Thanks for creating this video. I've been studiying philosophy for about two years now, and all the time I'm being told things like "yeah, I guess your only choice is to become a teacher or lecturer or something like that". I usually don't accept these kinds of statemenets, but now I actually know them to be empirically incorrect. Some of these facts will also help convince my mom I'm doing the right thing. Haha
I am beginning university here in Sydney Australia and am going to be studying law. However here you must combine your law degree with something... so i chose ARTS..
now i was going to take a business major... but a few things put me off.
So than i came across this... (You see i had this really bright english teacher in year 12 who studied philosophy and he really inspired me)
Phillosophy seems like it will really give me an 'intellectual edge' in law. Would you agree ? Thats my question.
I have a question I can't answer maybe you can. Why is doing the right thing to do the right thing to do when it comes to anything like morality. And what makes doing the right thing to do the right thing to do?
@TheEvaAngelina That's, like, the definition of a Big Philosophical Question :) People have been writing about this for 2500 years at least. If I could write a good, compelling answer to that question down in 400 characters I would (and I'd sell an awful lot of t-shirts :) )
i felt like this was made for me. i have been struggling so much with switching to this major. im currently an art major...but im not moved by it.....seriously..thank you.
@genre926 oh wow man... I'm the same way I am currently a Music Major but can not stand it. While here I am with stacks of books with titles like "Philosophy for Dummies" "The art of war" "philosophy of existence" "understanding modern philosophy" etc. nearly crying wishing I would have the balls to switch my major but worried I wont gain any "financial" value. Its awfull I know for a fact philosophy is my calling...
Thank you for this video, I can now say I'm going to pursuit a degree in philosophy..it should be great to compliment my engineering degree and hopefully an economics MBA in the future :D
The reason I study philosophy is to wade through the BS being spewed by politicians and news pundits. Critical Thinking allows you to identify who's trying to screw you over and can even help you get rich. Your logical reasoning and argumentative analysis will impress the ladies. If not for the practical knowledge that you can draw from it, at least do it to stop being a serf for others. No need to major, just open a book.
re: the "no jobs" objection. Are there jobs advertised for undergrad philosophy majors? No. But neither are there jobs advertised for undergrad English, history, psychology or sociology majors. In that respect most undergrad liberal arts and social science majors (and natural science majors, frankly) are in the same boat. The degree gets you past a first round of screening filters, that's it. After that it's about your skills and experience.
@thegrandjew Depends on the purpose of one's college degree. If its to get a job, then philosophy simply will not get you anything, ESPECIALLY in this market. If the objective is to be knowledgeable in this arena, then do so by pursuing a less expensive form of education.
Just take math. Then you trump all of philosophy's idiotic attempt at logic and critical thinking and at the same time can be useful to the world if you so choose.
@mmmpie89 Actually this is not true. Philosophy departments offer more courses in formal logic than do Mathematics departments. Where I did my Bachelor's degree, the philosophy department offered an introductory course in logic which covered propositional and predicate calculus, and intermediate logic course that covered meta-theoretic results from Godel, Tarski to Skolem as well as advanced seminars covering wide-ranging topics from infiinity to Hilbert's formalism.Math offered one logic course
Respond to this video... Moreover (in addition to comment above), philosophy, unlike mathematics, places emphasis on translation between natural languages and formal languages, making their critical thinking skills more applicable than those of mathematicians. Analytic Philosophers and Mathematicians resemble each other far more than many people think.
@Philosophocus That's funny. You should take a high level math course and see how well your critical thinking gets you. Every cocky philosophy major I've known who's tried that has failed horribly and been knocked down like twenty pegs. But half of the math department at my school take higher level philosophy courses as easy joke classes.
@mmmpie89 This may very well be. This will change from various universities with different mathematics departments and different philosophy departments. During my undergraduate, my philosophy department offered high-level logic courses while the mathematics department did not. In other cases, you can have mathematics departments with larger emphasis on mathematical logic and philosophy departments that are strong in continental rather than analytic philosophy.
