The Philosophy Major

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Hey all,

Firstly, I would like to say this forum is great. I have not posted before myself, but it seems to be much more lively that the forums of ephilosopher.com. Anyway onto my points:

I am more than likely going to major in philosophy. People, including my family and friends, called me crazy for choosing a philosophy degree over a biochemistry/biotechnology one, though I was never good listener. Lol. I also probably think that I would go on to graduate studies and become a professor as well. I really love reading philosophy in my spare time, and even in place of homework or duty work and I also love debating, writing about philosophy-related things. Though it seems impractical career-wise when compared to other fields, I think that I would love it enough to find a way to make money out of it. Having said those things, not all is without doubt, though as the days pass, that doubt becomes less and less.

I’d prefer answers from people who are studying and residing in Canada, as I am going to a Canadian University in Ontario. Though I would love other’s people opinions as well, no matter the location.

[b]To the other philosophy majors out there, or to those thinking about majoring in philosophy, what are some of the troubles/difficulties you encountered before, during and/or after your studies, if any?

What were the reactions/opinions of those who you told, such as family, friends, teachers, etc, about pursuing a degree in philosophy?

Was finding, gathering money a big factor in supporting yourself financially? Was it difficult to get a job after completion of a Bachelors? A Masters? A PhD? How did you pay for all this education? Was money even a factor or relevant?

Do you have regrets about not pursuing another degree instead in a field other than philosophy? Do you regret pursuing a philosophy degree? What is your occupation now?

If you happen to attend or attended a university in Ontario, Canada, pursuing a philosophy major, how was your experience there?

Any other advice for a young high school student who is wanting to pursue an academic career in philosophy?[/b]

Thank you all for your time.

`Vaun

2

I don’t know about the Phil. department of your University, but one problem I have/had is that while there are plenty of required classes offered for the major, precious few are given… besides the intro classes (ethics,logic, and Philosophy) which various other majors require… other required classes might be offered once a year (if lucky)

If it is the same at you university be sure you don’t pass anything up.

3

Thank you for your advice. I am pretty sure they offer other courses than just the intro to philosophy courses, but how often they are offered I am not sure of because I can only view the courses that were available from previous years. Things might change, but to make sure, I’ll probably get in touch with a few profs. Most courses seem to be offered though. Thanks for your help.

Vaun

4

Having a love affair with Philosophy is a lot like having a love affair with a lady. I believe every great love affair experiences tremendous ups and downs. Prepare yourself for a lot circular nonsense, too, and craziness, again, much like the business of making a life with a lady. Expect incredible soaring orgasms of spirit, and the inevitable groping for the remote while she belabours the fine points and takes all the original fun out of the moment. At times, she’ll act like a total Kant.

Philosophy can be very frustrating to anyone who’s both intelligent and love to get to the fucking point, the crux, the marrow of something or other. Because in philosophy, there’s an infinite regression of cruxes. It has a way of making a fool of an spiritual subjectivist and a rational objectivist alike.

Be honest with yourself right now. Philoosphy is a game. You will be doing it as a way to connect with other in the Thinkaholics Anonymous community. You will find yourself prosthelatizing like a Christian, and the more you learn, the harder it is to suffer fools (like everyone you know) gladly.

Please know that almost no politicians or decision makers turn to any of the basic fruits of philosophical inquiry when making policies or decisions. People are fucking chimps for the most part, and they only want to know so much. If everyone knew exactly what Bertrand Russel knew, there’d be no needless pain and suffering, and frankly, we can’t have that, can we? We are addicted to ignorance for the most part, and philosophy will further isolate you.

Furthermore, at some point you WILL become annoyed that you’re wearing the same courderoys from ten years ago, that you can’t take the same Disney vacations and park in the expensive lot, as say, your brother. You may want to parlay your skills and become some sort of broker or lawyer. You should seriously consider being a lawyer first, and then,if that works out, switch to philosopher later in life. Otherwise you’ll be lugging law books across campus in your forties, and we can’t have that, Jimbo.

