/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.1648002]

studying philosophy at 23 years old
Good or bad idea?

What books should i read before going into this path ?

[Anonymous No.1648003]

It's always a good idea to study philosophy. It's probably not wise to do so as a career path, though. There's no books you HAVE TO read - generally, you should read whatever interests you. The Greeks (particularly Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) are generally considered to have real historical importance, so I'd recommend that, if it iinterests you.

[Anonymous No.1648009]

>>1648003
i'm planning to do it as my only carrer and become a writer...i'm going to start in may

Thanks btw

[Anonymous No.1648013]

>>1648009
Well, as they say, don't quit your day job.

[AnarchistSage !VoonmBZbSs No.1648071]

Are you a statist OP?

[Anonymous No.1648393]

Make sure you don't forget to read your science also, else you get into some bullshit new age shit that gets completely wrong what quantum mechanics does and doesn't mean.

Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy is an aight introduction.

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter is a goddamn whimsical brilliant mindgasm that'll make you fall in love with your brain.

This blog helps mad counts with clarifying thought, improving epistemic and instrumental rationality and such. This article illustrates one of the most common traps people can fall into by abusing words: http://lesswrong.com/lw/np/disputing_definitions/

Learn about Game Theory / Decision Theory.

Learn how to do probability (Bayesian Probability. stops you commiting prosecutor's fallacies etc. people fuck this up all the time).

Rather than just studying individual philosophers / arguments, build up your understanding of the issues themselves. Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Language, Political Science, psychology and social psychology instead of armchair "human nature" discussions. forget "are humans good or evil?" and watch this instead, 20 minutes will make you learn to ask the right questions instead http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html

[Anonymous No.1648395]

>>1648393
Read David Hume. Learn to recognize where you're making an assumption. The sun only comes up tomorrow if the pattern continues as it has, the only reason we think patterns continue as they have is because THAT pattern always has. This doesn't mean there's a chance the sun won't come up, but it DOES mean that belief in causation is an axiom/foundational belief, and can't be proven. Don't worry about trying to prove it, be content with what you CAN do (that is, work within the assumption).

Solution to existential angst: no, nothing "ultimately" matters, but what the fuck would that mean anyway? The universe doesn't care about you, gravity quarks and the speed of light don't care about you, but they don't have to. WE care. Things are meaningful TO US. Be content with that.

Ask yourself why you're doing this. Do you have political aims, something to fight for? Or are you just curious about the world? This will determine the distribution of your time and effort. When talking to others, recognize what they're trying to do, and if you care to be polite, keep the discussion on topic and recognize possible sources of conflict (eg. yes, "female circumsision" and "female genital mutilation" refer to the same thing so there's no formal difference to which word you use, but the connotations are different and they can't read your mind so use the word that doesn't sound like you're undermining the problem's importance).

If it can be said, it can be said clearly. The responsibility is yours.

If an author HAS written obfuscatingly, but has important things to say that can't be found elsewhere, put in the effort to understand it anyway. The responsibility is yours.

[Anonymous No.1648398]

>>1648395
Combine analytic rigour and clarity of thought with continental passion and scope of concern.

Learn to analyse and deconstruct at multiple levels. Examine your interloculor AND the person he's talking about AND yourself.

When talking to people, be sensitive to the emotional effects words can have to get in the way of discussion. Phrase things accordingly. Don't let this make you forget how to think, don't let this make you lose the LOVE and PASSION for thinking.

Have fun with the Game of Life and other cellular automata. Learn about recursion and self-organizing systems. It's important.

Don't be afraid to toy with counterfactuals and their consequences. It's fun, and it prepares you for when you find out one of your foundations was wrong.

Love what you do. NO FEAR

[Anonymous No.1648405]

just start at nietzsche and go to deleuze from there

that is if you're busy and want to cut ALL the crap from the whole of western philosophy

[Anonymous No.1648409]

I started studying philosophy when I was 23, as a second study. Best choice I've ever made.

[Anonymous No.1648417]

>>1648405

Kant Hume Wittgenstein Nietzsche

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1648431]

>>1648409
free-time or like as a second degree?

[Anonymous No.1648447]

>>1648431

Second degree

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1648452]

>>1648447
but.... essay writing sucks. what was your first?

