect society that they would create. The same follows for poetry and music.
Look up 'The Simile Of The Cave' as an expression of what the knowledge of the 'philosopher ruler' can aspire to through understanding of the 'perfect forms' and the reality of ideals. As an exploration of the understanding of abstracts, such as beauty and justice. Ideals directly responsible for the forming of the perfect city state, of which 'The Republic' concerns itself through all aspects of what a perfect society should be composed from and ruled by.
I did Religious Studies at A Level. Half the course was bible studies, the other half was the philosophy of religion. It was interesting.
I wouldn't say it improved my way of thinking as I was already thinking about a lot of the material that we had to cover as part of the course and I was pretty good at English at the time so I knew how to study a text and use it to prove my point.
Soldato
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- 22 Feb 2008
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- 11,108
Studied it during first year of University before 2nd and 3rd years were actually filled with modules from my actual degree.
Personally, I loved it. Had a real eccentric couple of lecturers who made it a lot of fun, and thinking and dissecting all of the different theories was something I really found interesting. In fact, it was during that course that I decided I would consider myself an existentialist.
Personally, I loved it. Had a real eccentric couple of lecturers who made it a lot of fun, and thinking and dissecting all of the different theories was something I really found interesting. In fact, it was during that course that I decided I would consider myself an existentialist.
One thing to be careful of is that the term 'Philosophy' is often misunderstood. What seems to be being referred to above are subsets of philosophy rather than the subject as a whole.
If you study Philosophy you could actually be studying theoretical maths or Physics - Philosophy is very much the root of the sciences.
What's being referred to above is more the natural philosophy side of the camp. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand why it's automatically assumed to be that - it's just such a wide-ranging area.
I have both a degree and a master - both of which incorporated elements of philosophy. Post grad it was the major part - and here's the thing, I did more complex and in-depth maths and physics in that than I did in my degree, where the major was maths. Go figure.
Forgive the blatant rip of a Wikipedia article (I'm busy in Starbucks), but this is a decent list of the subsets of what falls under Philosophy.
As you can see, a lot of it is really, really far from flowery thinking, and can involve an awful lot of maths, physics, and the more 'natural' type of sciences.
On the other hand, on my CV I don't list mine as a Philosophy degree, precisely because it screams Space Cadet.
If you study Philosophy you could actually be studying theoretical maths or Physics - Philosophy is very much the root of the sciences.
What's being referred to above is more the natural philosophy side of the camp. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand why it's automatically assumed to be that - it's just such a wide-ranging area.
I have both a degree and a master - both of which incorporated elements of philosophy. Post grad it was the major part - and here's the thing, I did more complex and in-depth maths and physics in that than I did in my degree, where the major was maths. Go figure.
Forgive the blatant rip of a Wikipedia article (I'm busy in Starbucks), but this is a decent list of the subsets of what falls under Philosophy.
As you can see, a lot of it is really, really far from flowery thinking, and can involve an awful lot of maths, physics, and the more 'natural' type of sciences.
On the other hand, on my CV I don't list mine as a Philosophy degree, precisely because it screams Space Cadet.
Caporegime
If only this forum had an Ask/Tell sub-forum
How did you find both the degree and the masters? Did you have a diverse mix of students? What did you want to do before you enrolled and what do you do now in terms of a job? Maths and physics are not the two words that spring to mind when I hear the word 'philosophy'. Educate me
Associate
I have a Masters in philosophy which i finished about 12 years ago now (jeez!!). Was a joint degree with Music. Possibly the most random pointless degree combo in history, but i enjoyed it (sometimes). Philosophy was just something i was half decent at so i stuck with it. I was really there for the music. We covered pretty much all the areas listed by MacRS4 above.
It certainly helps with problem solving, logical thinking etc and if you are interested in the 'big' questions in life it will both enlighten and annoy in equal measure. However it does make you really irritating at dinner parties for a while. Tired of people claiming you would argue black was white? Do a philosophy degree and then you can argue that point for real!