Finally, my studies have taught me that you can believe whatever you want to believe, within reason. At some point it becomes murky and lost is lost no matter what part of the woods you’re in (think Blair Witch Project.) It’s great to be anti-religion, anti-hocus pocus, but it won’t earn you any medals.

This may sound didactic and negative, but don’tlet the fact that I can’t spell corderoy fool you…you’re treading dangerously. Expect bad breath, facial hair, and and a lot of bored stares from students.

5

Dear Gamer:

It is too bad that I will never fall in love with a woman, for I bat for the other team. Heh. Is it any different with a life with another man? I kid of course. But, aside from that, I understand your point. There are ups and downs, much like with any other field of study. I might have an orgasm every time we discuss Nietzsche in class, but might try to strangle the professor when talking about Christian philosophy.

I have noticed over the years, since childhood, that I can derive pleasure in the work itself, whether it be duty work or something actually interesting. When it’s duty work, the reward lies in increased efficiency and some stronger finger muscles, even if I can’t seem to find anything beyond just doing work. Though, I can derive more pleasure if I am actually interested in the subject matter and when that happens, the amount of work, the stresses and the not-so-interesting things become less significant. It becomes as natural as breathing to me.

Perhaps it is my optimism which has kept me, from not only committing suicide, but also from neglecting to view all sides (bad and good) of a situation, an argument, a thing, whatever it may be. This fluidity of the mind, I think, is a gift and a curse. I’m indecisive and I usually take a long time before making a decision. I would think things through compeltely so that I understand all I need to know before making the decision. I’ve learned to tone this down with trivial things, like whether or not I should buy that shampoo or this one. Though, with big decisions, such as what to take in University, which University to go to, how much it’s gonna cost, what can I do with this degree, etc etc, I exhaust a lot of time towards it, until I know what I need to know and how to do it the best way. Only then can I really move on otherwise I will just stress myself on what could have been.

With regards to being more isolated, it’s not a big concern for me. I have been alone for most of my life. My parents weren’t there emotionally, or even there to teach me or even show affection. It sounds depressing and it is, though I think it has developed independence, curiousity and uniqueness, in the sense that I am not a mirror of my parents. I never had many friends, real friends that is, perhaps except one, and that’s probably because I kept to myself whenever possible. Isolation within the intellectual or academic group might be more daunting but perhaps necessary.

On politics: Perhaps its essence lies in not what you know, but who.

On corduroys: I’m not really a corduroy person, more of a jean person. But will I ever get bored with those? Depends on how much I love philosophy.

On waiting to study philosophy: This one is a tad troubling to me now. I’m a pretty good science student. I kept my marks in the nineties and high eighties, despite not liking most of the material. I only liked things here and there. I loved learning about genetics and viruses and such, but couldn’t stand anything else in biology. I was uninterested. I loved organic chemistry and quantum mechanics, but hated thermodynamics and everything else. I also felt that they failed to teach properly, not making enough connections. So did I love science as a whole? Probably not. If I majored in it, I would probably do terrible, not because I couldn’t do the work, but because it would bore me and I would probably spend more time thinking about what the philosophy majors were learning now. In studying science I would probably just end up bored and studying philosophy anyway. So why waste my limited time on earth? Why not skip the unnecessary middleman and buy direct from the supply depot? Though, being the doubtful person that I am, I will give biochemistry a try, maybe. Lol.

On medals: Of course being anti-religion and anti-hocus pocus will not give me any medals. Do they give medals out for claiming that the majority of humanity is idiotic?

There are mints for bad breath, there are razors for facial hair and there are interesting, lively lectures for bored stares.

Vaun

P.S.: I could care less if you know how to spell some atrocious fabric. You got your point across and I thank you.

6

Dendritical you should look around some of the older posts and use the serach function as this has been descussed before. You’ll be able pick up some more info there.

7

Thank you for your advice. I have been searching for threads related to philosophy majoring and its worth and it’s been rather depressing. Lol. I have read one or two I think that said that majoring in philosophy was the best decision they made and others said it was probably the worse and meaningless. Any more success stories?

Thanks,

Vaun

8

Just a caveat, graduate level studies in philosophy are extremely competitive.

