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Author Topic: Studying Philosophy in University  (Read 7517 times)  Share 

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M_BONG

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Studying Philosophy in University
« on: January 06, 2015, 01:06:42 pm »
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Hi everyone!

I am intending to study some basic philosophy in Uni next year in my Arts degree but I have never done any Philosophy in High School and the only knowledge I have of it is my private reading/research.

So, I guess my question is for those who have done Philosophy in university: are there any assumed knowledge from VCE Philosophy (I doubt it, but..) and what sort of skills do we need for Philosophy and what sort of work is done in the subject? There would surely be an exam, but what sort of practical stuff do you do in Uni Philosophy subjects (is it assignments, research?) and would it hard to start off without doing any formal philosophy in High School (I guess, is it hard to pass - let alone score well in?)

Thanks everyone - anyone with any interesting pre-readings for introduction into Philosophy, please pop them below!


alondouek

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Re: Studying Philosophy in University
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2015, 01:25:58 pm »
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I've not taken a philosophy unit before, but a general rule with first-year university subjects is that they assume very little if any prior knowledge and essentially start from the very basics.
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Lasercookie

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Re: Studying Philosophy in University
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2015, 02:11:04 pm »
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First year Philosophy doesn't assume any previous knowledge at most places. In fact, this is the case for a lot of Arts subjects at first year level.

Not all uni subjects have exams, I've taken a few that just have a major project or essay in place of exams. The actual work will vary depending on what the particular subject is and what the lecturer decides to set, but in general in terms of assessment you can expect essay writing, lots of reading and lots of discussion about those readings. A lot of philosophy is hard to read, or requires getting accustomed to the style. First-year philosophy classes will often focus on easing you into reading these works.

If you want to take a look, MIT OpenCourseWare has a few philosophy courses on them, with most of them being fairly typical to what you can expect most Philosophy departments offer at the first year level. https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ also has a fair few books from the ancient Greek philosophers to the 16th, 17th, 18th century philosophers too. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy has some great articles on it too: http://plato.stanford.edu/

You can find prerequisites and some kind of vague subject overview in the handbooks for the uni you're planning on going to i.e. http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2015handbooks/aos/philosophy/ug-arts-philosophy.html

M_BONG

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Re: Studying Philosophy in University
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2015, 06:47:59 pm »
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Thanks all for the reply!

I just read up on the link LaserCookie provided (on Monash Arts); is it true we need to major or minor in Philosophy to study any Philosophy at all? Can we just do it as a side elective without majoring/minoring in it?

Also, if I choose to do Philosophy, do I have to do it for the whole degree or can I ditch it if we don't like it (perhaps at second year?)

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Re: Studying Philosophy in University
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2015, 06:53:22 pm »
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No, you can certainly take philosophy units as electives while not minoring or majoring in philosophy (subject, of course, to specific unit prerequisites!).
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achre

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Re: Studying Philosophy in University
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2015, 07:43:49 pm »
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This is all just assuming you're 110% going to monash in March:

Hi everyone!

I am intending to study some basic philosophy in Uni next year in my Arts degree but I have never done any Philosophy in High School and the only knowledge I have of it is my private reading/research.

So, I guess my question is for those who have done Philosophy in university: are there any assumed knowledge from VCE Philosophy (I doubt it, but..) and what sort of skills do we need for Philosophy and what sort of work is done in the subject?
At monash, your intro philosophy units (Life, Death, Morality and Time, Self and Mind) are very handhold-y, as far as first year subjects go. I mean, at least for LDM, this is second hand information for TSM, which I never did. Your very first lecture will step through the most basic sort of philosophical precepts imaginable -- what is philosophy? What is an argument? What makes for a good or bad argument? How should we talk and think about these things we call "ethics" and "morality"? Then you'll launch into common ethical schools of thought, like utilitarianism. I don't know how disadvantaged you'll be having not studied philo in VCE, but I know a lot - a lot a lot - of students who never did it in VCE but HD'd 1st year philo. Also, I found it to be a billion times easier than VCE, there's way less readings :p

