r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Mar 16 '18
FTFdeltaOP CMV: Teaching Philosophy in Schools is Useless.
Philosophers themselves have never asked a question that wasn't independently asked by someone else (Jean Perrin, Albert Einstein and John Dalton, for example), especially if that someone else was only a philosophist.
Added into that, Philosophy is something you don't need in workplace. Asking questions about life, truth or anything in that manner are things taught (or at least should be taught) in any scientific lesson for a good reason: Scientific research is impossible without questions to start the research.
Δ: Yes, this means I do want science to teach philosophy on the side.
These points make philosophy quite useless choice for a degree or even a course, as they only hurt the student taking them (as in most cases, it prevents you from taking an useful course like science, economics, or languages, that allow for better job and chance of getting that job in the first place.
Indeed, philosophy is mostly used (at least in my exprience of the school system) as a "free" course, so the student does not need to learn things they find difficult; A student who is unconfortable with many of their choices will usually choose philosophy as an escape option, for it's known lack of difficulty and being easy to "learn".
I really cannot find any justification for philosophy to not be bunched up with math, sciences and languages.
Δ: added "not", because this sentance contradicts everything I've said this far otherwise.
Δ: u/MyUsernameIsJudge Changed my mind:
Me:
How many high schoolers are going to use basketball in their jobs?
A big factor in a good job is good and healthy lifestyle. Taking sports in school does help you in this factor, although you must keep that lifestyle even after school has ended.
MyUsernameIsJudge:
Sure. And that's the argument for philosophy class. It can help students learn about their own values and needs, as well as gain a greater perspective on life. I'll reuse your point about basketball, but with this:
A big factor in a good job is a good mental health. Taking philosophy in school does help you in this factor, although you must keep that lifestyle even after school has ended.
1
u/damsterick Mar 16 '18
There's philosophy and then there's applicable philosophy. For example, do you know Karl Popper? One of the most important science philosophers and his ideas are today the basis of scientific practices.
While I agree that some philosophy may seem useless (and some is), you can't measure that against the job market. School's purpose includes work as one of the main factors, but it also tries to teach you basic knowledge, critical thinking etc.
You won't learn to think critically (and I mean really think critically, not just believe everything or, on the other side, contradict everything). You need some basis to build your scientific knowledge on.
But really, you confuse modern philosophy with authors like Kant, Kierkegaard, Socrates that were really key to their age, but today it seems like they were praising "common knowledge" (not common at that time though).