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The way I see it, most subjects in school focus on teaching you what to think. Philosophy focuses more on how to think. That's obviously not true in all cases

The way I see it, most subjects in school focus on teaching you what to think. Philosophy focuses more on how to think. That's obviously not true in all cases (there are plenty of dogmatic philosophies) but in my opinion it's much more common for people to teach things like math, biology, history, etc. as a series of objective, memorized facts and formulas. Doing that with philosophy is far more difficult because so much of it is subjective and relies on criticism and analysis. In that regard, learning philosophy serves as a foundation for learning all other subjects, or learning anything in life, for that matter. I also personally believe there's more beauty in great philosophy than in any poem or song. There are plenty of Socratic dialogues, stoic passages, and political pamphlets that still give me chills when I read them. Chapter VI in this short book of dialogues, for example: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17490/17490-h/17490-h.htm http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17490/17490-h/17490-h.htm

jknightco 10y ago
Based on your comment I'm going to assume you've never taken a mathematics course above Calculus. Anything beyond that is the absolute antithesis of "memorized facts and formulas".
- johncolanduoni 10y ago
  It also fails to apply to any sciences I'm aware of at the research level. Philosophy pretty much only exists at the research level, but it's also a much smaller pool of jobs than most fields.
tnecniv 10y ago
> Doing that with philosophy is far more difficult because so much of it is subjective and relies on criticism and analysis. Any education in a topic worth it's salt should include that once you get passed the intro courses (because the intro courses are often necessary to provide context for your analysis). Whether curricula succeed in doing so, or students engage themselves enough to do so, is another matter.

jknightco 10y ago

Based on your comment I'm going to assume you've never taken a mathematics course above Calculus. Anything beyond that is the absolute antithesis of "memorized facts and formulas".

johncolanduoni 10y ago
It also fails to apply to any sciences I'm aware of at the research level. Philosophy pretty much only exists at the research level, but it's also a much smaller pool of jobs than most fields.

tnecniv 10y ago

> Doing that with philosophy is far more difficult because so much of it is subjective and relies on criticism and analysis. Any education in a topic worth it's salt should include that once you get passed the intro courses (because the intro courses are often necessary to provide context for your analysis). Whether curricula succeed in doing so, or students engage themselves enough to do so, is another matter.