How hard is philosophy?

Question:i want to do it for my bachelor degrre major... is it very hard? i enjoy the philosophy section here on yahoo answers, is it anything like university philosophy? i plan to get straight A's, is it relatively impossible?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i want to do it for my bachelor degrre major... is it very hard? i enjoy the philosophy section here on yahoo answers, is it anything like university philosophy? i plan to get straight A's, is it relatively impossible?

If you are good at pulling concepts out of concepts, reducing an idea to it's essence, working with defintions, comparing subtle and almost imperceptible differences in opinions, and running into brick walls you've never seen before--then its fun!
That is why people like yahoo answers.

But no, university classes are nothing like "what is the purpose of life," or "would you rather have 4 arms and no legs, or vice versa?" or "isn't love the best thing in life?"

Good luck, have fun, take a couple of introductory classes including Logic 101 because you might find logic is more your forte. Law requires some of the best logic on the planet, and understanding it thoroughly would be to your advantage.

If you want to find out what real philosophy is about read this:

Well, you won't get much of a headstart career-wise doing a degree in philosophy...be sure to think about that!

Depends on where you go, but it is likely to be challenging. It is not impossible to get straight As, but plan on reading huge amounts of material and writing until your hand falls off.

There is not an university philosophy. Within the university you have a discipline named philosophy. Philosophy by definition is the way of thinking you will learn about some philosophers those who inspired the western culture even Asian. For instance Platon, Aristote, Descartes, Karl Marx...

My favourite is Aristote. Good luck.

Depends on a lot of things. The philosophy forum here runs the gamut from people joking around (freshmen classes) to people who know what they're talking about doing serious analysis (senior and graduate classes). Whether you can get straight As depends on your school and on you. You'll find it's an easy major if you're good at it. My GPA skyrocketed when I switched from physics to philosophy, but a lot of other people are better suited to other areas.

In many schools it's a light major. At Cornell you only needed 9 classes within the major and only 2 specific ones were required. As a result, a lot of people double majored with philosophy. I didn't, but I took twice the number of required classes within the major.

Also, keep in mind that there are a lot of different areas in philosophy and different schools have different requirements. Many schools require a strong foundation in the history of philosophy, Socrates through Hume. I hate that. It's interesting to know what they thought, but I'd much rather explore modern ideas than argue about Aristotle. Aristotle was brilliant, but he didn't have he benefit of his own shoulders to stand on or the thousands of years of thought that followed, so he was wrong in just about everything he said and I didn't find it interesting to discuss beyond a cursory introduction. Those were my worst classes. I liked metaphysics best, which isn't valued enough by a lot of universities. A lot of people disagree though and you may be one of them.

Lastly, keep in mind that most people switch majors at least once. Philosophy is a good place to start, but don't expect to end up there. But I really liked the major and to some extent it's been useful in Law School (not that much though). I highly recommend it and good luck.

Don't procrastinate, start working on your minor degrees first!Getting a straight "A" grade point average is irrelevant ,all it represents is that you have a high understanding of the written knowledge, but a Doctorate is the applied physics. As for Universities try Live Search or Google for help. Best of luck in your endeavors.

Philosophy is as hard as you think on it.

Philosophy is neither hard or soft. It is what YOU are that determines whether anything is difficult or not.

Some people have a natural ability at dealing with abstract concepts and logic. As someone who retired form 36 years as a computer programmer I valued my course in logic in college. You would value that course also if you go into law.

Lots of reading. And a fair amount of it is dry.

I know a lawyer who majored in philosophy and recommends it as a pre-law major. He says philosophy helps you to think critically.

Philosophy is a very hard major. Much philosophical writing involves nothing more than the syntactical manipulation of abstract vocabulary. Many philosophers really do not understand other philosophers very well, and that is one of the reasons that they frequently find the work of earlier philosophers to be in error.

Current philosophical writings by deconstructionists and existentialists display a firm conviction of the ultimate futility of studying philosophy.

So basically, you will be studying some vague and often ridiculous concepts and learning some special vocabulary for talking about them that can take a long time to master only to conclude eventually that all this stuff is utterly meaningless.

If you can live with this, then go ahead and study philosophy. If not, I would suggest you study history.

Harleigh Kyson Jr.