@Philosophocus I don't know how much you know about math but every single upper level math course is a high level logic course. Analysis, algebra, etc. are hyper rigorous courses where you're literally allowed to say absolutely nothing without logical deduction and proof.
@mmmpie89 This is slightly disingenuous, but I know what you are getting at. What I mean by 'logic courses' I mean precisely courses whose subject matter is logic. Of course mathematical proofs require precise, logical deduction, but this does not mean the subject matter of the course is logic itself. I'm talking about meta-theoretic results, completeness results, incompleteness results, limitative results. More than this there are formal philosophical logics: doxastic, deontic, modal, etc.
You don't get it. Philosophy WILL NOT get you a job, employers DO NOT want your "skills", when they can get them from REAL degrees. Critical thinking can be gained from other areas of study.
You are LYING to your audience and will leave them in student loan debt.
@Ant1Live Those reasons can be put toward any major. You can learn business from a book, you can learn science from a book, etc. Why you chose to insult other people's choice of major i don't know, but you should grow up and stop feeling that false superiority over others, or else "real life" is going to slap you in the face. I didn't major in Phil, but i highly respect people who do.
Why do schools not show children why it is beneficial to act ethically, aside from religious dogma. There are very real reasons for people to act ethically, and this should be taught to young children, and not just give them rules to follow. Show them why it is good for everyone to follow rules.
@gjsterp Schools are sort of terrified of teaching ethics in any substantive way, in my experience. Mostly they're worried about parent complaints. To make this work you've got to invest some time in educating the parents about exactly what's being taught and why it's being taught. The other problem is that teachers often don't feel qualified to teach this.
I'm still too worried about job outlooks to ever major in philosophy. But there is a good chance that i'll minor in it (if possible). P.S. Now I might look into isu more- i'm an hour away but was always worried isu would be too much like living at home. May reconsider.
But I plan to watch your videos. They seem to represent what I think all philosophy should represent. The same clear and logical thinking that´s presented exclusively in math and most of science applied more broadly. I haven´t seen that much yet, but look forward to doing so ;)
From what I´ve presently seen your videos cover a lot of concepts that I think very actively about, and am frustrated to see being overseen so often. BECAUSE I care about clarity and logic much of the philosophy-education I´ve gotten has been frustrating. Clearly faulty logic and absurd axioms from ancient philosophers are treated as respectable opinions. Imagine if e.g. the theories about projectile motion given by Newton and Aristotle were presented in the same unconcluding manner.
@ThorTheScienceGuy It is a shame that philosophy so rarely shows its head in high school (where you'd think at least one critical thinking course would be mandatory, but even that isn't required). It's not a cure-all, studying philosophy by itself isn't going to change the world. But it's important, and you'd think that high school graduates would at least have SOME idea what it's about. But most of my college freshman students have never been exposed to any of this. I don't get it.
@PhilosophyFreak I agree! I have clear but complex ideas for a system that I think has a realistic potential for significantly improving upon the situation regarding critical thinking and rhetoric in society, and doing so without intruding upon any of the seemingly obvious conflicts that occur. I´m working on a text where I explain the concept/system, and will send it to you when it´s complete (there is of course no need for you to comment on this until then - I just thought I´d let you know).
Insofar as we may be concerned, a student in ANY field of scientific inquiry should master the theoretical frameworks in themselves and not apply them mechanically. The condition to reach the formal operational stage is the presence of abstract objects, namely theories... that's not philosophy which grants you with that, it's any theoretical framework that is presented with a deductive pattern.
You have thus no reason to insist it's specific to that field.
