I will soon be studying at university, with the chance to study philosophy. Should I major in phil or study on my own? What is the best way to learn the subject?
I will soon be studying at university, with the chance to study philosophy. Should I major in phil or study on my own...
Leo Brown
James Cox
you gonna be serving me wendys in the future.
Jonathan Ross
I don't want to work at Wendy's
Noah Hughes
University is a scam and you're just perpetuating the system
Bentley Brown
>philosophy.
just study it unless you think you are gonna be a game changer in the philosophy biz.
Aaron Carter
studying philosophy won't make you a philosopher. it will give you a diploma and only that (you obviously will learn, too, but you can study and learn on your own). i, if i were you, would choose some other thing to graduate in.
Christopher Kelly
Depends whether you're in an Anglosphere country or not. If you are, almost all capital-P Philosophy departments will be extremely analytic if not exclusively analytic. If your soul's destiny is to become an analytic, that's probably just fine, but the problem is you won't even KNOW whether you are a born analytic or not because you'll never be exposed to continental thought to be able to form a comparison.
If you're just entering uni you're probably very young, too young, and with too little time to undertake serious study and decide whether you're a fucking analytic or continental. For the average layperson that would take a couple years of dabbling in both to get a real feel for both. So the only advice I can give you is: just because the Philosophy department spells Philosophy with a capital "P" doesn't mean it's really synonymous with Philosophy. If you're in an Anglosphere department, you should make a very earnest effort to branch out and explore continental thought while you can, just in case it's actually your metier.
If you're in a country where continental thought is totally dominant, the opposite applies, i.e. you should explore analytic thought on your own initiative because you probably won't be exposed to it. I say this out of fairness even though I think all analytics should be hanged.
Colton Hughes
actually, studying philosophy at an university is one of the most dumb things someone can do. jesus, how people even think of that?
Easton Wilson
Unless you're rich, you'll regret not studying something that makes capable of having an income and feeding yourself.
Oliver Ortiz
Thanks for your thoughts. I guess this, along with other replies, is pretty convincing. Also, how do you recommend one studies on one's own? My method has been: read Durant's "The Story of Philosophy" to get the general ideas, then read a primary source or two along with the Stanford encyclopedia. Any tips or advice?
I am in the US and I'm not too aware of whether analytic or continental is dominant. Any insight on which it is and how I should act based on it?