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Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

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Re: Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

#31

Post by saintzozo »

idlewords wrote: post #27
saintzozo wrote: post #8

I'm going to reproduce a reddit post I made recently that I think is relevant: Analytic philosophy has made my mind a razor. It forged in me the confidence and mental discipline to learn anything, and I'm now dominating the tech scene despite having little in the way of formal coursework. I was lucky to choose one of the few disciplines that can be fruitfully studied at Brown. As any student of a rigorous discipline,…

Your razor of a mind could use a lubricating aloe strip.

Lubrication is for the weak.

Re: Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

#33

Post by seibelj »

saintzozo wrote: post #8

I'm going to reproduce a reddit post I made recently that I think is relevant: Analytic philosophy has made my mind a razor. It forged in me the confidence and mental discipline to learn anything, and I'm now dominating the tech scene despite having little in the way of formal coursework. I was lucky to choose one of the few disciplines that can be fruitfully studied at Brown. As any student of a rigorous discipline,…

This is one of the most preposterous and masturbatory comments I have ever read on HN. Congratulations on GOING TO BROWN!!!!! and being smarter than everyone there

Re: Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

#34

Post by saintzozo »

mablap wrote: post #18
saintzozo wrote: post #8

I'm going to reproduce a reddit post I made recently that I think is relevant: Analytic philosophy has made my mind a razor. It forged in me the confidence and mental discipline to learn anything, and I'm now dominating the tech scene despite having little in the way of formal coursework. I was lucky to choose one of the few disciplines that can be fruitfully studied at Brown. As any student of a rigorous discipline,…

Analytic philosophy has made my mind a razor. [...] Formal mathematical training (graduate) will do that to you too. I often find myself thinking with abstract algebra ideas (groups, vectors, vector spaces, commutation relations, etc).

I'm well trained in mathematics. It's certainly healthy. However, I often find that outside of their professional work, mathematicians are more willing to part with rigueur than the philosophers across the hall. Notice how most mathematicians aren't particularly interested in foundations of mathematics, for example.

Re: Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

#35

Post by pmoriarty »

hosh wrote: post #20
pmoriarty wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether it does or it doesn't is itself a philosophical question. If you are interested in that question, you are interested in philosophy. The same goes for a lot of other questions that people might not at first blush consider philosophical questions, such as most any questions containing the word "should". I've found it interesting to see what extreme negative reactions a lot of people have to the very idea of stu…

I've been enjoying these comments, particularly the ones by pmoriarty. I'm not really adding anything meaningful here: I used to have a negative reaction to philosophy. Somewhere in the past few years as I was getting into my mid-30s, I've been finding myself studying it more. I will say though, I'm approaching philosophy from Eastern studies. It's my understanding that a philosophy degree in an American university i…

Thank you for your kind words. I have a great interest in Eastern philosophy, and think it undeservedly gets very short shrift in Western universities.

That seems to be getting somewhat better in modern times, however, as common ground is discovered between Eastern and Western philosophy, and it's beginning to be recognized how much the former has influenced the latter and how much more there is to learn.

Re: Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

#36

Post by sebringj »

After taking some in college, philosophy to me was more like a stepping stone in critical thinking to embracing the light of science. I've noticed on so many youtube forums for example, people postulate things without external verification in nature, "if this then that" where tautologies and vin diagrams and the like are held as absolute truths. It never was sold on that as there are more dimensions to reality than our simple minds can grasp within a cleverly worded statement.

The main point being is observing nature always trumps anything philosophy will ever invent on its own. Philosophy is a nice way to help frame hypothesis if you keep in mind that's all it can ever do and not take it too seriously. I do give philosophy the proper respect it deserves for starting the fire of thinking deeper so I could grasp what quality information actually was, but then you must step off of it as something unreliable unto itself.

Re: Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

#37

Post by theobold »

idlewords wrote: post #27
saintzozo wrote: post #8

I'm going to reproduce a reddit post I made recently that I think is relevant: Analytic philosophy has made my mind a razor. It forged in me the confidence and mental discipline to learn anything, and I'm now dominating the tech scene despite having little in the way of formal coursework. I was lucky to choose one of the few disciplines that can be fruitfully studied at Brown. As any student of a rigorous discipline,…

Your razor of a mind could use a lubricating aloe strip.

Looking at the website in his profile, I'm fairly sure this guy is having a laugh.

Re: Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

#39

Post by [deleted] »

saintzozo wrote: post #8

I'm going to reproduce a reddit post I made recently that I think is relevant: Analytic philosophy has made my mind a razor. It forged in me the confidence and mental discipline to learn anything, and I'm now dominating the tech scene despite having little in the way of formal coursework. I was lucky to choose one of the few disciplines that can be fruitfully studied at Brown. As any student of a rigorous discipline,…

[deleted]

Re: Why I Majored in Philosophy Despite Everyone Telling Me Not To (2013)

#40

Post by ubernostrum »

oldmanjay wrote: post #2

> For some of us philosophy majors, we are just genuinely curious about some notions in life that are often taken for granted. For instance, is our ability to have rational thought just a product of our brainwaves, the interaction of different neurotransmitters? Or is there something more going on, something "supernatural" that allowed humans the capacity for rational dialogue? What a shame a philosophy education con…

What a shame a philosophy education confers no ability to address such a question meaningfully.

The counterpoint, of course, is that over the course of human history, philosophy has a better track record than anything else at producing fruitful inquiry and results. It's just that the results always end up branded as entirely new fields of study, meaning that what's left in the "philosophy" bucket is the stuff which hasn't yet been productive enough to spawn an entire separate field.

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