You might find some information on grad schools at the philosophical gourmet .

9

Well I’m at my second year in philosophy and I’m still loving it…

I have no idea if it will be going to stay like this in the long run but I always repeat to myself that except being a writer I didn’t have much choice on what to do with my life. :smiley:

10

You would be very unusual if you could be sure that you want to go on to Masters, let alone PhD after your degree course before you have actually begun it.

Once you get to Uni and discover what academia is like, you will reevaluate most of that. Nobody can learn that from a book.

Take it one step at a time and do not risk embarassing yourself by telling all friends and family that you will do all this stuff that you may very well come to question at the time you need to really decide.

Good luck for your studies, it’s the best subject out there.

11

Thank you for the advice and the website. I will be surfing around there for a bit. Thanks.

Vaun

12

That great and encouraging to hear. A lot of the responses I get from people are depressing and rather negative. Perhaps the continuation of you still loving the subject depends on how the third and final years compare with first and second. Good luck with your studies. Thank you for your reply.

Vaun

13

I like unusual things. Anyway, you’re right in the sense that I’m somewhat blind in deciding now, though it wasn’t a decision, just speculation. I might change my mind when it comes time to decide, who knows?

I could care less about what my friends and family think of me, for if I did care, I probably wouldn’t have posted in this forum.

As for discovering what academia at the local university is like, I didn’t learn it from a book. For about 1.5 to 2 years I have been attending a co-op program at the university, though in the biochemistry department, because I wanted to see what undergrad and graduate studies were like. I am around PhD and Masters students everyday, as well as the undergrads and the professors, including my supervisor, who could profit from taking a few philosophy courses. Lol. Now, I know that graduate studies are different in another field, but this is closer than nothing at all. I will probably set up an appointment with the professors at the University to ask questions and such.

Thank you for your time and response,

`Vaun

14

I started in philosophy, and switched to physics. I wish I had gone with mathematics and philosophy.

Some of the stumbling blocks to my study of philosophy were:

  1. The history of philosophy includes some silly ideas about the physical world. (“Everything is made of earth, air, fire, and water.”) They are part of the history of ideas, but I wanted to get to “what do we really think now”.

  2. Some philosophers still want to be armchair scientists. The scientific method works better than speculation.

  3. Some philosophy professors try to justify religion and other metaphysical gobbledygook, disguising it in abstruse language.

  4. Philosophy professors can be Menschliches, allzu Menschliches (human, all too human). (I think the rquirement to lecture every day forces some of them to become prima donnas.)

  5. As was mentioned by another poster, little gets finally settled in philosophy. Still, progress is made. At the MIT website, that progress is described as the clarification of areas of inquiry so that they can become sciences apart from philosophy: physics, psychology, and soon linguistics.

The highlights of my study of philosophy have been: Bertrand Russell, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Ludwig Wittgenstein.

15

Score, my University is on the list. Oh sweet joy, number 55.

16

Maybe with the influence of Continental philosophy and its strong historicism we have it better here in europe…

I never quite noticed any of that in my college…

17

I wonder if the influence differs in Canada, whether it is more similar to the American or European system. Here’s a list of the courses offered at the University of Windsor:

34-110. Introduction to Western Philosophy
An introduction to philosophy through the study of major figures and movements in the Western philosophical tradition. The figures and themes selected for any given year will be chosen by the instructor.

34-112. Philosophy and Human Nature
What is human nature? How do we think of ourselves as human beings? The course will examine several of the principal theories of human nature that have been put forward in Western philosophy.

34-129. Contemporary Moral Issues
A critical examination of philosophical arguments about controversial moral issues. Readings will be chosen by the instructor on issues connected with one or several of such areas as: biomedical ethics, euthanasia, suicide, environmental ethics, the treatment of animals, war and violence, pornography, censorship.

34-130. Philosophy and Popular Culture
A philosophical inquiry into one or more of the more important contemporary cultural forms and phenomena. Topics may vary and may include popular music, television, virtual reality, sexual roles and stereotypes, or other topics.

34-160. Reasoning Skills
An explanation of, and practice in, the basic knowledge, skills and attitudes which are essential components of reasoning well. (Antirequisite: 34-161 and 34-162.)