The only employment prospects are er....teaching philosophy i guess. So don't think you'll have a career path mapped out coming out of your degree. I work as an IT manager for an investment bank now, so go figure...
It certainly helps with problem solving, logical thinking etc and if you are interested in the 'big' questions in life it will both enlighten and annoy in equal measure. However it does make you really irritating at dinner parties for a while. Tired of people claiming you would argue black was white? Do a philosophy degree and then you can argue that point for real!
The only employment prospects are er....teaching philosophy i guess. So don't think you'll have a career path mapped out coming out of your degree. I work as an IT manager for an investment bank now, so go figure...
Man of Honour
You obviously haven’t given it enough thought.
Soldato
Doing it at the moment in uni. It's going to be my degree, actually. Reckon I'll end up doing Philosophy of Mind or perhaps Personal Identity (although, epistemology is looking interesting.)
Having only done a semester so far, I can certainly say that reasoning has significantly increased my critical thinking ability (evidenced by the A I got in my first essay).
You get a chance to specialise later on in the degree, in your third and fourth year. A general overview of all the various topics are covered in your first two years (we also done Descartes).
I love it. It's probably my favourite topic right now.
Having only done a semester so far, I can certainly say that reasoning has significantly increased my critical thinking ability (evidenced by the A I got in my first essay).
You get a chance to specialise later on in the degree, in your third and fourth year. A general overview of all the various topics are covered in your first two years (we also done Descartes).
I love it. It's probably my favourite topic right now.
Soldato
Even though I'm studying it, and love it, I agree with this.
Only the philosophers care about philosophy.
Associate
I have a degree in it.
Whether it improves your thinking or makes it worse is well a philosophical question
In some cases it can make you think about things too much in other cases yes it can offer you insight into the multitude of assumptions we make about the world around us. It can also really **** other people off because it makes it easy to competley undermine other peoples arguments.
It all depends on the university you go to and the modules available so you need to know what interests you.
One thing to note some philosophy is incredibly difficult; think Kant, Hegel and anything to do with Philosophy of Mind is going to make you pull your hair out.
If you want an easier path stick to ethics and the History of Philosphy this will give you a basic grounding from Plato to modern times without necessarily getting into the deep detail.
There is also the question of if you go down the european route (i.e. Phenomonology (European Philosophy), Heiddeger, Sarte, Nietzche (to a certain) etc or go to analytic philosophy(Ryle,Wittgenstein (mostly),Russell, Popper). The european stuff is a little more fluffy with a little more room for interpretation whereas the analytic stuff can be more academically rigourous.
It's all fun though and the best part is all you eed to be able to do is show justified true belief in your essays, i.e. if you can coherently justify your argument you will get good grades. I knew somebody at University who based one of his essays on the pointlessness of writing essays for philosophy degrees and he ended up with a 2:1
ps and I have a decent job too so don't worry about being on the dole with it.
Whether it improves your thinking or makes it worse is well a philosophical question
In some cases it can make you think about things too much in other cases yes it can offer you insight into the multitude of assumptions we make about the world around us. It can also really **** other people off because it makes it easy to competley undermine other peoples arguments.
It all depends on the university you go to and the modules available so you need to know what interests you.
One thing to note some philosophy is incredibly difficult; think Kant, Hegel and anything to do with Philosophy of Mind is going to make you pull your hair out.
If you want an easier path stick to ethics and the History of Philosphy this will give you a basic grounding from Plato to modern times without necessarily getting into the deep detail.
There is also the question of if you go down the european route (i.e. Phenomonology (European Philosophy), Heiddeger, Sarte, Nietzche (to a certain) etc or go to analytic philosophy(Ryle,Wittgenstein (mostly),Russell, Popper). The european stuff is a little more fluffy with a little more room for interpretation whereas the analytic stuff can be more academically rigourous.
It's all fun though and the best part is all you eed to be able to do is show justified true belief in your essays, i.e. if you can coherently justify your argument you will get good grades. I knew somebody at University who based one of his essays on the pointlessness of writing essays for philosophy degrees and he ended up with a 2:1
ps and I have a decent job too so don't worry about being on the dole with it.
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