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> this could be solved by teaching philosophy Plenty of places teach philosophy, including the school I went to in Italy. The only measurable effect is that pe
by qsort 4y ago
> this could be solved by teaching philosophy
Plenty of places teach philosophy, including the school I went to in Italy. The only measurable effect is that people feel more self-important because they know the names of long dead people.
(Just to clarify this being the Internet: I don't mean philosophy is in itself useless, just that ambitious programs at the high-school level tend to fall flat unless the student has a lot of intrinsic motivation. Latin, computer science, art history, etc. mostly fall in the same category. A better approach is to stick to the basics and offer those as electives.)
> and logic
Logic done seriously requires a mathematical maturity most high-school students simply don't have. Asking someone to understand models of first-order logic without intuitively grokking what quantifiers are is like asking someone to understand Rust lifetimes without having ever seen malloc. It just doesn't work like that. You'd have better success with stuff like Olympiad problems, but even those require so much training it definitely isn't for everyone.
- denton-scratch 4y ago> Logic done seriously requires a mathematical maturity most high-school students simply don't have. I guess that "done seriously", that's true. But basic logic is like basic arithmetic; they teach that in primary schools. I don't see why they shouldn't teach elementary logic. In one of the Narnia books, the old professor bemoans the fact that "they don't teach logic in schools any more". Philosophy is another matter; I agree with the upthread poster who says that philosophy requires motivation. I don't think an introduction to philosophy is much use, except to help you decide whether you want to learn philosophy properly, e.g. a couple of one-hour classes, so kids at least know what the word means (I didn't know, until I started my philosophy degree).