PHIL 101

Social Forums Non-Philosophical Chat
1

Because I took so long to sign up to my classes, I have been forced to take Philosophy 101 in my first semester of College. I don’t know if I should be happy or scared.

You have to understand that the last time I was in a formal learning environment was in 1999. And the last time I applied myself in school was in 1997 (My first Senior year of H.S.).

Do you think I put myself into the deep end?

The other classes I’m not worried about. I’m enrolled into Japanese 101 (a joke), Drama 105 (learning about the stage, another joke), and then Economics 100 (this one is serious).

I was trying to take it easy the first time around, but it didn’t work out that way in my opinion.

2

You have over twelve-hundred posts, so I’m assuming you’re not here because of your forced class, but don’t be scared. I have a sister who’s best friend is has her masters in Philosophy, and can safely say, don’t worry.

There isn’t any (if there is, it’s very unusual) math, not a whole lot of technical stuff to memorize, save for the occasional terms for different philosophies, so on, which isn’t hard at all. You’ve got to analyze different subjects on philosophy with your knowledge, and assess the beliefs, give your opinion, so on. It might sound kind of scary, but you’ve got to think of all the other people who’ll be in the same exact boat you are, and most of the class will pass (unless you attend a really tough facility); and if you even try a little bit, you should, too.

Just a reminder, I’m fifteen, and I’m still in high school myself, but I take my sister’s advice. Hope you knock 'em dead!

3

Thanks for the reply. And I’ll tell you what a wise person once told me:

A high post count does not equate to a high social standing.

I got over 1,200 posts. 94% of them were probably in Mundane Babble or Creative Writing playing those damn poetry games.
Oh yeah, and that chess match with Marshall.

4

Smooth - you will likely find that the population in college will resemble the population as a whole - most of them will be dopes. Think about how many college-educated dopes you know. I don’t know anything about you except that you can string a sentence together articulately, which will put you ahead of most of your classmates. And you have some life experience, which most of them do not. And you have lots of friends to back you up if things get rough. That means more than having already read the texts. My first philo prof was a dope. He read my first paper aloud to the class, because it was better than anything he could have written. Don’t be intimidated.

I wouldn’t be worried at all. I am 48 years old, have been to school, majored in philosophy, have read and studied since then, and have posted here and there for years. From what I have seen of you, which admittedly isn’t much, you will do very well. There is at least no reason why you cannot. Don’t go in intimidated - it isn’t philosophical, and goes against the training you have had. Use that training, and rely on your buddies when you need to.

I predict that you won’t need to. Let’s see how I do.

5

An entry level course in philosophy will be pretty easy for you, I suspect.

6

From my experience, Phil 101 is one of the easier classes you’ll take in undergrad; you won’t have any trouble with it, Smooth. If anything, it might be a nightmare, along the lines of what faust wrote, in that you’ll be forced to listen to complete morons talk philosophy.

7

I wish I could get the professor from Waking Life…I would have to go to UT though…

8

It really depends on the school, the teacher/department as to what it will be like, but if it helps you, why not keep a diary in this thread of what your experiences doing phil101 in that school are like?

It would help you and it would help some of the people here. It would be interesting to read about.

9

Indeed, Robert Solomon. He’s also married to Kathleen Higgins, who is also a professor there. I have a couple books by each of them. That would be something to attend some classes there.

For what it’s worth, I once e-mailed Higgins with a particular question, and she answered me at length. I printed it and still have it tucked away in one of her books. I’m such a dork. :laughing:

10

A truly dedicated professor.

11

As requested here is my online journal of my first college experience.

Don’t get bored.

[size=150]COLLEGE THE PRE-QUEL[/size]

Okay, so classes start next Monday and today I bought my books. As I looked through the Philosophy textbook I noticed the first chapter.

Self, Mind & Body
~Do we have an essential self or soul?
~To what extent do our bodies determine who we are?
~What else determines who I am?

And I’m reading excerpts from Upanishans, John Locke, David Hume, Arther Schopenhauveeiorupowijproqiuer

It seems that this might be daunting, moreso than I thought.

Hopefully my college experience is filled with drunken parties and getting laid by girls that don’t give a damn. Let’s see.

12

Keep it coming. If you feel like it we might be able to collate and publish your experiences somewhere in future for others to get a feel for what it might be like. =D>

13

Yeah, I’ve noticed that the trend in manuals now is to focus on philosophical issues rather than a chronological rendition of their promoters. I’ve seen this in high school manuals over here, too. Personally, I’d prefer the latter format, but I guess the former has its advantages too. I suppose the attempt is to give some kind of internal direction, or unity of content to the conduct of philosophy, the feel that great minds are bound together by the same major inquiries, mirrored in the pond of great truth thingies.

I would expect though that a good teacher can meet this demand while focusing philosophy on its major figures (that have influenced it) and the historical context which they shared. This is more scholastic, but it gives a better measure of how philosophy has evolved and a more accurate feel of what “there are no philosophies, only philosophers” means.

14

I am feeling very anxious though. I’m not that much older than my classmates might be, but I have definitly lived a crazy life. I feel that I might get left behind being that my mind hasn’t been that active as of late. But no worries, I am a Jedi.

