Huh. My own goal in philosophy was to explore various doubts, things that didn't quite make sense, and it ended up opening a huge space of new ideas for me as I

Huh. My own goal in philosophy was to explore various doubts, things that didn't quite make sense, and it ended up opening a huge space of new ideas for me as I started to peel back the layers of ideas I took for granted. I feel less confident know in knowing "what's true" or "what's right" but much more confident in my ability to understand and think through various arguments and ideas. Notions like "the meaning of life" and "morality" took on new shades of meaning for me, or perhaps became ideas that I could no longer consider "as wholes" but that demand understanding in terms of their parts, i.e. to be studied formally rather than in terms of content. I also went in attempting to resolve my emotional difficulties and become more open to the world and to others, which led me deep into psychoanalytic theory. A lot of the results there involved a lessening sense of shame about my own experiences, which made me more open to sharing with and receiving from others. Anyway, I guess to some extent one gets out of philosophy what they go into it seeking.