34-162. Logic and Argumentation
Basic deductive logic and argumentation theories and their application to the interpretation, assessment and construction of arguments used in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences as well as in discourse in the public realm. Topics include: deductive, inductive, presumptive reasoning or arguments, elementary sampling, differences between the kinds of support in different fields, elementary rhetoric and dialectic, and common fallacies. (Prerequisite: Open only to students in the BAS program.) (Antirequisite: 34-160, 34-161.)

34-221. Introduction to Ethics
A survey of the main contending theoretical positions on such basic questions of ethics as: Are all moral values and norms subjective or objective, relative or absolute? What makes right actions right? What is the good life for human beings?

34-222. Social and Political Philosophy
An examination of some of the main contending theories about the nature of society and the state, or of some of the central controversies in social and political theory. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112 or semester 3 or above standing; or consent of the instructor.)

34-224. Business Ethics
An introduction to some central ethical notions (e.g., justice, the common good, moral vs. legal obligation); application of these issues and concepts to cases drawn from the experiences of business men and women (concerned with such issues as corporate responsibility, conflict of interest, honesty in advertising, preferential hiring, corporate responsibility for environmental externalities).

34-226. Law, Punishment and Morality
An introduction to the philosophical issues related to understanding the nature of law and legal obligation, the relation between law and morality, and the purpose of punishment. The theoretical points and distinctions will be illustrated by their applications to particular current issues. (Prerequisite: semester 3 or above standing, or consent of the instructor.)

34-227. Environmental Ethics
What ethical obligations do we have to the non-human environment? The course examines various answers to that question. Topics may include: animal rights, the moral status of non-human life, the intrinsic value of ecosystems, the importance of wilderness, deep ecology, eco-feminism, economic development, environmentalism, and politics.

34-228. Technology, Human Values and the Environment
An exploration of the philosophically important ethical concepts of human nature, freedom, progress, the good life, moral responsibility, and the environment as these relate to advances in technology. Topics may include: pollution, mass production, the commodification of nature, new technologies
(e.g., biotechnology, nanotechnology).

34-236. Feminism and Philosophy
An examination of key themes in philosophical feminism and feminist theory, such as sexism and oppression, theories of women, sex, gender, language, and feminist identity, methodology, and politics. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112 or semester 3 or above standing, or consent of the instructor.)

34-237. Labour and Social Change
An examination of the philosophical problems raised by the nature and function of labour in a changing society. Topics to be addressed may include: the relationship between labour and the struggle for democracy, labour as a social movement, the relationship between labour and conceptions of the good life, the relationship between economic and human value, technology and the nature of labour, and the sexual division of labour. (Also offered as 54-237.) (Prerequisite: 3rd semester standing.)

34-240. Philosophy of Religion
An examination of the philosophical problems involved with religious belief and language. Can the existence of God be proven? Can the non-existence of God be proven? Can claims to religious knowledge be legitimized? Is there a unique logic of religious language that is cognitively meaningful? Is there any basis for claims about life after death? What is the nature of faith? These are the sorts of questions which are dealt with in this course. (Prerequisite: Semester 3 or above standing.)

34-250. Metaphysics
An examination of fundamental questions about the nature of reality. What kinds of things are real; what distinguishes the real from the ideal, or the real from the illusory? Are there abstract entities (e.g., numbers)? The nature of necessity and possibility, essence and existence. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112 or semester 3 or above standing, or consent of the instructor.)

34-252. Existentialism
A study of the views of some of the major existentialists. Figures studied may include Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Camus, and Jaspers. (Prerequisite: Semester 3 or above standing.)

34-254. Theory of Knowledge
An examination of the nature of knowledge, with topics such as: definitions of knowledge, accounts of its structure, the extent and limits of knowledge, the relationship between experience and knowledge, the bases of rational or justified belief formation. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112 or semester 3 or above standing, or consent of the instructor.)

