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I got a BA in Philosophy about a decade ago. I am currently enrolled to get a BA in Computer Science as well, because I need to be less poor. If you are considering a philosophy degree, for gently caress's sake, don't make the mistake I did. Make sure you have career aspirations now. Don't just pretend you'll figure it out later. If you don't have any ideas yet, talk to others until you get some idea. Beyond that, I am going to echo everything Wardende said. Philosophy is a great subject for anyone who wants to have a well exercised brain. My education did not directly prepare me for my future, at least not in the way that taking a knife skills course teaches you how to make a stir-fry. Still, earning the degree greatly increased by ability to both communicate and learn. I honestly feel that my experience with my degree is helping me learn computer science now, even though they are only tangentially related by way of logic. You also write huge essays, so you will get plenty of practice writing clearly and persuasively, which is a very valuable skill. I feel that everyone can benefit from some philosophical education, but I am certainly biased. I'm sure that anthropologists believe everyone should learn about evolution and dentists believe everyone should learn about water fluoridation. I feel philosophy is different; once you peel off the layers of history education and vernacular (which are fine on their own), there is a great toolkit available to students through philosophy that make it very different from other fields, liberal arts or otherwise. Of course, this is in addition to the proposition that having an education in the humanities is beneficial to you as a person. I'm not sure if I am selling this right. I want to be effusive and clear in my praise, but I just finished two hours of writing for a socially-minded tech course, so I am fried. If you are going to school and you have the option to flex your schedule at will, I would suggest trying out whatever the introduction to philosophy class is at your school as an elective. It will either be be a broad taste of all the fields of philosophy throughout history, or it will just be a course on logic. Both should give you a taste for it. If you like it, talk to an adviser and find out what it would take to get a major or minor. If you don't want to commit to a class just yet, find out if the college has a Philosophy Club. If there is one, sit in on a meeting. If not, find out if a professor in your major has an advanced degree in Philosophy in addition to their other field. It's more likely than you think. Also, if you do get any degree in Philosophy, get ready for people to ask you:  : "Oh, so you're going to be a shrink?" : "No, you're thinking Psychology, not Philosophy. Also, you're thinking Psychiatry, not Psychology."
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Nov 5, 2015 04:01
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Quoted for truth. I am literally doing the same thing except a few years behind and without drugs (which come to think of it was probably why I don't have any remaining philosophy friends). For anyone considering taking these classes, see if your college offers a Philosophy of Science class, especially if you are a STEM or 'hard' science major. It is likely to be fairly advanced, so you will need some fundamentals and prerequisites first. Still, you could find it to be a fantastic resource for understanding why science works the way that it does, learn to to delineate what is science and what isn't, and then discover some interesting (disputed) problems with the scientific method.
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Nov 12, 2015 18:36
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Bruegels Fuckbooks posted:Philosophy of science and epistemology were my big areas. That was a lot of fun to study and I wish that stuff was in philosophy 100 rather than "how the the Matrix is like Plato's allegory of the Cave and Descartes." Yeah, I understand the need to make it relevant to pop-culture-fed children, and I don't think The Matrix is the worst example, and freshmen pandering permeates everything, but... yeah. That is always so lame. It reminds me how the one thing that used to anger me about bookstores was seeing "The Simpsons and Philosophy" and "The Sopranos and Philosophy" and other stuff like that. I'm sure those books still exist, but now there are no bookstores so I don't have to see them anymore.
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Nov 13, 2015 04:43
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ZombieLenin posted:Yes, because you really need to be trained to read philosophy. I had a friend who considered himself a philosophical autodidact. He literally highlighted entire philosophy books and "read" the Phenomenology of Spirit and had no idea what the master slave dialectic was. To be fair, no one needs to know this because Hegel sucks.
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Nov 30, 2015 17:13
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I suppose the question is should we dis-incentivize liberal arts, or just incentivize STEM? Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had been more vigorously discouraged from getting a Philosophy degree. Then again, would I have actually listened? But hey, Philosophy gave me the tools to understand this plight, so that's something.  Another much cheaper way to get an overview of the topic: educational YouTube channel Crash Course started a a series on Philosophy. Right now, it's like and half-and-half logic and religious philosophy. For just ten minutes, it's tough to do better.
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Apr 18, 2016 17:23
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