I am completly ignoring my Economics and Drama classes because I am so excited about Philosophy and Japanese.

=P~

15

[size=150]MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL[/size]

So today was totally off the hook! I woke up way too early for my own good, but I decided that I rather be a bit early, than be too late. And when I get to school, I figure out that I have no idea how the campus is laid out. Luckily there were some really cool people to help me on my journey.

After I find my class, it was very apparent that there wasn’t that many students for what is souppose to be my Intro to Drama class. And so the class got cancelled.

Great way to spend my first day of college. I had to switch the class (because the Veterans Affair office wouldn’t pay me my full amount unless I have a certain number of credits, and we don’t want Smooth to have to get a job now. Come on!), get approval for the class, do this, that, and the third… and then… once everything was good ~~~> I had 10 minutes until my new class started.

And guess what the Young Jedi took?

Voice and diction, how cool is that? Now I have to completly throw away my precious New York accent out the window, and speak “Standard American English”. Which is good for my business, but it wouldn’t be good for my reputation in the hood. Which is important to me, but that is a whole other issue. Either way, I am excited about learning how to speak better. Imagine what that would do to my performance? WOW.

Then I went over to Japanese class. JAPN101.

I spoke to the Proffessor for about 10 minutes and she told me I need to take 201 because this class would be too easy. I told her that I am self-taught and have no proof or record of my study. So… I have to sit through hours of very basic stuff that bores me. But I am learning small things here and there, it’ll be an easy A, and there actually are a few really hot Japanese & other girls there. But sadly I am not interested in dating right now, but it’s good eye candy when I get bored.

All day I’ve been doing tricks and meeting people. I went straight to every office I could and said, “Hi, my name is Tomas De la Cruz and I’m the magic man.” Then I give a very big smile, and produce cards from my mouth! I made so many friends, and some school organization wants me to go to some Ice Cream social tommorrow to do tricks. Hey, it’s a start.

I’m having so much fun, I can’t even begin to explain it.

I was thinking though, that had I been 18 going to school, I would’ve been way too shy to really enjoy this thing. Somehow this year, my interest in trying to score with thousands of women has disappeared (no, I’m not switching sides, just priorities).

They even have a study abroad thing going on to London or Spain! But I have to be an American Citizen, which I’m not. But it is good to know that it is there.

16

sounds like a very good first day :smiley:

I thought that if you served in the military, they made you a citizen… or are you simply on the fast track?

but it sounds like you have more than enough broads to study where you are anyway…

-Imp

17

Nice first day… you’re going about it right I think… lots of smiles (cards or no cards!) and plenty of new friends.

18

Alright so I just got to college three days ago, and had my first Philosophy 101 class today.
I am pissed!!! My professor is a total idiot…and a woman…

What to do, what to do…

19

It happens.

20

What do you mean “and a woman”?

either way

[size=200]WEEK 1[/size]

So I just completed my first week as a college student. I really am glad about this idea of mine of getting “higher learning”. It is totally off the hook, and wish I never get rid of my thirst for knowledge and pure enjoyment of the great things about college. I mean, I never knew there were so many approachable young women waiting for a guy like me on campus. In just one week, my schedule has just been filled to the max. Sadly I can’t entertain them all, but life is still good.

Today is Friday, so I had a four hour lecture on Philosophy.

On my schedule it said I was going to have my only male proffesor, and low and behold… it was a lady. And not just any lady. This lady has her Doctorate in Philosophy, must be in either her late 30’s or early 40’s, but looks like she can easily be 32. Has a killer body, I mean… I was checking her out the whole class! Which might be bad for me to say that, because she might frequent this board. But I will never hide the fact that she is an attractive lady. On top of which she has this Spanish accent that is killer!

But when she talks, you can actually tell this girl knows her stuff. I don’t even want to use the term girl, but you know what I mean. Intelligent, pretty… her husband must be glad with his choice.

Besides the superficial reasons why I should attend the class, I did learn a few things. I finally know what the hell Axiology is all about. Well not all about, but I never knew that ethics and aesthetics were a part of it. I also didn’t know that a guy named Thales is considered the 1st Western Philosopher. Didn’t knew that at all.

One thing is, is that since they changed the teacher, I need to switch the book I bought. Which sucks ass, because I don’t think I can afford to buy a new book. But I’ll get that fixed.

One thing is very confusing me. I see that Metaphysics is the study of existence and reality, while Epistemology is the study of knowledge. But what the fuck is the study of knowledge? I mean, aren’t the facts that we have on existence and reality knowledge? Isn’t the fact that we might be questioning the nature of our reality, also mean that we are questioning (to be read studying) the knowledge that we have on reality?

That is bugging me out. Because knowledge is just things we know, from what I think. And it just seems to me that Metaphysics also studys knowledge, just knowledge about Existence and Reality. So does Epistemology study everything that Metaphyics left out?

Any simple explainations will be appreciated. If not, then I guess I’ll have to find the time here.

I wonder… would this thread be more than Mundane enough not to be Mundane Babble?