There would surely be an exam, but what sort of practical stuff do you do in Uni Philosophy subjects (is it assignments, research?) and would it hard to start off without doing any formal philosophy in High School (I guess, is it hard to pass - let alone score well in?)
Yeah, every first year subject is required to have an exam, at least in arts. That changes after first year, some subjects will have exams, others won't. As far as first year is concerned, research is minimal. It's certainly permitted, and depending on your tutor or how relevent it is to your essay, it may (emphasis on the may) score you brownie points. Or it could be a completely irrelevent article and might look like you're trying to show off haha. Again, this changes after first year -- I'm given to understand that they try and consolidate good philosophy research skills in second and third year units (moreso in 3rd year than 2nd year, because a lot of philosophy majors go on to do an Honours year, which is very research intensive), but for first year a lot of your sources and reading material will be more-or-less spoonfed to you.

Thanks everyone - anyone with any interesting pre-readings for introduction into Philosophy, please pop them below!
If you're super keen to launch into uni work (I know I was pretty antsy for getting into uni stuff, dat year 12 habit of feeling like you're wasting time not studying haha), try and get a copy of Peter Singer's Practical Ethics 3rd edition. He changed his mind on some stuff in the past decade, so it's important to get the most recent edition. The actual unit reader will be nearly impossible to find before the week before semester 1, but you might like to look up a philosopher named Judith Jarvis Thomson, she's like the secondary philosopher in Life, Death and Morality after Peter Singer. Her violinist argument (concerning abortion) and ideas on rights forfeiture (concerning self-defence, from memory) are somewhat pivotal to the unit. Maybe have a read of this too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem

I just read up on the link LaserCookie provided (on Monash Arts); is it true we need to major or minor in Philosophy to study any Philosophy at all? Can we just do it as a side elective without majoring/minoring in it?
No way. I'm not planning on majoring or minoring in philosophy, and I did a first year philo unit and a second year philo unit in my first year.

Also, if I choose to do Philosophy, do I have to do it for the whole degree or can I ditch it if we don't like it (perhaps at second year?)
You can ditch it whenever you like, very little is set in stone. I did a film studies unit in my first semester, and a language, and I have no intention of pursuing either of those subjects at any point in the future. That being said, it doesn't hurt to make up your mind on what you do want to major in ASAP, to avoid doing superfluous units (especially if you're in a double degree course structure) that might make it difficult to finish your major/minor later on down the track. Like, if you accidentally do too many philosophy units, in an Arts/Law degree, but you want to minor in, say, Criminology, you may not have enough room to complete that minor.

At the same time though, you don't want to start your degree confident in what you want to major/minor in, and then discover after studying it that you can't stand the subject. I hope that doesn't sound too dreary, it's just something to be mindful of.

slothpomba

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Re: Studying Philosophy in University
« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2015, 07:39:56 am »
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It's rare for first year units to assume any knowledge at all. If they do, they are usually segregated by tiers (for example, Monash has two first year physics units; One for those who *DID* VCE physics and one for those who *DID NOT* do VCE physics).

I didn't do VCE philosophy. I didn't even do 1st year philosophy/intro units. I cut straight to 2nd and 3rd year and i've HD'ed every unit i believe (maybe some high D's, i cant really remember). I dont say this to brag but i'm just trying to illustrate absolutely how many 0 worries you need to give to this concern. You could jump right into 2nd year and still probably be OK. Most units are relatively self-contained and dont necessarily need knowledge of others (broad knowledge is always good though).

You do not need to stick with anything in university. If your degree structure allows it (for instance, med and biomed will not allow you to take non-science electives i believe), you can take philosophy as an elective without committing further, as many or as few as you want, subject to the structure of your course. For instance, in science i can only take 10 first year units and 8 non-science units.

I think you guys may be starting him off too fast there, especially regarding reading primary texts without any explanation or commentary. Wikipedia is actually a decent place to learn, as are any online lectures. If you want a real easy taster, we have an ATARNotes philosophy thread where i would post problems and people would answer (kinda died off due to lack of activity). Feel free to read through them and even attempt to work out some answers of your own. The problems may seem superficial but they are actually a glimpse of a much larger concept or problem in philosophy - http://ow.ly/sNWJD
« Last Edit: January 12, 2015, 07:45:22 am by slothpomba »

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