@Forkroute Sorry, I guess that's a bit jargony. Something is intrinsically valuable or good if it's valuable or good for its own sake, not for the sake of something else. Most people would say that Happiness is intrinsically valuable, for example. Some might say Knowledge, some might say Love, and so on. The contrast is with "instrumentally" valuable, something that is valuable not for its own sake, but for the sake of something else (money? a university degree? pick your favorite example)
@Forkroute well maybe it's not a very funny joke .... What's clear is the psychological/behavioral part; we do seem to value some things intrinsically. Whether there's any such thing in the world as "intrinsic value" is one of the oldest questions in philosophy. Google "intrinsic vs. extrinsic value" and check out the Stanford Online Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on this topic (just to prove I'm not making up the term...).
Thx for the references. I didn't think you're making the term up. it's just a mysterious term, like God or ghosts to me. Somewhat has a mythic connotations to me. Good day m8, and thx for the gr8 videos.
ilove philosophy but im one of those people that i rather live trying to discover the way of life and the hard cold truth of everything instead of living in "the bliss of ignorance"
Thanks for posting. I would also add Socrates' Quote, "The unexamined life is not worth living." There are many assumptions people are not aware they hold until they explore philosophy. Also, B Russell's argument that philosophy prevents dogmaticism, narrow-minded interests, etc.Thanks again for posting this excellent video. :)
I went through this when I told my parents that after high school I wanted to study animation at an art school. Actually, my dad didn't laugh, he got angry. I ended up majoring in physics, thinking I could always do art on the side. And of course I ended up in philosophy. Life defies all our plans ...
I sympathize! Tuition keeps rising at my own university. But for students in more technical disciplines, I do think that over the long run, a second major in a humanities field can repay the extra investment, for reasons discussed in the video.
Philosophy has tons of little sub-fields that many philosophers are never exposed to. One of the down-sides of specialization in any field, I guess. (I love your username, it conjures up a certain image in my head ... :))
I wrote an article called The Great Disconnect about how the fifth branch of philosophy, Aesthetics, is disconnected from the others. In other words, choices in art, fashion, décor, films, or whatever is no longer considered to have bearing on philosophical beliefs. I noticed in the section on content you list the four branches but leave out Aesthetics. Is this an example of the disconnect? What ever happened to Aesthetics in philosophy?
@EvilDandy Aesthetics is still an active area of philosophy, and there are plenty of people who think the field is deeply significant for philosophy (I'm one of them). But it's also true that it's never really been viewed as a "core" philosophical discipline, except in the sense that it's part of "value theory", which would include ethics, aesthetics and other fields that deal with values.
@EvilDandy Also, it would also be misleading for me to suggest that all philosophy majors are exposed to aesthetics. There's usually only one aesthetics course offered (if any), and it's rarely required for the major, so many graduate without ever really being exposed to it. This isn't the case with metaphysics, epistemology, ethics or political philosophy, which all majors would certainly be exposed to (to varying degrees).
@PhilosophyFreak Thank you for your reply. I call myself a philosopher, but I'm largely self-taught having never taken a formal course, which is one reason I am grateful for your body of work for public consumption. It certainly fills in some vague or unpractised areas in my education.
About twelve years back I was discussing philosophy with two PhD students of philosophy and asked them a question I had been pondering for years, "why do we like what we like?" They did not know what I meant let alone an answer. It was later that I discovered a whole branch of philosophy dedicated in part to that question. So I see what you mean about the lack of exposure.
As much as I love learning about philosophy, I'd never major in the humanities unless I had rich parents to pay the bill. If I had to take out a student loan, it would be out of the question. High tuition, books and living expenses make college a very expensive investment
@Steve2323ZX This is why at my country there's "socialized" education system. You can get college and university degree for free on what ever field you wish that's available. It's something that many other countries frown upon for various reasons, but I think it's fundemental part of the success of the country. Well educated public is mandatory in this day and age :) Democracy can work even with some socialization. It's for the good of people. :)
@Mtaalas Finland has a relatively high standard of living for many reasons. A well educated public is only part of it. Keep in mind one of the main factors in the uprising in Egypt is a glut of highly educated college graduates who were unemployed.
