philosophy: anyone done it? or wanna do it? (1 Viewer)

[billiton]

if u are doin or done plilosophy (science faculty) at unsw post here!!
wat is it like?
where will it get u?
is it hard?

 

[Tim035]

It would take a paradigm shift to make me answer this post seriously.



But seriously, I havn't met anyone on these forums doing philosophy so I'd strongly suggest attending an info day or giving the faculty of.... social science (I think) a call if you want to get an idea of the sort of things you'd be studying.

 

[darkwolfzx]

me and bringbackshred did some philosophy

first year, like all courses, is really broad. They'll go through heaps of philosophers, Marx, Nietzche, Satre, Rousseau. What they thought, why they thought. You have to bring forth your own arguments to how they thought the world should work.

A different stream focuses on the semantics of philosophy. I did a course on reasoning. Argument, fallacy, the scientific method, validity. This is a course on how logic works, and how language shapes your presentation of logic.

I'm not majoring in philosophy, but this is a rough outline of what i went through in 2 courses.

 

[chucknthem]

I took a first year philosophy subject as a gened. First year philosophy is dead easy like most first year arts classes. It's sort of interesting though, made me want to take a more challenging second year subject, but then I remembered the people during discussions in my tutorial groups, there was a huge deficit of reasoning skills and an over abundance of "I'm going to use my HSC english skills to express my estrogen driven, non-sequitur opinion on this topic" (at least in the people doing the talking).

I might have done philosophy as a minor if it had more people in there who actually did some more thinking and reasoning which is what philosophy is all about.

The subject is interesting, and I've had some very interesting conversations with people taking the subject, but you just might meet one or two"special" people who lack the reasoning skills to be taking the subject, and it can ruin it for you if they tend to speak a lot.

 

[litany]

I took a first year philosophy subject as a gened. First year philosophy is dead easy like most first year arts classes. It's sort of interesting though, made me want to take a more challenging second year subject, but then I remembered the people during discussions in my tutorial groups, there was a huge deficit of reasoning skills and an over abundance of "I'm going to use my HSC english skills to express my estrogen driven, non-sequitur opinion on this topic" (at least in the people doing the talking).

I might have done philosophy as a minor if it had more people in there who actually did some more thinking and reasoning which is what philosophy is all about.

The subject is interesting, and I've had some very interesting conversations with people taking the subject, but you just might meet one or two"special" people who lack the reasoning skills to be taking the subject, and it can ruin it for you if they tend to speak a lot.

I also did 2 philosophy first year subjects. You forgot to mention the bit where the 'special people' get embroiled in semantics completely irrelevant to the question at hand. Or, the fact that there are so many 'special people' that their unique blend of retardation becomes, well, rather common-place, sadly.

 

[Tim035]

Mmmm this is why I tend to not avoid, but not take as much interest in these subjects as I possibly could. There is always a handful of individuals (by experience, mostly female), whose opinions are the most important and should be the central pivoting point of any discussion that occurs; and if you don't agree, or think there opinion is complete trash be prepared for a heated discussion!

 

[themadness]

I was going to do some philosophy this session; unfortunately PHIL2004 was full when I went to enroll. No philosophy for me ...

 

[Linear]

I agree with chucknthem and litany. I'm doing a philosophy course in metaphysics and epistemology at the moment and when I read the literature, I start looking forward to discussing it over in the tutorials. And then I get to the tutorials and we're talking about completely irrelevant things. To me it feels like a weekly disappointment, not really worth the tuition fees. Maybe it's different in other philosophy courses or tutorial groups.

 

[missanonymous7]

(if anyone's interested,) I'm doing ARTS1300: Understanding Science, Technology and Society at the moment, which technically isn't a 'philosophy' course, but (from my perspective anyway) it's mostly philosophical in tone etc. As the name suggests, it's basically the philosophy of science: philisophy of the scientific method (facts, theories, politics of the testing process, objectivity, etc), historical case studies (phlogiston vs. oxygen, whether things are 'constructed' or 'discovered'), how technology impacts on society and vice-versa, and (looking ahead) 'climate change: technical challenge, political problem or joke?'

I had to take the course as part of doing science communication (as a minor or a major, haven't completely decided yet), and bizarrely, it's turned out to be my favourite course at the moment. I'm not a hugely philosophical person, but a lot of the concepts are quite intriguing, and tutorial discussions are also fascinating, even if they might be a little too dominated by a select few individuals, heh. It definitely provides a nice contrast to all the science courses I'm doing Also the lecturer is excellent and easy to listen to. So there's a bit of background on that particular course.

On a different note, has anyone else done, or heard much about, 'HPSC2630: God, Life, the Universe and Everything'? I was looking forward to doing this as an elective since it sounds exactly like what I've been interested in for many years now. Any thoughts etc?

 

[veloc1ty]

I agree with chucknthem and litany. I'm doing a philosophy course in metaphysics and epistemology at the moment and when I read the literature, I start looking forward to discussing it over in the tutorials. And then I get to the tutorials and we're talking about completely irrelevant things. To me it feels like a weekly disappointment, not really worth the tuition fees. Maybe it's different in other philosophy courses or tutorial groups.

I'm doing metaphysics and epistemology as well; and I find my tutorials are pretty enjoyable. I have doubts that I will continue with philosophy though.

Also, I've been to half of a pub debate (the ones held by the Socratic Society) and you might like them. It was very interesting and managed to stay on topic.

 

[Linear]

Hehe, it may be my bad luck of getting into a small tutorial group. Maybe if I were in a bigger tutorial then it wouldn't feel as though I was just biding my time. A lot of the times, people aren't sure what to say and I think that's how we stray off topic... Or at least that's what I think. If anyone actually reads this as a review for the philosophy courses don't let my negative opinions sway you too much, after all I'm only one person. (EDIT: Actually, I forgot about chucknthem's and litany's posts up there...)

The pub debates do sound pretty interesting but I don't really like staying at uni too late - it takes me about an hour to get home and I try to sleep early^^;

 

[lizey]

Just adding my two cents, a month after the fact (hey, you guys are still enrolling for S2, right?)
I've taken Metaphysics & Epistemology - course was good, tutes were bad, I found the guys as bad as the girls. I'm not sure I can defend my gender on that though, since the worst offender in the tutorial-ruining I've ever seen was this spacey, talkative girl in my Introduction to Political Philosophy course (which was good & interesting). She came out with the weirdest shit. I also took Philosophy of Language. The content was decent but the lectures and tutes dead boring. Lecturer stopped short of reading the textbook verbatim, but it was a near thing - and he didn't write the textbook.
So on that basis, crude generalisations: Michaelis Michaels is good, Philip Quadrio is good, Phillip Staines is bad. Also, for what it's worth, gossip: a lecturer from another school told me Michaelis really knows his shit (my words, lol).
I haven't taken God, Life, the Universe and Everything, but I have heard a lot about it. It's supposed to be really good; the lecturer (Peter Slezak) is pretty intense though, so if you don't like criticism of religion, you might want to steer clear.

 

[Ben Netanyahu]

go to usyd for philosophy

mmhmm

obvs rly

its good