What are you taking this semester?

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Asher
Epistemology is one of the worst things one could study in university.

It depends whose epistemology it is.

The name bothers me, it's one of those big scientific-sounding words philosophers use to try to gain credibility. Ohhhh, epistemology, hermeneutics, etc.

hydrodynamics, astrophysics, topology?

The only reason you have these words is Greek Philosophy.

And Rorty is a moron.

Well, I don't agree with him, but I don't think he's completely daft. Of course he is far too modern and trendy for me.

Man they teach you guys some **** philosophy at Calgary. I do see that an old acquaintance of mine is still there though.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Asher

I've never got anything lower than an A- in my humanities and social sciences classes thus far, why should this be any different?

Yes, but it is introductory philosophy. An "A" means no more than that you actually produced something that wasn't complete meaningless rubbish.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Man they teach you guys some **** philosophy at Calgary. I do see that an old acquaintance of mine is still there though.

Who said I learned that from school? The only other philosophy course I've taken is another bull****-ahoy course about the philosophy of logic.

The other stuff is just things I pick up. As I said, philosophy is rather useless as a university discipline these days.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Asher

Who said I learned that from school? The only other philosophy course I've taken is another bull****-ahoy course about the philosophy of logic.

I notice you dumped your criticism of "epistemology" once you put your foot in it.

And IIRC the important Phil logic stuff sailed over your head.

The other stuff is just things I pick up. As I said, philosophy is rather useless as a university discipline these days.

Again you show your ignorance of the whole business. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it has no use. We get lots of students who enjoy doing it and find philosophy useful in their other courses. If it had no use, it wouldn't be so wildly popular.

Some people just like knowledge for it's own sake. That's why my course on that boring old Greek, Plato, filled up in about 3 days.

It's sad that some people will attend university and come out with no real education at all.

[Japher]

The only philosophy course I took was The Philosophy of Social Sciences. I learned that there really wasn't one...

IMIO, Philosophy is most useful when coupled with a natural science or someother field... Rarely is philosophy useful as it's own entity.

It's kind of like drinking games; it's fun to mess around with, but you are going to get drunk anyway so why bother?

[monolith94]

The philosophy courses at my school are really renowned for their ass-kicking nature. No way am I going to take one. At least, not until junior or senior year...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
I notice you dumped your criticism of "epistemology" once you put your foot in it.

That's because I'm not about to debate something mind-numbingly boring, incredibly retarded, and bull**** to the core. Especially with a pompous philosophy prof who is knee-deep in his own bull**** and is so used to it that he doesn't even know what it is anymore.

And IIRC the important Phil logic stuff sailed over your head.

Are you still mad because I found your stupid word paradox incredibly useless? That doesn't show my lack of understanding, it shows your desperation for usefulness.

Again you show your ignorance of the whole business. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it has no use. We get lots of students who enjoy doing it and find philosophy useful in their other courses. If it had no use, it wouldn't be so wildly popular.

Some people just like knowledge for it's own sake. That's why my course on that boring old Greek, Plato, filled up in about 3 days.

People take Philosophy because it's a GPA booster. Where else can you write anything you want and practically be guaranteed a C or higher?

As a philosopher you should be well aware how stupid such an argument is, because discrete mathematics would be rather useless because it's not as popular as film studies, or philosophy.

It's sad that some people will attend university and come out with no real education at all.

Which is precisely why there shouldn't be a philosophy department, so we can use the funds to teach people useful things...

[Elok]

I'm an art snot! Hello!
And Jackass wasn't on the syllabus, no. I don't think Jackass is a good movie, I just believe it is a better movie than Citizen Kane for a reason that many artsy people forget, namely that film is not a bloody textbook. You could have a deep philosophical message, you could have the key to cold fusion or world peace, you could say all sorts of meaningful things but if the movie is too boring to sit through and hence learn from, you have failed as a filmmaker. Film is an alternate reality, and if I had to choose between the reality of sophomoric idiots or the reality of a self-destructive narcissist, I'd take the idiots just for the laughs. Now let's just let it go.
I'm more of a literary snot though. Actually, I'm not even literary. More philosophy and theology. Or maybe I'm a general studies snob?

[The Emperor Fabulous]

ANSO200 - Methods in Anthropology and Sociology
ANSO200L - Methods Lab
SOC265 - Criminology
CST102 - Public Speaking
CST105 - Mass Media and Society
CST121 - Intro to Theatre

Getting the requirements done for my two majors (with the exception of Criminology), moving into the good stuff next semester.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Asher

That's because I'm not about to debate something mind-numbingly boring, incredibly retarded, and bull**** to the core. Especially with a pompous philosophy prof who is knee-deep in his own bull**** and is so used to it that he doesn't even know what it is anymore.

Aw Diddums. You said something mind numbingly stupid and got called on it. How evil and pretentious of philosophers to use Greek derived words to describe their field? WTF are you talking about!?! They're Greek words because the subjects were invented by Greeks, who, gasp, spoke greek. Shame on them for not speaking English - so what if they were 1500 years too early!

