The study of philosophy, What's the point? Options

[*mipadi*]

I'm one of the opinions editors on my college newspaper (awesome job, by the way—I highly recommend it). We recently picked up a new writer, who (thankfully) wrote an article this week.

The article is about the study of philosophy. In a discussion with this young man, I found that he had transferred to my university from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He had been a film student; he was now studying philosophy—against his parents' wishes, he stressed. His article was essentially a justification of the study of philosophy, which at first glance seems so highly abstracted as to be utterly pointless. But is it?

The young man made a very good point: The study of philosophy is one that lends itself well to any course of study. It not only emphasizes, but forces, creative thinking—a quality that helps in any field of study, for no one has gotten anywhere by thinking inside the box all of the time.

I'm a computer science student, but I've taken a number of philosophy courses. I neither major nor minor in philosophy; its study is just a hobby of mine, if you will. But I've found that it is helpful in other coursework. Take computer science, for example—no scientist, or even entrepreneur in the field of computing, has ever gotten anywhere without creative thinking.

Some of the historical figures I respect the most are the scientists from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, especially Isaac Newton. At the time, the field of science was relatively new; it was, in fact, referred to not as science, but as "natural philosophy", with men like Newton being known as "natural philosophers". As the name suggests, these researchers were not purely scientists—their study had a grounding in philosophy as well.

Men like Newton were smart and capable not because they merely studied things around them, but because they new what questions to ask—and knew how to go about finding the answer. I've found that the biggest factor in intelligence is knowing what question to ask to find an answer. It is through such divining that one truly learns and develops an understanding; thus, asking questions is the key to learning.

And there is the keystone of this young opinions writer's argument: The study of philosophy aids greatly in teaching one what questions need to be asked.

So what are your thoughts? Is philosophy an integral part of any student's study, or is it an unnecessary, even pointless, distraction to things that really matter?

[*tweeak*]

So what are your thoughts? Is philosophy an integral part of any student's study, or is it an unnecessary, even pointless, distraction to things that really matter?

What exactly "really matters"? I personally find math too be a useless asset of my studies, and yet I'm required to take that, even though I think philosophy would be gernarally a good deal more beneficial. Philosophical principles can actually be applied to many aspects of life and give you new perspective, whereas more analytical subjects have little value if you don't intend to spend your life working complex equations. If the goal is to, for lack of better phrasing, think better, then then philosophy should really be considered far more meaningful, as it enhances knowledge as well as critical thinking, which is a skill far too many people lack.

[*mipadi*]

What exactly "really matters"? I personally find math too be a useless asset of my studies, and yet I'm required to take that, even though I think philosophy would be gernarally a good deal more beneficial. Philosophical principles can actually be applied to many aspects of life and give you new perspective, whereas more analytical subjects have little value if you don't intend to spend your life working complex equations. If the goal is to, for lack of better phrasing, think better, then then philosophy should really be considered far more meaningful, as it enhances knowledge as well as critical thinking, which is a skill far too many people lack.

You make an excellent point, although it should be noted that the goal of my post was not to suggest that the study of mathematics and sciences, and philosophy, is mutually exclusive; rather that, if combined, both can be very useful. If we're talking about the more practical of the two areas, I'd actually argue that mathematics and sciences have done much more to advance humanity than philosophy; but, of course, philosophy has done much to advance our thinking. The key here is that philosophy encourages its students to question why, a concept that is useful and applicable to any field of study. Take calculus for example: For a true understanding of many applications of calculus, it is not enough to know that e is roughly equal to 2.718 and that is is often used in calculus; rather, it is important to know why it behaves the way it does, and thus why it is important. Philosophy, then, is quite helpful in all fields because it encourages students to ask why, and not merely accept information thrown at them--and that is important to truly understand any concept.