4 ms·

How many miles does your Philosophy Minor have on it? I've heard they're not very reliable

blululu 7y ago
In fairness it does break down constantly, but I can usually repair it on my own. I should mention that it handles well in difficult terrain, and it appreciates in value over time.
- 8bitsrule 7y ago
  Philosophy will get through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no philosophy. " Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself." — Rumi
  - sh87 7y ago
    > Philosophy will get through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no philosophy. Good quote! I always feel philosophy is the abode for people who couldn't get sucked in by religion.
mywittyname 7y ago
Isn't philosophy kind of like CS minus the computers? I remember my sister talking about how much she hated her philosophy class and what she described was essentially discrete math-lite.
- Pamar 7y ago
  This is interesting. Can you expand it a bit, please?
  - pmiller2 7y ago
    Since they said "philosophy class," singular, I suspect they're referring to the unit on logic: modus ponens, modus tollens, valid vs sound arguments, etc.
  - dvt 7y ago
    Philosophy major here (I jokingly tout myself as a trained philosopher). Philosophy is a big field with different schools of thought. In the US/UK, the primary school is known as "analytic (philosophy)" which is focused on tight arguments, precise language, and clarity of thought (see Russell, Wittgenstein, Lewis, Godel). This is contrasted by European -- in particular, French -- "continental (philosophy)" which waxes more poetic (see Nietzsche, Sartre, Lacan, Derrida). The former deals quite a bit with logic (which was my area of focus in undergrad). Classes I took ranged from "baby logic" (predicate logic, first-order-logic), to second-order logic, to mathematical logic (mostly Peano arithmetic), to metalogic (learning how to prove things like Godel's incompleteness), to lambda calculus, to game theory. This was on top of ethics classes, history of philosophy, and other miscellaneous classes (took a very fun seminar by a Yale visiting professor -- I forget his name -- on the philosophy of food). Most of the graduate seminars I took were on philsophy of language and model theory. Just about every philosophy class had a pretty strong "logic" undercurrent.
    - FabHK 7y ago
      Just to clarify, and defend the old continent a bit: while it certainly originated German Idealism and its descendants all the way to post-structuralism and (gasp) “critical theory”, today of course you can find proponents of both schools (the continental/hermeneutic/postmodern and the analytic) on all continents. And regarding the gp: most philosophy programs will have classes in informal and some even in formal logic, to Goedel’s incompleteness theorems and way beyond.
    - nicoburns 7y ago
      Also, the less logical bit of analytic philosophy is all about breaking down and understanding other people's arguments. It's a very similar process to teasing out business requirements from stakeholders!
  - mywittyname 7y ago
    From what I remember, her class involved a lot of logical proofs using propositional logic, but in the form of word problems, not logical statements. I.e., if Bob is larger than Alice, then... instead of P -> Q. They also discussed probabilities, but I'm not sure to what degree. Those two topics are discussed in entry level CS courses as well. So I assumed that the fields might be semi-related if they require the same mathematical foundations.
  - jimbokun 7y ago
    This was my undergraduate degree, many years ago: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/philosophy/undergraduate/logic-and-computation/index.html https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/philosophy/undergraduate/logic-...
  - achillesheels 7y ago
    Possibly it is because philosophy is a lot like being bothered by a bug in your code, and you stress and strain to resolve it which provides growth in wisdom after the objective is completed.
brudgers 7y ago
It varies by brand. Plato pretty much runs forever. Kant, even property maintained, will leave you scratching your head. People keep Aristotle running, but it’s not pretty. For what you spend Hume is a bargain—you can even take it off road in the forest...assuming there are unfallen trees. For the DIYer, Wittgenstein will keep you busy but Russell is known to have a computational design flaw. I recommend a late model Singer if you can afford it because they’re still making parts.
- ammanley 7y ago
  this was the best thoughtful chuckle I got in a while

In fairness it does break down constantly, but I can usually repair it on my own. I should mention that it handles well in difficult terrain, and it appreciates in value over time.

8bitsrule 7y ago
Philosophy will get through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no philosophy. " Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself." — Rumi
- sh87 7y ago
  > Philosophy will get through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no philosophy. Good quote! I always feel philosophy is the abode for people who couldn't get sucked in by religion.

mywittyname 7y ago

Isn't philosophy kind of like CS minus the computers? I remember my sister talking about how much she hated her philosophy class and what she described was essentially discrete math-lite.

Pamar 7y ago
This is interesting. Can you expand it a bit, please?
- pmiller2 7y ago
  Since they said "philosophy class," singular, I suspect they're referring to the unit on logic: modus ponens, modus tollens, valid vs sound arguments, etc.
- dvt 7y ago
  Philosophy major here (I jokingly tout myself as a trained philosopher). Philosophy is a big field with different schools of thought. In the US/UK, the primary school is known as "analytic (philosophy)" which is focused on tight arguments, precise language, and clarity of thought (see Russell, Wittgenstein, Lewis, Godel). This is contrasted by European -- in particular, French -- "continental (philosophy)" which waxes more poetic (see Nietzsche, Sartre, Lacan, Derrida). The former deals quite a bit with logic (which was my area of focus in undergrad). Classes I took ranged from "baby logic" (predicate logic, first-order-logic), to second-order logic, to mathematical logic (mostly Peano arithmetic), to metalogic (learning how to prove things like Godel's incompleteness), to lambda calculus, to game theory. This was on top of ethics classes, history of philosophy, and other miscellaneous classes (took a very fun seminar by a Yale visiting professor -- I forget his name -- on the philosophy of food). Most of the graduate seminars I took were on philsophy of language and model theory. Just about every philosophy class had a pretty strong "logic" undercurrent.
  - FabHK 7y ago
    Just to clarify, and defend the old continent a bit: while it certainly originated German Idealism and its descendants all the way to post-structuralism and (gasp) “critical theory”, today of course you can find proponents of both schools (the continental/hermeneutic/postmodern and the analytic) on all continents. And regarding the gp: most philosophy programs will have classes in informal and some even in formal logic, to Goedel’s incompleteness theorems and way beyond.
  - nicoburns 7y ago
    Also, the less logical bit of analytic philosophy is all about breaking down and understanding other people's arguments. It's a very similar process to teasing out business requirements from stakeholders!
- mywittyname 7y ago
  From what I remember, her class involved a lot of logical proofs using propositional logic, but in the form of word problems, not logical statements. I.e., if Bob is larger than Alice, then... instead of P -> Q. They also discussed probabilities, but I'm not sure to what degree. Those two topics are discussed in entry level CS courses as well. So I assumed that the fields might be semi-related if they require the same mathematical foundations.
- jimbokun 7y ago
  This was my undergraduate degree, many years ago: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/philosophy/undergraduate/logic-and-computation/index.html https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/philosophy/undergraduate/logic-...
- achillesheels 7y ago
  Possibly it is because philosophy is a lot like being bothered by a bug in your code, and you stress and strain to resolve it which provides growth in wisdom after the objective is completed.

brudgers 7y ago

It varies by brand. Plato pretty much runs forever. Kant, even property maintained, will leave you scratching your head. People keep Aristotle running, but it’s not pretty. For what you spend Hume is a bargain—you can even take it off road in the forest...assuming there are unfallen trees. For the DIYer, Wittgenstein will keep you busy but Russell is known to have a computational design flaw. I recommend a late model Singer if you can afford it because they’re still making parts.

ammanley 7y ago
this was the best thoughtful chuckle I got in a while