Is Philosophy Useful?
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Philosophy helps people answer all the "big questions": Who am I? Why am I here?  What does it mean to be a human being?  How do I live a good life?\n\nThink of it as being similar to religion, but without all the pomp and circumstance ... and threats of damnation.
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I have to dispute both previous posters' comments.  Philosophy is not often regarded as a practical degree, but there is something to be said about its practical applications.\n\nFor instance, the study of philosophy requires an intense amount of long-term, intrinsic, and/or analytical thinking.  I believe a development of these skills is something not often found with many other graduates of programs which are considerered practical.\n\nI believe most intelligent HR managers will see the potential of a candidate possessing such a degree as much as they would one with a marketing or business-related degree as a valued asset to a company.\n\nIt comes down to this:  Sell yourself to the people you're going to work for.  The older that I get; the more that I realize that most of the stereotypes associated with the work-force are absolute b.s.  What's important is to keep growing and expanding your knowledge base so that the knowledge can be applied to your profession and you can be continued to be considered an asset.  \n\nA degree is often nothing more than a standard to gauge a potential candidate's likeliness of being a worth-while investment for the company to make.  Therefore, the specialization of the degree is not as important as one may think.\n\nIf you're still not convinced, perhaps you may want to consider obtaining a double major.
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it is useful when you know how to use it wisely.\nit is a disease called 'Webaholism' when you use it more than necessary. . .
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Philosophy is nothing but common sense in a dress suit.  ~Author Unknown\n\nThe point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.  ~Bertrand Russell\n\nMy definition [of a philosopher] is of a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to earth and trying to haul him down.  ~Louisa May Alcott, in Life, Letters, and Journals, ed. E.D. Cheney, 1889\n\nTo teach how to live with uncertainty, yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy can do.  ~Bertrand Russell\n\nPhilosophy is a state of fermentation, a process without final outcome.  ~Esa Saarinen\n\nPhilosophy:  A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.  ~Ambrose Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary
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The only way to really find out is by experiment. I mean, this is the science section, not the philosophy section. Go out and fight something.
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It's not useless. You may not use all the details in your future, but the class should be teaching you how to think, and you will use that forever (hopefully). I remember feeling the same way about math in high school, and I had a hard time believing it when anyone said it was worth anything. It was. It's harder if you don't have a good personality match with your teacher, but really, it's your life so don't let someone else hold you back.\n\nYou do need biology for several reasons. Anytime you have to go to the doctor, you should have some understanding about what is going on, and biology makes you informed. You're better off when you're buying a car if you know at least something about how things work. Same thing with medicine. It's good to be informed.\n\nAlso, there is a lot of stuff that goes on in the world that people have opinions about. When something comes up like cloning, or stem cell therapies, or something to do with evolution...it might not seem like it affects you very much, but someday you might vote on things that affect these issues. And, okay, I'll admit this is a little selfish on my part. I do research, and even though what I do isn't very controversial, sometimes people don't understand what is really going on. There have been laws passed that limit the kind of science people can do, and sometimes it's because people don't understand what they are voting on. I *hope* that people care, because ultimately bad choices slow down research that can help people.\n\nAsk questions here. People will help you. Sometimes it's just a matter of seeing things in a different way and then it makes sense.
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Philosophy? Philanthropy? ???????????????
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Yes I have, several times in fact.\n\nIt's an excellent novel, both in the terms of a fiction book, and as a general introduction to the many types of Philosophy. I read it first whilst I was at college (about 16 years old), and it help my attention.\n\nI do recommend it if you are wanting a good read, or wanting to find out more about Philosophy but aren't wanting to be swamped by text books.
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Yes and no.  It's a huge genre.  Some of it is a bit of light philosophy and some of it is pure crap. Some of it has theology in it and makes that more palatable to the masses.  \n\nI think you can buy "Why bad things happen to good people," in this section.  That book has some helpful things to say.  \n\nI think you need to be a critical thinker when you read--and unfortunately if you are needing help you can't always be that.  You make good points but lets not ban any books.  Just proceed with caution.