[Anonymous No.1648466]

>>1648447

what's your first degree?

my first was in philosophy, now im doing a second degree that's useful and challenging

humanities are so easy...really boring to study

[Anonymous No.1648468]

>>1648452

Mechanical engineering, so it was quite a change. And indeed, I had no writing skills to begin with whatsoever. Now I'm still struggling a bit, but it gets better. Practice practice practice.

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1648489]

>>1648468
did you go into employment before second degree or?

[Anonymous No.1648496]

> just start at nietzsche and go to deleuze from there

This must be the most retarded thing I've ever read

[Anonymous No.1648500]

>>1648393
>>1648395
>>1648398
Not OP but you are the best.

[Anonymous No.1648538]

>>1648500
thanks! :D

also forgot to include basic deductive logic, that one's important too

[Anonymous No.1648848]

Study philosophy on your own. Don't choose it as a college major, unless you're independently wealthy and can afford to lose a few bucks on a Bachelor's degree.

[Anonymous No.1648882]

>>1648538
i'm coming to guelph this weekend pal. get ready to cut loose.

[GrizzlyBear !!UFPpi0sFoPR No.1648905]

>>1648496
loled
why bother reading Plato?

[Anonymous No.1648918]

bad idea if you want to ever work

[Anonymous No.1648986]

>>1648395
The Mandelbrot set is nothing more or less than the set of values of c in the complex plane for which the orbit of 0 under iteration of the complex quadratic polynomial zn+1 = zn2 + c remains bounded. Isn't it beautiful?

[Anonymous No.1649007]

>>1648393
>>1648395
>>1648398
So analytical, it hurts.

[Anonymous No.1649029]

>>1648986
Fractals are not beautiful

[Anonymous No.1649042]

>>1649029

Fractals are beyond beautiful, and yes that is just, like my opinion, man.

[Anonymous No.1649086]

>>1649007

Not learning the analytic method is a sure way to be a terrible philosopher.

I mean, I've learned a lot since branching out, but logical form is still really important. Modal logic is where it's at for me.

[Anonymous No.1649094]

>>1649029
>>1649042
They are, especially when you're tripping.

[Anonymous No.1649095]

>>1648393
>http://lesswrong.com
>"Sorry - but philosophy, even the better grade of modern analytic philosophy, doesn't seem to end up commensurate with what I need, except by accident or by extraordinary competence."

God, is this guy annoying... He criticizes philosophy beacuse it's not his AI-only science: has he ever thought other people may strive for something else, that is, something which is NOT building an AI?
Cognitive science is ok, but while he is trying to get his possibility electron or whatever, some people are actually thinking about how they should act in their lives and many other problems. And they know they won't solve them, but that is ok. Philosophy never was about solving problems for the sake of solving them to being with.
I think these para-scientific guys should be taking some steps back and realize that they aren't the new gods of this world...

[Anonymous No.1649102]

Am I right in thinking A.N. Whitehead kinda straddles both analytic and continental philosophy and is massively important to both traditions while being basically unread because he's too difficult? This is what I heard somewhere anyway...

[♥onionring♥ !Rrxa7zePwI No.1649137]

>>1649102
you are INCREDIBLY right

[Anonymous No.1649161]

>>1649095
i read the less wrong blog for a time. basically the guys over there are modern day utilitarians only more trivial. really nothing an aspiring philosopher should care to read.

[Anonymous No.1649179]

Greek philosophy is all you need to read

all others are trite

[Anonymous No.1649315]

Best thread on /lit/ in a while.

Also, from that site:

>LW-style epistemology looks like this:
>Let's figure out how a perfectly rational being (AI) learns.
>Let's figure out how humans learn.
>Let's use that knowledge to fix humans so that they are more like AIs.

hahaohwow.jpg

[Zero Replies !8OOqv/PUKE No.1649321]

>lesswrong
>/lit/
sounds about right

[Anonymous No.1650029]

>>1649161
there's bullshit in there too to be sure. but they understand probability, they understand decision theory, they understand logic, they understand epistemology, they understand dissolving meaningless questions, and they explain it better and more clearly than most anywhere else.

[Anonymous No.1650769]

>>1649095 anon here, sadly I couldn't follow this thread, but I just want to say I'm happy to see that not everyone here is a hardcore analytic utilitarian like that.
I'm mildly proud of these last replies, /lit/.