/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.14865065]

How do I know if I’m a shit philosopher? How should I be acting as an undergrad philosophy student?

[Anonymous No.14865078]

>>14865065
Just be logically consistance and open to different ideas, while not being afraid to speak out if something does not follow. Being a good phil student is basically an exercise in logical comprehension and rhetoric.

[Anonymous No.14865361]

>>14865065
You ARE a shit philosopher. Don't worry too much about it though, you will get substantially better if you keep at it. Even then, you WILL eventually cap out.

[Anonymous No.14865859]

What is your guys’ view of academic philosophy in general? I’d like to maybe switch to philosophy for graduate school but I have a somewhat negative view of it overall.

[Anonymous No.14865868]

>>14865065
If you are not taking advanced mathematics classes, you are destined to remain a shit philosopher.

[Anonymous No.14865873]

>>14865065
As long as your thoughts are your own you shouldn't worry about it.

[Anonymous No.14865876]

>>14865065
If you don't read Land you're shit.

[Anonymous No.14865999]

>>14865065
The worst things undergrad philosophy students do in papers is think a conclusion follows when it doesn’t necessarily (e.g. idealism is false so materialism must be true), or object to things by dogmatically asserting a controversial claim as a premise (Plato is wrong because beauty is subjective, Leibniz is wrong because God doesn’t exist). Basically overconfidence with their arguments. If you haven’t yet, take a logic class and try to get a feel for validity and invalidity. Acknowledge and think through potential objections to your argument rather than write in a way that obscures them. Try not to assume you know what a philosopher means by a word based on its common usage (eg Spinoza’s use of “pleasure” and “pain”). Basically just be curious about things without thinking you know everything in advance. Philosophical positions like Plato’s theory of forms (for instance) might seem ridiculous, but thousands of very smart people throughout history were Platonists, so there must be reasons they found it compelling. You should try to find those (even if you end up not being a Platonist). Try to take an approach like that to most philosophers you read and you’ll be more likely to avoid annoying your TAs

[Anonymous No.14867024]

>>14865999

The next time you opine on things like this, you should provide non-examples that are actually false.

[Anonymous No.14867047]

>>14865999
>The worst things undergrad philosophy students do in papers is think a conclusion follows when it doesn’t necessarily
holy shit, look at this rationalist thinking that proofs are meaningful outside of formal maths and that philosophy is not just autistic losers comparing their autistic categories and seething when they hear a philosopher ''''''''''''''''rebutted'''''''''''' them. No wonder everybody thinks philosophers are a joke.