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The biggest thing I learned in Philosophy, is how not to skip steps. Even the most mundane thing can have a ton of interesting questions hiding inside it. The b
by jchrisa 15y ago
The biggest thing I learned in Philosophy, is how not to skip steps. Even the most mundane thing can have a ton of interesting questions hiding inside it. The best way to not skip steps is to train your mind to be in a state of perpetually acknowledging your ignorance. This is hard to do, and I wouldn't consider myself great at it, but the fact that I've identified this as a goal is something I credit to some of the professors I worked with there, Mark Hinchliff in particular.
- vecter 15y agoSounds like studying math or theoretical computer science would've accomplished the same :)
- jchrisa 15y agoPerhaps, but it is nice that Philosophy is so general. Another side effect of studying it is that it's made me hungry for different perspectives. For most questions, there's a bigger context that can raise potentially more interesting questions. My favorite take on the subject is James Carse's lecture at The Long Now: http://longnow.org/seminars/02005/jan/14/religious-war-in-light-of-the-infinite-game/ http://longnow.org/seminars/02005/jan/14/religious-war-in-li...