What is studying philosophy like?

Question

I am thinking about studying philosophy in college (I'm British and post 16 college is like the last two years of high-school not university), and I'm curious as to how difficult it is. I have read one primer on philosophy and I understood the ideas fine . . . but how difficult is it past that? (ie reading philosophical texts.)

Answer 1

You can take philosophy courses in university, and which university you take it from is very important.
When pursuing your bachelors degree in any of the arts, philosophy (at least 6-10 credits) is required. From those basic courses, decide on whether or not you wish this specialty, will you pursue it as your major or minor, and why.
Will you become a teacher? An academic? Will you dwell on philosophy for the rest of your life?

I found philosophy interesting and for me the overall result was that I started to understand how different mankind interpreted , made sense of his environment and believed all the unexplainables.

In your young formative years is the best time to study philosophy. Right where you are now.

As for difficulty, some profs will make it hard for you while some will make this trip into philosophers minds an exploration. I hope you will have good profs.

Answer 2

I stated studying philosophy almost 40 years ago and decided that I would study it on my own. I didn't want to have to spend time studying stuff that I already knew was absolute nonsense (and a lot of what is taught at Universities is nonsense). I didn't have a need for a PhD, I just wanted to learn.

I studied several philosophers that I found interesting and ended up agreeing with 98% of what Ayn Rand said. Most people do not know that she has a fully integrated philosophy with a fascinating epistemology that deals with concept formation.

I found metaphysics very interesting and not all that hard. Had I studied Kant in detail I would have gone insane, though. Same for Plato.

Objectivist metaphysics (Ayn Rand) was a breeze and semed totally obvious to me.

Epistemology was hard. I spent a couple years on that. If you want a good example of some excellent metaphysics, read 'Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology'. See how well you get through it.

Ethics was fascinating, so was pretty easy for me.

Politics is ongoing. I am always learning something new. It's not too difficult, but takes some hard thinking as you have to integrate all the way back to metaphysics.

The best overall philosophy book I have read is 'Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand' by Leonard Peikoff. It takes you soup to nuts through the Objectivist philosophy and is very readable. It discusses all branches of philosophy.

Answer 3

Sometimes it can be frustrating reading stuff that you don't agree with. It goes deeper and deeper in something you cannot relate to. I had this when reading Descartes' Meditations - although a very important work. You have to be tollerant sometimes. You have to be able to read what is there without drawing your conclusions too fast.
But most important, in order to become a philosopher yourself, is reconstructing what you read in your own words. And you should see your own little philosophy as something undefined and variable, no matter how good you've worked it out.
Then, and only then, the persuading part comes into play. You should be able to persuade others of your ideas - if not, they are worthless. A good thinker is a good writer, or speaker, and preferably both.

But if you're commited in the right fashion, you'll never regret your choice. For me, it has been, and it still is, a revelation.

Answer 4

i like it a lot. i guess it depends on you, and what you're willing to do. do you like to be in an atmosphere where you're going to be debating many ideas, and learning new things. do you like reading long chapters a night, because if you do than philosophy is for you. and it also depends on what philosophy you're going to take. i just finished a couse about the philosophy of religion, and my class did a lot of field work, where we were actually talking to people of different religions, and experiencing what their daily lives are actually like. so that was pretty cool, and it was easy an easy A for me.

Answer 5

Cool. It gives you a clearer picture of the world today and you can better understand logic and reasoning... Go pursue philosophy... :)

Answer 6

Once you get past the bachelor's degree and start working on your Master's, it's fairly interesting.

Answer 7

I heard that it's boring for a while.