@Steve2323ZX Yes that is very true no arguing about that. The regime governing Egypt made bad mistakes and the standard of living went down the drain. There's other issues with Egypt too despite the well educated public. But when the public is well educated they can make things better eventually. Call me optimistic but oh well...
This is excellent. I am a philosophy major and I am applying to medical school. I feel very well-prepared to analyze theories and arguments on many topics and I feel that more people would be surprised by the value of the degree and the breadth of misconceptions. Great video.
At first, philosophy seems like something 'outside' of everyday life. And then you start to see how every single second of your existence is philosophy.
You know I recently spoke with John Williams of the Oklahoma Bar and Rudolph Hargrave, a recently retired Justice from Oklahoma State Supreme Court. Before talking to them I had been considering law school as a real option. Afterwards I scratched that off my list. So I'll be going to grad school, and I think that I may in fact major in philosophy. In a Utopian world, I'll be teaching it at a good university some day in the not -too- distant future.
It seems as if the whole income thing is a bit contradictary to being a true philosopher, not that there's anything wrong with having alot of money, so long as you spend it wisely, like donating it to charities and the like, people who realistically speaking, could do with it.
I'm an undergraduate student, and I can tell you that my family made fun of me when I raised the possibility of becoming a philosophy major. I was really upset.
Thanks for creating this video. I've been studiying philosophy for about two years now, and all the time I'm being told things like "yeah, I guess your only choice is to become a teacher or lecturer or something like that". I usually don't accept these kinds of statemenets, but now I actually know them to be empirically incorrect. Some of these facts will also help convince my mom I'm doing the right thing. Haha
Greetings from Norway
jonaslbjerke 1 week ago
How can I learn philosophy now as a medical graduate? Could I learn independently?
prep4md 1 week ago
Great argument Sir!
vellocent 2 weeks ago
I am convinced.
123ilovefrog 2 weeks ago
I havent finished the video yet, but I think a 6th reason is that with this degree you can make an argument as well as this and organize it so well.
*Slow, tearful round of applause*
jordandaniels7 2 weeks ago
I am beginning university here in Sydney Australia and am going to be studying law. However here you must combine your law degree with something... so i chose ARTS..
now i was going to take a business major... but a few things put me off.
So than i came across this... (You see i had this really bright english teacher in year 12 who studied philosophy and he really inspired me)
Phillosophy seems like it will really give me an 'intellectual edge' in law. Would you agree ? Thats my question.
ItsSnottyBee 1 month ago
nice video. you interested us and made us curious, made us think. not strain the brain but think. i like it, you did a great job.
WE2much 1 month ago
I have a question I can't answer maybe you can. Why is doing the right thing to do the right thing to do when it comes to anything like morality. And what makes doing the right thing to do the right thing to do?
TheEvaAngelina 2 months ago in playlist More videos from PhilosophyFreak
@TheEvaAngelina That's, like, the definition of a Big Philosophical Question :) People have been writing about this for 2500 years at least. If I could write a good, compelling answer to that question down in 400 characters I would (and I'd sell an awful lot of t-shirts :) )
PhilosophyFreak 2 months ago 2
i felt like this was made for me. i have been struggling so much with switching to this major. im currently an art major...but im not moved by it.....seriously..thank you.
genre926 2 months ago
@genre926 oh wow man... I'm the same way I am currently a Music Major but can not stand it. While here I am with stacks of books with titles like "Philosophy for Dummies" "The art of war" "philosophy of existence" "understanding modern philosophy" etc. nearly crying wishing I would have the balls to switch my major but worried I wont gain any "financial" value. Its awfull I know for a fact philosophy is my calling...
Tonemysterme 1 month ago
Excellent video. Thank you for taking the time to make this.
