Generally speaking, I think today's philosophy courses should focus on the big historical picture with emphasis on modern philosophers, as opposed to studying t

Generally speaking, I think today's philosophy courses should focus on the big historical picture with emphasis on modern philosophers, as opposed to studying tomes like The Republic in painful detail. While it's easy to get lost in a sea of infinitely regressing metaphysics, I think there's value in applied philosophy (I don't think philosophy is useful in isolation). 1. The scientific method. Starting from the logical positivist school of thought, philosophers are converging at falsifiability as the primary criterion (cf. Popper, Wittgenstein). 2. Justice. Starting with rather crude notions of utilitarianism, it is possible to construct a transcendental notion of justice that is based on fairness (cf. Rawls, Sen). It is also possible to approach it from a theory on transcendental morality (cf. Kant). 3. Consciousness. This is a rather tricky topic that can be tackled by an analytical philosopher who has studied some neuroscience (cf. Metzinger). 4. Tackling the free will problem. When tackled in isolation, there is a dichotomy between compatibilism and incompatibilism (cf. Schopenhauer). However, attempts have been made to derive it from quantum decoherence and MWI (cf. Yudkowsky on LessWrong [1]). 5. Foundations of mathematics. While there are prominent platonists (cf. Gödel), there are several alternative approaches to the problem (cf. Spinoza, Hilbert). To conclude, I'd say that some training in philosophical thought is essential to enabling the student in thinking about various questions that pop up during her lifetime. The goal is not to get definitive answers, but to have a good consistent framework to think in. [1]: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Free_will_(solution) http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Free_will_(solution)