34-255. Knowledge and Community
The course explores the relationship between what individual people know and their participation in communities. Topics may include: the ways communities rather than individuals can hold knowledge; how cognitive authority depends on a person’s membership in, and social position within, a community; the role of testimony in knowledge; how the legal system creates knowledge; the roles of gender, race, class and culture in knowledge; and the ethical implications of experience and understanding. (Prerequisite: semester 3 or above standing.)

34-260. Informal Logic: Fallacy
The objective is to develop the ability to discriminate between good and bad arguments found in everyday settings, using the concept of fallacy. A variety of kinds of fallacy are explained, and the skill of identifying them is taught. The basic tools for analyzing arguments are presented and put to use. Material for analysis is drawn from newspapers, current periodicals, and other sources of actual arguments. (Prerequisite: 34-160 or 34-161 or semester 3 or above standing; or consent of the instructor.)

34-261. Informal Logic: Argumentation
The objective is to develop the ability to analyze and evaluate extended arguments found in the public media, books and articles, and to construct a well-argued case. (Prerequisite: 34-160 or 34-161 or semester 3 or above standing; or consent of the instructor.)

34-262. Symbolic Logic
The course covers propositional logic as well as an introduction to the basic concepts of predicate logic. Topics include the construction of symbolic representation of natural language sentences, semantic methods for evaluating symbol formulas, and methods of constructing deductions or proofs. (Prerequisite: Semester 3 or above standing, or permission of the instructor. Antirequisite for non-Philosophy majors: 60-231, 62-190.)

34-266. Reasoning about Weird Things
How to evaluate extraordinary claims, such as claims about psychic phenomena (e.g. ESP), subliminal messages, crop circles, and water divining. The course may include topics such as: the limits of personal experience as a source of evidence, expert opinion, assessment of studies, scientific method. (Antirequisite: 34-160 and 34-162.) (Students many not receive credit for both 34-161 and 34-266.)

34-270. Plato
Early Greek philosophy with emphasis on Socrates and Plato, with
readings from a cross-section of early Greek philosophers and from Plato’s dialogues. (Prerequisites: Semester 3 or above standing and one prior Philosophy course.)

34-271. Aristotle
Later Greek philosophy to the close of classical antiquity with emphasis on Aristotle, with readings from Aristotle, the Epicureans, the Stoics and Plotinus. (Prerequisites: Semester 3 or above standing and one prior Philosophy course.)

34-274. Early Modern Philosophy: The Rationalists
The major rationalist themes of European thought at the time of the scientific revolution, such as: universal doubt, the nature of knowledge, the primacy of subjectivity, mechanism, the mind-body relationship, kinds of substances, freedom and determinism, God and the world. Philosophers studied may include Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, among others. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112 or semester 3 or above standing, or consent of the instructor.)

34-275. Early Modern Philosophy: The Empiricists
The major empiricist themes of European thought in the17th and 18th centuries. Topics may include: the attack on innate ideas, the nature of knowledge, faith vs. reason, the nature of a person, materialism, immaterialism and scepticism, human nature vs. reason, causation and human action, the evidence for a deity. Philosophers studied may include Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, among others. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112 or semester 3 or above standing, or consent of the instructor.)

34-280-289. Special Topics
Special Topics courses will be offered occasionally, as resources allow, to meet a demonstrated academic need, where that need cannot be satisfied by any of the regular course offerings. Interested students should inquire in the Philosophy office. (Prerequisites: Semester 3 or above standing and permission of an advisor in Philosophy.)

34-323. Globalization and Social Justice
Theories of the effect of globalization on the production and distribution of harms and goods. Topics may include: effect on the underdeveloped world of high standards of living in the developed world; effect on the survival of indigenous cultures of tensions between cultural and economic development; women and development; measuring social justice in a world with cultural differences; relationship between democracy and the global economy; democracy and social justice. (Prerequisite: Semester 3 or above standing, or permission of the instructor.)

34-329. Animals and Ethics
The course examines philosophical views about our relationship to animals and the relation of these views to the evaluation of moral principles and ethical theories, including notions of justice and rights. It may cover such topics as: attitudes towards animals, animal awareness and autonomy, whether moral consideration should be extended to animals, whether animals have rights. (Prerequisites: Semester 3 standing and at least one prior Philosophy course, or permission of the instructor.)