TheTako400 2 months ago
Thank you for this video, I can now say I'm going to pursuit a degree in philosophy..it should be great to compliment my engineering degree and hopefully an economics MBA in the future :D
alliy20 3 months ago
I was pretty sure Philosophy was the only topic I cared about as an option for my arts degree. This has confirmed it.
brb getting degree
sammosammy 4 months ago
The reason I study philosophy is to wade through the BS being spewed by politicians and news pundits. Critical Thinking allows you to identify who's trying to screw you over and can even help you get rich. Your logical reasoning and argumentative analysis will impress the ladies. If not for the practical knowledge that you can draw from it, at least do it to stop being a serf for others. No need to major, just open a book.
Mofostrobujo 4 months ago
@Mofostrobujo Any books you reccomend? Im still considering it as a major.
MayhemFan666 3 weeks ago
re: the "no jobs" objection. Are there jobs advertised for undergrad philosophy majors? No. But neither are there jobs advertised for undergrad English, history, psychology or sociology majors. In that respect most undergrad liberal arts and social science majors (and natural science majors, frankly) are in the same boat. The degree gets you past a first round of screening filters, that's it. After that it's about your skills and experience.
PhilosophyFreak 4 months ago
@thegrandjew Depends on the purpose of one's college degree. If its to get a job, then philosophy simply will not get you anything, ESPECIALLY in this market. If the objective is to be knowledgeable in this arena, then do so by pursuing a less expensive form of education.
farhan00 4 months ago
Just take math. Then you trump all of philosophy's idiotic attempt at logic and critical thinking and at the same time can be useful to the world if you so choose.
mmmpie89 4 months ago
@mmmpie89 Actually this is not true. Philosophy departments offer more courses in formal logic than do Mathematics departments. Where I did my Bachelor's degree, the philosophy department offered an introductory course in logic which covered propositional and predicate calculus, and intermediate logic course that covered meta-theoretic results from Godel, Tarski to Skolem as well as advanced seminars covering wide-ranging topics from infiinity to Hilbert's formalism.Math offered one logic course
Philosophocus 4 months ago
Respond to this video... Moreover (in addition to comment above), philosophy, unlike mathematics, places emphasis on translation between natural languages and formal languages, making their critical thinking skills more applicable than those of mathematicians. Analytic Philosophers and Mathematicians resemble each other far more than many people think.
Philosophocus 4 months ago
@Philosophocus That's funny. You should take a high level math course and see how well your critical thinking gets you. Every cocky philosophy major I've known who's tried that has failed horribly and been knocked down like twenty pegs. But half of the math department at my school take higher level philosophy courses as easy joke classes.
mmmpie89 4 months ago
@mmmpie89 This may very well be. This will change from various universities with different mathematics departments and different philosophy departments. During my undergraduate, my philosophy department offered high-level logic courses while the mathematics department did not. In other cases, you can have mathematics departments with larger emphasis on mathematical logic and philosophy departments that are strong in continental rather than analytic philosophy.
Philosophocus 4 months ago
@Philosophocus I don't know how much you know about math but every single upper level math course is a high level logic course. Analysis, algebra, etc. are hyper rigorous courses where you're literally allowed to say absolutely nothing without logical deduction and proof.
mmmpie89 4 months ago
@mmmpie89 This is slightly disingenuous, but I know what you are getting at. What I mean by 'logic courses' I mean precisely courses whose subject matter is logic. Of course mathematical proofs require precise, logical deduction, but this does not mean the subject matter of the course is logic itself. I'm talking about meta-theoretic results, completeness results, incompleteness results, limitative results. More than this there are formal philosophical logics: doxastic, deontic, modal, etc.
Philosophocus 4 months ago
@thegrandjew No, I studied Economics, but I read some philosophy and found it useless.
I have personal friends who picked junk majors and cannot get jobs. Philosophy is one of them.
farhan00 5 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Harold Camping was RIGHT about May 21, click on my channel to see...
youneekk 5 months ago
the 6's w's of a philosophy major: who? what? when? where? why? would you like
fries with that?
ck465 5 months ago
This video is dangerous.
You don't get it. Philosophy WILL NOT get you a job, employers DO NOT want your "skills", when they can get them from REAL degrees. Critical thinking can be gained from other areas of study.
