Is philosophy worth studying or could i hust read by myself?

[Αναξαγόρας No.9985055]

I am thinking of switching from a physics degree to a philosophy degree but i am not quite sure.I feel like i want something that can answer to a bigger spectrum of questions about life.

[Anonymous No.9985058]

you don't need to study philosophy in an academic environment to read philosophy.

[Anonymous No.9985065]

>>9985058
the question is can you learn/truly understand philosophy just by reading it?

[Anonymous No.9985070]

>>9985065
yes, I am a philosophy major and almost everything I know about philosophy comes from my own studies. The only good thing about an academic environment is that you are forced to write something good and are given feedback (hence the mostly terrible opinions found here by self taught philosophers). How far are you into the physics major?

[Αναξαγόρας No.9985076]

That may be true,but when in an academic environment you can channel your focus completely on philosophy.You also get to hear a lot of new thoughts on the matter,dark points can be illuminated and of course there is debate

[Anonymous No.9985084]

Are there any academic departments in western universities that teach the love of sophia and contemplation of the eternal Logos, or is it all just going over the intellectual mummies of history and coming to the conclusion that truth is relative anyway?

[Anonymous No.9985085]

You can learn the basics on your own, but I don't think it's possible to be an expert without rigorous experience in the dialectic/debate aspects.

That's not to say you can find meaning in studying alone, just that the onus will be on you to seek out alternate opinions and different perspectives. It's very easy to only research things that validate your own opinions.

[Anonymous No.9985381]

>>9985084
look for a school with a great books program or core curriculum

[Anonymous No.9985426]

This is probably the luckiest time to be alive to become self taught at something. So much accessible information at your fingertips.

[Anonymous No.9985441]

>>9985065
yes.

I've learned virtually nothing from tutorials, lectures or talking to other students..... everything I've learned was from my own reading.

there's an element of discipline that you're forced to adhere to in academic study that weeds out the type of bullshit that you read on /lit/ etc...but there's no reason that you can't attain that from personal study.

[Anonymous No.9985590]

>>9985055
Kill the Budha

[Anonymous No.9985750]

>>9985070
>philosophy major
Where?

[Anonymous No.9985866]

>>9985070
I'm also a philosophy major. I think it is very unlikely that someone would be able to read and interpret philosophical texts correctly by themselves. Not impossible, but very unlikely. I would also echoe what this anon said about writing and receiving feedback. You don't know what you know until your forced to write about it. Then you turn in it to your GSI/professor only to find out you still don't really know shit. Rinse and repeat. With any luck, you will eventually begin to reach understandings.

If you want to do philosophy seriously, you need to major in it. Hopefully afterwards you'll retain the necessary skills to continue doing philosophy throughout your life. I find it highly unlikely that anyone would possess those skills before putting in a few years of serious dedication to the field, and furthermore suspect that those skills would be lost should a person stop doing philosophy for an extended amount of time after their graduation.

It's ok to read philosophy on the side. But if you really want to get into the suck, you have to major in it.

[Anonymous No.9985894]

>>9985866
thank you. ex phil major here. I agree with you, and I think /lit/ has kinda deluded itself into believing that an autodidact can understand philosophy without help. sure, you can easily get the general ideas of a book and be able to speak intelligently about them, but phil is a much more detail orientated and complex subject than people give it credit. No one would say that you can self-teach your way to being a theoretical physicist, yet for some reason /lit/ thinks you can teach yourself all the way to being a professional philosopher. If you truly believe this, you have never gone up to a truly good philosophy professor and just had your ideas floored by the depth of understanding that they had in whatever subject you were explorig

[Anonymous No.9985929]

>>9985750
Not the anon you're asking, but I'm currently a philo major at Cal.