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And I know not if you are serious, but assuming you are, and assuming you are an offspring somehow of Ludwig, then you probably know that for him, philosophy was best understood as therapy. He saw it as a crutch to lean on temporarily until clarity of wisdom and knowledge brought healing of the mind and soul that are injured by confused thinking, partly brought on by philosophy, itself.\n\nHe believed that philosphy was best used to get beyond philosophy, a sort of ladder to get to a higher plane of understanding at which point you throw the ladder away.\n\nI think that this is a narrow view of philosophy, suited to Wittgenstein's mystical temper, but in the long run not very useful for us today. Nevertheless, his view contains a profound insight that limits the pretense and arrogance of any philosphy that thinks it can figure it all out and hand over to the masses God, the Universe, and four-leaf clovers neatly bound in a box.\n\nIt might be best to ask not "What is philosophy," as if there is one thing that has always existed without change. We can't even say that about mountains (they rise and decline) why should we think there is such a thing as PHILOSOPHY that is an unchanging subject for all time?\n\nInstead you might ask, "What has philosophy been or done over the last 4000 years?" Then at least you'd be ready for lots of different answers. Most people who care about such things have a favorite thinkers who exemplifies the intellectual struggles and currents of the time and place in which they lived. Some people think of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle as the definers of philosophy (although each of those three looked at the subject differently from each other).\n\nFor those people philosophy is a speculative task which seeks to understand the nature of reality starting with certain beliefs that are drawn from mathematics and developed by the use of syllogistic logic and applied to whatever it was that they were talking about at the moment. Syllogistic logic has a form something like this: If this, then that. If A is true and B is true, then C must be true. For example, \n\n"If it is true that quadrapeds have four legs, and if it true that horses have four legs, then it MUST by true that horses are quadrapeds."\n\nDid I write that the fundamental ideas that these famous Greeks worked with came from mathematics? Well, so I did. That makes it seem like philosophy is very cut and dried, very abstract and since based on the ideas of mathematics, philosophical statements must be capable of proof. No more fruitless arguments! The reign of reason triumphs over the darkened minds of the religious, the superstitious, and those who argue from their emotions.\n\nWere it only so! In fact, beneath our great Greek philosophers (their greatness is indisputable--we still read them and draw from them to understand things today) were ideas, beliefs, and commitments that were not subject to the same tests that they would subject the arguments that their colleagues and others made. That is, their powerful tools of reasoning were built out of materials that themselves were not products of that powerful reasoning. For example, all three Greeks believed in the rationality and unity of the universe, a belief that they could not test except by saying (a little bit like Immanuel Kant would do 2000 years later) that the condition of rationality and thought itself was dependent on the universe being fundamentally rational and "unified." There could be no logic, for example, if things weren't "true" everywhere and for all time. For example, if the "laws of nature" varied by country or by period of history we couldn't make statements that say "a falling object will continue to fall in a straight line until it meets an object." If in France, for instance, falling objects suddenly reversed trajectory and went off at a ninety degree angle from the original line of
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What is important for the students to learn and why.\n\nMost schools (districts, etc.) have a published philosophy that teachers are expected to abide by. Your philosophy may not be exactly the same, but if it's too divergent, it may be hard to work there. The more you agree with the school's philosophy, the easier it will be to do things their way.
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Not sure I understand your question, but here goes:\n\nPhilosophy is a way, a means if you will, to organize your thoughts, explore new ideas, and evolve your understanding of the world and it inhabitants.\nEducation is the means of transmitting or receiving this information to/from others.\n\nThe Philosophy of education is the evolving process to be the best teacher, teach how others learn best, present the best lesson plans, etc.\nThe Education of philosophy is teaching others the works of Kant, Descartes, Hume, and others.  This allows the student to have a great starting point (standing on the shoulders of giants) to develop their own ideas and thoughts.\n\nDoes this help?
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No. Always be prepared to plant the seed of reason. It will not always find a fertile spot in the swamps of dogma, but when it does you may see the blooming of a great thinker, a scientist, a philosopher. If nothing else, you will have made it possible for someone to value humanity on its own terms.
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Philosophy has been around since the begining of time. It is a way of life. It is how you live your life day to day. It has no start, and it has no end.
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Interesting question with interesting circumstances.\n\nMy philosophy is that if you stop being curious and stop trying to learn and experinece new things, you stop growing. If you stop growing, you grow up. If you grow up, you get old. If you get old, you die.\n\nMy Grandfather had a similar philosophy and he lived well past the average lifespan for a male born in his decade. He was always active and always appeared "youthful". \n\nBut if you are asking if you need to pursue another degree, that all comes down to your goals. If it will help you get what you want, sure, go ahead.\n\nIf not, then why not look into other interests?
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I think you want philosophy.\nThat's in the arts and humanities section.\n(psst- keep it a secret, that's where all the intelligent people go!)\n\nGod Bless.
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Couldnt find anything about thier philosophy but I did find there website and they may be able to help you from there!\nhttp://www.co.humboldt.ca.us/hhs/socialservices/