You are LYING to your audience and will leave them in student loan debt.
farhan00 6 months ago
I'm interested in Double Majoring in Philosophy and Political Science. Is this possible?
AmateurPolymath 6 months ago
1. Pay money.
2. Get major in philosophy.
3. ????
4. NO PROFIT!!
mrvideogamevideos 6 months ago
Philosophy can be learned on your own time, besides you should form your own philosophy, not regurgitate what others wrote.
Here is one reason NOT to major in philosophy: No jobs.
H1TMANactual 6 months ago
If not philosophy, what are other degrees that a philosopher would enjoy?
poopinitup 6 months ago
If there was a real source of generating income. I would right away switch to major in philosophy.
CiaoBello21 7 months ago
@CiaoBello21 It's called writing, authoring books is probably the most profitable of the many career choices a philosophy student can make.
imreloadin2 7 months ago
Top 5 REAL LIFE reason why you may get a degree in philosophy.
1) Your parents are rich and you don't need a real job... or you're just going to law school afterward anyway.
2) You are unwilling to go to the library to learn the same thing.
3) You are unable to learn anything at all on your own, so you need to pay a school to pretend to do it for you.
4) You wanna feel smart.
5) You have nothing better to do.
Ant1Live 8 months ago
@Ant1Live Those reasons can be put toward any major. You can learn business from a book, you can learn science from a book, etc. Why you chose to insult other people's choice of major i don't know, but you should grow up and stop feeling that false superiority over others, or else "real life" is going to slap you in the face. I didn't major in Phil, but i highly respect people who do.
Hauris 7 months ago
@Hauris You should have taken Sense of Humor 101 freshman year.
Ant1Live 7 months ago
I was just thinking about this last night.
Why do schools not show children why it is beneficial to act ethically, aside from religious dogma. There are very real reasons for people to act ethically, and this should be taught to young children, and not just give them rules to follow. Show them why it is good for everyone to follow rules.
gjsterp 8 months ago 6
@gjsterp Schools are sort of terrified of teaching ethics in any substantive way, in my experience. Mostly they're worried about parent complaints. To make this work you've got to invest some time in educating the parents about exactly what's being taught and why it's being taught. The other problem is that teachers often don't feel qualified to teach this.
PhilosophyFreak 8 months ago
I'm still too worried about job outlooks to ever major in philosophy. But there is a good chance that i'll minor in it (if possible). P.S. Now I might look into isu more- i'm an hour away but was always worried isu would be too much like living at home. May reconsider.
IAJstea 10 months ago
I wish every colege student on earth would see this.
greenghost2008 10 months ago
Hey Philosophy Freak,
What jobs?
studiousx3 10 months ago
@studiousx3 stop being dumb. Maybe then you'll figure it out.
greenghost2008 10 months ago
But I plan to watch your videos. They seem to represent what I think all philosophy should represent. The same clear and logical thinking that´s presented exclusively in math and most of science applied more broadly. I haven´t seen that much yet, but look forward to doing so ;)
ThorTheScienceGuy 11 months ago
From what I´ve presently seen your videos cover a lot of concepts that I think very actively about, and am frustrated to see being overseen so often. BECAUSE I care about clarity and logic much of the philosophy-education I´ve gotten has been frustrating. Clearly faulty logic and absurd axioms from ancient philosophers are treated as respectable opinions. Imagine if e.g. the theories about projectile motion given by Newton and Aristotle were presented in the same unconcluding manner.
ThorTheScienceGuy 11 months ago
@ThorTheScienceGuy It is a shame that philosophy so rarely shows its head in high school (where you'd think at least one critical thinking course would be mandatory, but even that isn't required). It's not a cure-all, studying philosophy by itself isn't going to change the world. But it's important, and you'd think that high school graduates would at least have SOME idea what it's about. But most of my college freshman students have never been exposed to any of this. I don't get it.
