Profound existential dilemma

[Dracon II]

Okay, here's the background info:

I applied for uni wanting to be a political scientist, so I enrolled in the BA in Politics and Government. However, In the second year (last year) I only enrolled in one major, Politics, economy, and society (half a sociological study of policital/economic areas [such as the history of labour, the family, deviance, and class] from radical [marxist], liberal [weberian, symbolic interactionist] and conservative [durkheim, talcott parsons] viewpoints) and half an overview of globalization and theories of Government and economy from an unreformed Marxist lecturer. The subjects from this major are: International Change & the Social World parts 1 & 2 (the sociological subjects), Government & Economy, Global Politics & Democracy (from the unreformed Marxist), and two subjects that I'll be doing next semester (State Interventions and Nationalism & Development in the 3rd world). Unfortunately, instead of taking a second major in Public policy, which my friends have done, I have filled the vacuum with a haphazard collection of electives from other disciplines. Here is my academic transcript so far:

- - - - - Beginning of Undergraduate Record - - - - -

Semester 1 - 2003

Program : BA Politics & Government

Plan : Undeclared 1176 Major

ECONOM 1001IBS Principles of Economics 10.00 10.00 D 60.000

HUM_SOC 1003HUM Rise of Europe 10.00 10.00 D 60.000

POLITICS 1001AIS International Relations 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

POLITICS 1101PPP Introduction to Politics 10.00 10.00 D 60.000

TERM GPA : 6.250 TERM TOTALS : 40.00 40.00 250.000



*** GPA : 6.250 *** TOTALS : 40.00 40.00 250.000


---------------------------------------------------------------------

Semester 2 - 2003

Program : BA Politics & Government

Plan : Undeclared 1176 Major

HUM_SOC 1004HUM Contemporary Europe 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

PHILOS 1011HUM Great Ideas 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

POLITICS 1102PPP Political Institutions 10.00 10.00 D 60.000

POLITICS 1103PPP Political Ideas & Pol Thought 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

TERM GPA : 6.750 TERM TOTALS : 40.00 40.00 270.000



*** GPA : 6.500 *** TOTALS : 80.00 80.00 520.000

Griffith Award for Academic Excellence 2003



Semester 1 - 2004

Program : BA Politics & Government

Plan : Politics, Economy & Society Major

HUM_SOC 2001AMC Int Change&the Social World I 10.00 10.00 D 60.000

HUM_SOC 2005AMC Cultural Studies 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

HUM_SOC 2043AMC Sociology of Identity 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

POLITICS 2019AMC Global Politics and Democracy 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

TERM GPA : 6.750 TERM TOTALS : 40.00 40.00 270.000



*** GPA : 6.583 *** TOTALS : 120.00 120.00 790.000



Semester 2 - 2004

Program : BA Politics & Government

Plan : Politics, Economy & Society Major

HUM_SOC 2062AMC Internat Change & Soc World II 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

POLITICS 2002AMC Government and Economy 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

