Philosophy studies in college

[Raphael]

Hey there,

I'm a 20 years old (almost 21) young man wondering about his life and future. I am currently unemployed as I recently quit my job and return back to my parent's house.
One idea that is growing up in my mind since several months is to start new philosophies studies, however, I have both pros and cons on this:

Pros:

• I'm lost in life and have a lot of questions in my mind
• I'm interested in societies, existential, and epistemological questions
• I am a very big thinker
• I would like to meet more people "like me", I've always felt very lonely all my life as I see most people not sharing my deep thoughts
• Philosophy is essential to self-actualization and the search for truth
• I consider myself as very open-minded

Cons:

• I work better alone as an autodidact
• The over social and noisy environment at school drain my energy
• Studying in college also implies dogmas and a certain way of thinking, even in philosophy
• I'm interested in a lot of subjects and also like very practical things such as computer programming

What's your opinion on this? I'm hesitating a lot and sometimes really think that it will be better to do independent studies. However, I will not be able to stay at my parent's house all my entire life. They will probably kick me out if I just study inside philosophy and a lot of different subjects and not make any money

Edited January 22, 2018 by Raphael

[Dan Arnautu]

@Raphael I'm in my third year as a philosophy undergraduate student. I finish my bachelors this year. 

I'm really sorry to say this, but if you want answers to your questions, run from these studies like hell. Actualized.org will give all you need and will surely also point you to awesome resources. You don't NEED philosophy studies. Philosophers aren't much more open minded than your average Joe. They are still caught up in all sorts of political and ego games and are also very prone to get into paradigm locks.

You're gonna get many more answers to your questions by just contemplating and journaling them for yourself than by studying other philosophers (not that they don't have anything valuable to show you).

I can give you all that I studied till now if you want for free if you want. Please for the love of god don't waste your prime years on this. Start a business, take risks, experiment, make mistakes. Fail 100 times and wake up young as fuck at 27.

This is not the time to play it safe.

But don't take my word for it. If you really want to, sign up for philosophy studies. But I guarantee you that you won't be able to voice the radical open minded opinions that we make for ourselves here on this forum and through Leo's videos. If you will try to do that, you'll quickly be considered insane and get a lot of F's in your classes unless you play the skeptic to get through the useless papers you're gonna write and that nobody's gonna read.

Arm chair philosophers and scientists are in bed with the devil. Almost all of them aren't in it for truth and can't handle it either.

[Raphael]

Does someone else have an opinion on this?

[Staples]

Its a good environment to crystalize your own thoughts. If you want to develop your own ideas, you need to know what the status quo is so you can improve on it. The course will teach you the rigid unquestioned fundamentals, your job is to develop on them. Being in a position where you can work on philosophy 24/7 is a fantastic environment to develop your 'philosophy'.

 

If you're going to go, have a goal that you work on outside of school. You could write a book, start a youtube channel, etc. There you take what you learn, infuse it with your own thoughts and values and share it. Find out what you want out of it, not just do it because you're interested. You need to carve your own end goal.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Staples

[Faceless]

Didn't philosophy start about by the Love for truth? 

[Raphael]

14 hours ago, Staples said:

Its a good environment to crystalize your own thoughts. If you want to develop your own ideas, you need to know what the status quo is so you can improve on it. The course will teach you the rigid unquestioned fundamentals, your job is to develop on them. Being in a position where you can work on philosophy 24/7 is a fantastic environment to develop your 'philosophy'.

 

If you're going to go, have a goal that you work on outside of school. You could write a book, start a youtube channel, etc. There you take what you learn, infuse it with your own thoughts and values and share it. Find out what you want out of it, not just do it because you're interested. You need to carve your own end goal.

It's precisely because I don't have any clear goal but I'm interested in philosophy that I'm envisaging some studies

[Joseph Maynor]

I have a degree in Philosophy.  I would never have done anything differently.  Just expect to create your own career and not to get much help job wise from your degree.  If you have a love for Philosophy, you might as well take the opportunity.  I was so happy when I switched my major to Philosophy, as I was studying it on my own for a couple of years before that.  I had (and have) a passion for Philosophy.  At that time -- Philosophy was all new to me and I felt like a kid in a candy store looking at all the philosophy books at the bookstore.  I just remember seeing so many of them and thinking how I'd love to read all of them someday.  

Edited January 26, 2018 by Joseph Maynor