34-330. Theories of Nature
Our relation to the environment is shaped in part by our conception of nature. The course explores different and sometimes competing conceptions of nature, considering such questions as: Is nature like a machine? Is it like an organism? Does it evolve? Is nature creative? Are all things in nature interconnected? (Prerequisites: Semester 3 standing and at least one Philosophy course, or permission of the instructor.)

34-342. Philosophy of Education
A critical examination of theories about the nature, goals and values of education. The approach of the course may be historical, contemporary or a combination. (Prerequisites: Semester 3 or above standing and at least one prior Philosophy course, or consent of the instructor.)

34-343. Aesthetics
Aesthetics is concerned with problems which arise in the appreciation of objects which are deemed to have aesthetic value. Problems which may be raised in this course include the nature of aesthetic experience and aesthetic objects such as works of art and nature, as well as problems related to aesthetic value and judgment. (Prerequisite: Semester 3 or above standing.)

34-353. Mind, Action, and Personal Identity
An examination of: contemporary views of the nature of mind and its relationship to body; whether human action is free, determined, or both; the relationship between a theory of personal identity and the answers to the preceding questions. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112 or semester 3 or above standing; or consent of the instructor.)

34-355. Post-structuralist Theory
Philosophers studied in this course may include Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Deleuze, and Guattari. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112, or at least one 200-level Philosophy course, or consent of the instructor.)

34-356. Mind Design and Android Epistemology
This course explores the implications of artificial intelligence and cognitive modelling research for issues in the philosophy of mind and epistemology, including: the nature of mental states; thinking as largely linguistic, and alternatives; and effects of the way we think of mental states on the way we think about reasoning and knowing. (No specific background in science required, but an introductory-level course in psychology or computer science recommended.)

34-357. Philosophy of Science
What is a scientific explanation? A theory? How does observation relate to theory? Do theories describe reality, or are they just conventional tools? The course examines answers to these and similar questions, and the general conceptions of science behind the answers. (Prerequisite: Semester 3 or above standing or consent of the instructor.)

34-360. Argumentation Theory
Topics may include: the nature and uses of argument; the evaluation of argument; arguments and argumentation; the relations between argument and rhetoric, logic, and pragmatics; linguistic theories of argument; ethics and epistemology related to argument; the role of argument in philosophy. (Prerequisite: 34-260 or 34-261, or consent of the instructor.)

34-372. Twentieth-Century British Philosophy
A study of significant developments in recent British thought in this century, as embodied in key works by figures such as Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein, and some contemporary analytic philosophers. (Prerequisite: 34-110, 0r 34-112, or at least one 200-level Philosophy course, or permission of instructor.)

34-373. Twentieth-Century American Philosophy
A study of major thinkers who shaped recent American thought, with emphasis on the development of pragmatism at the hands of Peirce, James, and Dewey, and the works of recent analytic philosophers such as Quine and Carnap. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112, or at least one 200-level Philosophy course, or consent of the instructor.)

34-374. Twentieth-Century French Philosophy
A study of significant developments in recent French thought as found in Bergson, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Bataille, and Levi-Strauss, for example. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112, or at least one 200-level Philosophy course, or consent of the instructor.)

34-375. Twentieth-Century German Philosophy
Significant developments in German philosophy in the twentieth century will be examined. Portions of the course may be devoted to Husserl (the founder of the phenomenological school), Heidegger (a seminal figure in existentialism), Gadamer (a key figure in the development of hermeneutics), Critical Theory (a Freudian and Marxist approach to social and economic issues), and second-generation critical theorists such as Habermas. (Prerequisite: 34-100 or 34-112, or one 200-level Philosophy course, or permission of instructor.)

34-376. Kant
A study of the critical philosophical writings of Immanuel Kant. Topics may include Kant’s theories about: the limits of human knowledge, how knowledge in mathematics and the natural sciences is possible, whether it is possible to have moral knowledge, whether it is possible to have religious knowledge. (Prerequisite: 34-274 or 34-275, or consent of the instructor.)