PhilosophyFreak 11 months ago
@PhilosophyFreak I agree! I have clear but complex ideas for a system that I think has a realistic potential for significantly improving upon the situation regarding critical thinking and rhetoric in society, and doing so without intruding upon any of the seemingly obvious conflicts that occur. I´m working on a text where I explain the concept/system, and will send it to you when it´s complete (there is of course no need for you to comment on this until then - I just thought I´d let you know).
ThorTheScienceGuy 11 months ago
@PhilosophyFreak
Insofar as we may be concerned, a student in ANY field of scientific inquiry should master the theoretical frameworks in themselves and not apply them mechanically. The condition to reach the formal operational stage is the presence of abstract objects, namely theories... that's not philosophy which grants you with that, it's any theoretical framework that is presented with a deductive pattern.
You have thus no reason to insist it's specific to that field.
KrugmanTheKing 2 months ago
@6:56 "You know who you are..." I loved hearing that! Great video. I am a Philosophy Major and after only a few classes it has changed my life.
thepsionicstorms 11 months ago
WTF is intrinsic value?
Forkroute 1 year ago
@Forkroute Sorry, I guess that's a bit jargony. Something is intrinsically valuable or good if it's valuable or good for its own sake, not for the sake of something else. Most people would say that Happiness is intrinsically valuable, for example. Some might say Knowledge, some might say Love, and so on. The contrast is with "instrumentally" valuable, something that is valuable not for its own sake, but for the sake of something else (money? a university degree? pick your favorite example)
PhilosophyFreak 1 year ago
@PhilosophyFreak good for its own sake? What is this a joke? Is a pencil good in itself? ontologically WTF is intrinsic value?
Forkroute 1 year ago
@Forkroute well maybe it's not a very funny joke .... What's clear is the psychological/behavioral part; we do seem to value some things intrinsically. Whether there's any such thing in the world as "intrinsic value" is one of the oldest questions in philosophy. Google "intrinsic vs. extrinsic value" and check out the Stanford Online Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on this topic (just to prove I'm not making up the term...).
PhilosophyFreak 1 year ago
@PhilosophyFreak
Thx for the references. I didn't think you're making the term up. it's just a mysterious term, like God or ghosts to me. Somewhat has a mythic connotations to me. Good day m8, and thx for the gr8 videos.
Forkroute 1 year ago
ilove philosophy but im one of those people that i rather live trying to discover the way of life and the hard cold truth of everything instead of living in "the bliss of ignorance"
SocraticMind89 1 year ago
I have always wrestled with the prospect of majoring in Philosophy, thank you for your input.
lookit87 1 year ago
Thanks for posting. I would also add Socrates' Quote, "The unexamined life is not worth living." There are many assumptions people are not aware they hold until they explore philosophy. Also, B Russell's argument that philosophy prevents dogmaticism, narrow-minded interests, etc.Thanks again for posting this excellent video. :)
stearnslectures 1 year ago
I went through this when I told my parents that after high school I wanted to study animation at an art school. Actually, my dad didn't laugh, he got angry. I ended up majoring in physics, thinking I could always do art on the side. And of course I ended up in philosophy. Life defies all our plans ...
PhilosophyFreak 1 year ago
Just curious -- what did they say that put you off of law school?
PhilosophyFreak 1 year ago
I sympathize! Tuition keeps rising at my own university. But for students in more technical disciplines, I do think that over the long run, a second major in a humanities field can repay the extra investment, for reasons discussed in the video.
PhilosophyFreak 1 year ago
Philosophy has tons of little sub-fields that many philosophers are never exposed to. One of the down-sides of specialization in any field, I guess. (I love your username, it conjures up a certain image in my head ... :))
PhilosophyFreak 1 year ago
I wrote an article called The Great Disconnect about how the fifth branch of philosophy, Aesthetics, is disconnected from the others. In other words, choices in art, fashion, décor, films, or whatever is no longer considered to have bearing on philosophical beliefs. I noticed in the section on content you list the four branches but leave out Aesthetics. Is this an example of the disconnect? What ever happened to Aesthetics in philosophy?
