Things You'll Learn as a Philosophy Major or Minor

As a philosophy major or minor, you will get to experience some of the best classes and ideas that your college has to offer, while also exposing yourself to schools of thought dating back centuries. Not only will your breadth of knowledge push temporal boundaries, but the information that you learn could help you in your other classes and beyond college. Here are six things you will learn as a philosophy major or minor in college: 1. How to argue a point Whether you are write an essay for me or orally debating a topic, philosophy classes can teach you how to argue a point. Most historical philosophers were masters at introducing a point, disproving contrasting viewpoints, and then using evidence to prove that their idea is the right idea. You will learn the basics of engaging in a true debate, even if you are having this debate with yourself. You will be able to use this new knowledge within other college classes that ask for in-class debates or argumentative papers, or really at any point in your life where you have to persuade others to agree with your point of view. 2. How to approach problems Philosophers always start with a question or a problem. In order to craft an argument, you need to first know how to approach the problem from the best angle. By knowing how to approach problems, you will have a starting point for all of your arguments, allowing you to address an issue from all relevant angles. 3. How to ask meaningful questions A large part of being a great philosopher is knowing which meaningful questions to ask. Socrates, for example, questioned the knowledge-making process, leading to the creation of the Socratic Method. As a philosophy major or minor, you will implicitly begin to pick up on which questions hit the root of an issue in order to begin solving it. Asking meaningful questions can also draw meaningful answers to you, which will help you academically and even after you graduate. 4. How to compare and contrast perspectives Philosophers constantly use their own work to implicitly contrast the perspectives or philosophies of other great thinkers. When you analyze the work of various philosophers, you will begin to notice patterns among how they contrast various perspectives to their own to either discount a philosophy or promote their own. Contrasting perspectives can help you come up with compelling reasons for why your stance is correct (or incorrect). < Previous Post Next Post >