34-377. Hegel and German Idealism
A study of early 19th century philosophy centered on the idealism of G.W.F. Hegel, focusing on such problems as the nature of the dialectic, the notion of absolute spirit, and the Hegelian conception of philosophy. (Prerequisite: 34-271 or 34-274, or consent of the instructor.)

34-378. Nineteenth Century Philosophy
Various nineteenth century thinkers may be studied in this course including Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, but also Dilthey, Schopenhauer, Comte, Mill, and others. (Prerequisite: 34-110 or 34-112, or at least one 200-level Philosophy course, or consent of the instructor.)

34-400 to 34-410. Senior Seminars
Senior seminars are the undergraduate sections of M.A. courses. (Normally open only to Philosophy majors in the final year of their program. Consent of the instructor is required. Consult a program advisor during the term preceding planned registration.)

34-491. Honours Seminar
The aim of the seminar is to give students a solid historical background in a given area of philosophy (e.g. ethics, epistemology, metaphysics). A philosophical theme is traced through a number of key figures in the history of philosophy. (Open only to four-year Honours in Philosophy students in their final year.)

Opinions?

18

I think it’s very different from our system…

I’ll post only an example since I have to translate them:

History of Political Philosophy:

The course follows some of the tracts of the modern spectator and of the invention of perspectiv in the XV century. The course will be traced by the immage fo the window which, strating from the essay De Pictura of Leon Battista Alberti, text that will give brith to the technic of riproducibility of the immages in high definition, influence in a direct or in an indirect way the method with which history is rappresented.

The window as the expression of the paradigm of perspective is connected to the invention of the picture, has traveled through the western thought till the contemporaries. The perspective paradigm implies the role of the spectator, of the distance, the game of illusion that enters in tension with truth ( a game that plato feared and condemned), of his point of view, of his esthetic judgement, historical, political. Such paradigm determined the model of knoweledge in the modern thought, a paradigm that today has started to break. In this sense there is a thread that ties together problematically the invention of the perspective, the book, the theater, the photography, the cinema, the television, the computer and virtual reality; from a philosophical point of view this thread goes from machiavelli, cartesio, pascal, nietzsche and wittgenstein; from a literary point of view from henry james to kafka; in the visual arts from masaccio to magritte, from hopper to hitchkock.

Texts:

Michel Foucault - The order of things
Michel foucault - Ceci n’est pas une pipe
H.Damisch - The origin of perspective
L.Marin - Of rappresentation
W.Benjamin - The work of art in the age of technical reproducibility
A. Nova - Las Meninas. Velasquez, Foucault the enigma of rappresentation.
A.Borsari - Politics of Mimesis.

That’s a typical course we may happen to have.

19

a very important point you have to keep in mind is that philosophy doesnt practically stand by itself in the humanities field, just like math doesnt practically stand by itself in the technical field.

sure you can be a hardcore fundamental researcher in either, and its a meaningfull rewarding career path. it is also very demanding, and it demands nothing less than sheer genius these days. but it has been done and it is being done.

what people tend to choose however is a practical or applied field with a very strong backing in either math or philosohpy. for instance you could be a math major / [some field of] engineer[ing] graduate. that is very powerfull and usually both impresses managers and allows you to make valuable contributions. something like philosophy major design graduate if you are into aesthetics is the equivalent of the above. think of what you know as you would of skills in a rpg. you need a good mix. philosophy is a very strong backing and an excellent thing to major in. really. but it could probably use some applied craft to balance it. surely there must be something you like. and if there is not, you can save that slot for later when it will come along.

20

Hey, Dend.

At my college there were people who realised they weren’t going to be professional philosophers, so they looked for jobs that would need little educational up-keep and would keep them in philosophy books: – like optometry. And as Aristotle says, “It is better to seek wisdom than riches, but if a man is poor let him seek riches.” Maybe you could minor or second-major in philosophy and major in a science? A degree in modern science could enhance your knowledge of material causes.

Anyway, I’m going through something similar now. I did want to go to a grad school to learn more – maybe do research; or i could train for business;…or i could just practice my guitar and play on the street corner.

Regards,
my real name