EvilDandy 1 year ago
@EvilDandy Aesthetics is still an active area of philosophy, and there are plenty of people who think the field is deeply significant for philosophy (I'm one of them). But it's also true that it's never really been viewed as a "core" philosophical discipline, except in the sense that it's part of "value theory", which would include ethics, aesthetics and other fields that deal with values.
PhilosophyFreak 1 year ago
@EvilDandy Also, it would also be misleading for me to suggest that all philosophy majors are exposed to aesthetics. There's usually only one aesthetics course offered (if any), and it's rarely required for the major, so many graduate without ever really being exposed to it. This isn't the case with metaphysics, epistemology, ethics or political philosophy, which all majors would certainly be exposed to (to varying degrees).
PhilosophyFreak 1 year ago
@PhilosophyFreak Thank you for your reply. I call myself a philosopher, but I'm largely self-taught having never taken a formal course, which is one reason I am grateful for your body of work for public consumption. It certainly fills in some vague or unpractised areas in my education.
EvilDandy 1 year ago
About twelve years back I was discussing philosophy with two PhD students of philosophy and asked them a question I had been pondering for years, "why do we like what we like?" They did not know what I meant let alone an answer. It was later that I discovered a whole branch of philosophy dedicated in part to that question. So I see what you mean about the lack of exposure.
EvilDandy 1 year ago
"you know who you are"
wow, that was kind a spooky,lol
DecentralizedByGuilt 1 year ago
My university unfortunately doesn't have a philosophy major :( Only a minor.
bshort31092 1 year ago
As much as I love learning about philosophy, I'd never major in the humanities unless I had rich parents to pay the bill. If I had to take out a student loan, it would be out of the question. High tuition, books and living expenses make college a very expensive investment
Steve2323ZX 1 year ago
@Steve2323ZX This is why at my country there's "socialized" education system. You can get college and university degree for free on what ever field you wish that's available. It's something that many other countries frown upon for various reasons, but I think it's fundemental part of the success of the country. Well educated public is mandatory in this day and age :) Democracy can work even with some socialization. It's for the good of people. :)
Mtaalas 1 year ago
@Mtaalas Finland has a relatively high standard of living for many reasons. A well educated public is only part of it. Keep in mind one of the main factors in the uprising in Egypt is a glut of highly educated college graduates who were unemployed.
Steve2323ZX 1 year ago
@Steve2323ZX Yes that is very true no arguing about that. The regime governing Egypt made bad mistakes and the standard of living went down the drain. There's other issues with Egypt too despite the well educated public. But when the public is well educated they can make things better eventually. Call me optimistic but oh well...
Mtaalas 1 year ago
This is excellent. I am a philosophy major and I am applying to medical school. I feel very well-prepared to analyze theories and arguments on many topics and I feel that more people would be surprised by the value of the degree and the breadth of misconceptions. Great video.
MagnesiumMichael 1 year ago
At first, philosophy seems like something 'outside' of everyday life. And then you start to see how every single second of your existence is philosophy.
Philosophy is secretly everything.
TheSchimmi 1 year ago 16
You know I recently spoke with John Williams of the Oklahoma Bar and Rudolph Hargrave, a recently retired Justice from Oklahoma State Supreme Court. Before talking to them I had been considering law school as a real option. Afterwards I scratched that off my list. So I'll be going to grad school, and I think that I may in fact major in philosophy. In a Utopian world, I'll be teaching it at a good university some day in the not -too- distant future.
WarThemedRevolution 1 year ago
It seems as if the whole income thing is a bit contradictary to being a true philosopher, not that there's anything wrong with having alot of money, so long as you spend it wisely, like donating it to charities and the like, people who realistically speaking, could do with it.
zenfreestyler 1 year ago
I'm an undergraduate student, and I can tell you that my family made fun of me when I raised the possibility of becoming a philosophy major. I was really upset.
Arcadia62091 1 year ago