If any subject is guilty of coining Greek-derived words for pretentious reasons it's the sciences.

Are you still mad because I found your stupid word paradox incredibly useless? That doesn't show my lack of understanding, it shows your desperation for usefulness.

You just didn't understand the point behind it and you still don't. Yet you are content to mouth off about it.

People take Philosophy because it's a GPA booster. Where else can you write anything you want and practically be guaranteed a C or higher?

A "C"? Hardly a GPA booster. Actually it's harder to get a straight A in philosophy than it is in mathematics. In my experience as a professional philosophy teacher students often complain that taking philosophy actually made their GPA worse than if they did Phys Ed or something else.

As a philosopher you should be well aware how stupid such an argument is, because discrete mathematics would be rather useless because it's not as popular as film studies, or philosophy.

The people who take it, who I know because I teach them, take it out of either interest or because they think it will help them in other fields like Poli Sci, Economics or Law. And it does... Those are facts - it's not a matter of logical argument (if you can't understand the difference, that's your fault).

Which is precisely why there shouldn't be a philosophy department, so we can use the funds to teach people useful things...

Oh **** off. If it was up to you universities would all become polytechnics, thereby undermining the whole point of universities as places of disinterested inquiry.

What you do will be completely obsolete in 100 years. Yet there will still be classics and philosophy courses just like there has been for the past 2500 years.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by monolith94
The philosophy courses at my school are really renowned for their ass-kicking nature. No way am I going to take one. At least, not until junior or senior year...

My supervisor is a Grinnell graduate. I can testify to his ass-kicking nature.

[Shi Huangdi]

Asher, there are interductory courses in Sciences that are really easy as well. Once you get beyond the beginning level it gets harder.

I am guessing Calgary probably is **** for Philosophy.At Pitt where we have one of the world's best Philosophy departments you can bet nobody takes a Philosophy class for a GPA booster, in fact Freshman are explicity discouraged from taking them because they are so hard...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Aw Diddums. You said something mind numbingly stupid and got called on it. How evil and pretentious of philosophers to use Greek derived words to describe their field? WTF are you talking about!?! They're Greek words because the subjects were invented by Greeks, who, gasp, spoke greek. Shame on them for not speaking English - so what if they were 1500 years too early!

If any subject is guilty of coining Greek-derived words for pretentious reasons it's the sciences.

I never said anything about Greek words in particular, that was all you baby... You took it and ran with it, then started chanting a victory song about it. For a philosophy teacher you sure use strawmans and red herrings at every possible opportunity...

You just didn't understand the point behind it and you still don't. Yet you are content to mouth off about it.

I not only understand the point behind it, but I go a step farther than you want to go: I understand that the only people it is of use for is the philosophy students who constantly bicker semantics rather than do anything useful. Hence, it is useless!

A "C"? Hardly a GPA booster. Actually it's harder to get a straight A in philosophy than it is in mathematics.

Depends how you look at it. Since philosophy is the study of bull****, and your mark depends entirely on if the prof thinks you're ****able or not, then it could be hard to get a straight A in philosophy compared to a subject like mathematics which has actual, real content to objectively mark you on.

The people who take it, who I know because I teach them, take it out of either interest or because they think it will help them in other fields like Poli Sci, Economics or Law. And it does... Those are facts - it's not a matter of logical argument (if you can't understand the difference, that's your fault).

Of course it's fact that people take it because they want to, but it's also fact that a lot of people take it because they have to. It's also fact that some people think it's complete bull**** and useless.

Philosophy have not contributed anything of value in the past 50 years, at the least, and last time I brought this up you mentioned it simply takes time for this to come into effect. As evidence, you cited a bunch of ancient philosophers who simply guessed about things until a scientist found it out. You conviently ignore that 99% of the **** philosophers spill never came true. It's a lot like a psychic, really...

Oh **** off. If it was up to you universities would all become polytechnics, thereby undermining the whole point of universities as places of disinterested inquiry.

Not true. I'm all for keeping departments like history, English, economics, etc. They all serve a purpose as far as I can see, whereas Philosophy exists for the sake of existing because some people find it interesting. I don't like my tax dollars going to that kind of crap when it can be put towards, say, medical research.

What you do will be completely obsolete in 100 years. Yet there will still be classics and philosophy courses just like there has been for the past 2500 years.

You seriously think computers won't be around in 100 years?

Ahhh, the strong intellect of modern philosophy teachers.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
At Pitt where we have one of the world's best Philosophy departments

This kind of crap cracks me up.

1) How does one determine the best philosophy departments?
2) What has Pitt's philosophy department contributed to society in the past 50 years to prove its usefulness?

[GePap]

Hmm, perhaps by the rigor of the studies, by the wuality of the professors, by the intellectual output of the faculty?

But then again, what is the point of arguing about the value of the foundational science of western thought with someone like Asher? Now that is an interesting philosophical question.