POLITICS 2008IBS The Politics of Globalisation 10.00 10.00 D 60.000

POLITICS 2010PPP Intro to American Politics 10.00 10.00 HD 70.000

TERM GPA : 6.750 TERM TOTALS : 40.00 40.00 270.000



*** GPA : 6.625 *** TOTALS : 160.00 160.00 1060.000



Summer Semester 2004

Program : BA Politics & Government

Plan : Politics, Economy & Society Major

HUM_SOC 2909AMC Comparative Sociology 10.00

TERM GPA : 0.000 TERM TOTALS : 0.00 0.00 0.000



*** GPA : 6.625 *** TOTALS : 160.00 160.00 1060.000



Semester 1 - 2005

Program : BA Politics & Government

Plan : Politics, Economy & Society Major

PHILOS 3607AMC Examining the Self 10.00

POLITICS 3002PPP Comparative European Politics 10.00

POLITICS 3101PPP Political Practice 10.00

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As you can see, my electives have covered sociology, globalization, cultural studies, american & european politics and economics. It should be noted that comparative sociology was not so much about sociology but about the challenge of postmodernism to sociology, so that constitutes another branch in itself.
The subjects of semester 1, 2005 are the ones I'm starting this week, and comparative sociology was finished on monday, so I have no marks for them yet... but for the subjects I have done I've received nothing lower than a distinction, and my performance has marked me out for postgraduate studies and has earnt me a membership of the Golden Key society.
It's not my academic performance that worries me, but the sheer diversity of disciplines I've been sampling. I'm afraid that, although I have a good general knowledge in all of these areas, I have yet to develop any specialized expertise in any of them, and given that this is the final year of my degree before honours, this is something that worries me. My program convenor says that if I plan on doing postgraduate studies then this is not a problem, because I'll be able to develop expertise then... but that poses another problem. Where do I specialize??? I have an interest in everything that I've done... I've swung from wanting to to do economics to philosophy to sociology to history to politics within the course of a single day!!!

[Dracon II]

Okay, maybe it's not a profound existential dilemma. But it is a dilemma in that it illustrates the anxiety of having to choose a role in life.

[DaShi]

Forget choosing a role in the Man's system. Become a hippie!

[Bkeela]

Chose a role that will rake in the most money for you.

[Agathon]

Examining the Self?

My rule is to avoid all courses with names like that.

[Dracon II]

Examining the self: "The goal of this course is to familiarize students with a powerful technique for redescribing and comparing philosophies by reference to their competing ideal images of the self and techniques for (re-)shaping it. Students will learn to both understand and apply this concept of philosophy as 'work on the self'' to both classical and modern moral/political philosophies, to draw out its critical consequences for philosophical enquiries into the nature of 'the' moral self, and to assess its limits."

[Japher]

Anthropology, history (buisness history/economic history), or socioeconomics. IMO.

I think you are having more fun with analyzing with what has happened, why that has happened, and what it has done to the state of the world or the area... that would lead to one of the above.

Not bad fields

[Dracon II]

sounds good... I'm certainly interested in those fields. I'm not interested in doing pure economics... so maybe economic history or economics as a social science is better. Anthropology is a nice idea too... the closest thing I've studied to anthropology at uni though is cultural studies... which is kind've an anthropological study of contemporary humans (what I like) but it was much less disciplined and included more references to reality TV than I'd hoped (the lecturer told us to watch queer eye for the straight guy as homework... I rebelled by watching the apprentice instead).

I seem to have a lot of fun with postmodernists (baudrillard, deleuze & guattari etc).... but I'm not sure if it's going to get me far in the australian academic establishment. That, and the people who are likely to supervise my honours thesis are Marxists (could get away with a Marxist critique of postmodernism e.g. David Harvey).

[Odin]

Originally posted by Agathon
Examining the Self?

My rule is to avoid all courses with names like that.

I would expect a crazy Philosophy proffessor like you to LIKE a class like that.

[Elok]

I always thought it obvious that examining the self, in a critical sense, is one of the most useful and important things a person can do, as well as the most difficult. If you don't examine your own philosophy, what use is a philosophy degree except to perpetuate a system of hot air and reputation?

[Odin]

Originally posted by Elok
I always thought it obvious that examining the self, in a critical sense, is one of the most useful and important things a person can do, as well as the most difficult. If you don't examine your own philosophy, what use is a philosophy degree except to perpetuate a system of hot air and reputation?

That is called introspection, you don't need a class for that.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Odin
That is called introspection, you don't need a class for that.

Yeah, that's what everyone says, but it's pretty clear that everyone sucks at introspection, so the question is more whether or not such a thing can be taught, IMO.

[Dracon II]

well the first lecture for examining the self is today... so I'll let you know how it went.

Fortunately I have until the 13th to change subjects.

[pchang]

It doesn't matter which field you decide to specialize in. They will all require you to be able to say "Would you like fries with that?" in order to get a job after uni.

[Agathon]

I would expect a crazy Philosophy proffessor like you to LIKE a class like that.

It sounds like a flaky course to me.

Real courses have titles like:

Epistemology
Metaethics
18th Century Philosophy
20th Century Analytical Philosophy
Wittgenstein