Philosophy in School!

[Leonard]

There would never be enough students interested. Perhaps only 1 or 2 out of 1000. It would be nice to have a club or group where students could discuss and/or learn philosophical things. Maybe they would have to broaden the subject to include more things, but I'm not really sure about that. of course where I live, nobody would be smart enough to understand it.

[Holiday20310401]

Wonder does not require a smart person.

[Theaetetus]

Well, you would be surprised how many people are interested in philosophy. If no one at your school is, there may be regulars at local coffee shops that are. All it takes is a little effort, and you can find people in any community willing to get involved in philosophical discussions.

[patriarch]

In Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao, even there is no philosophy lesson in Senior school... the education authorities only provide traditional subjects to the students and force them to getting high marks......

[Dearhtead]

Originally Posted by Holiday20310401

Does philosophy class seem ethical to you?

Of course if the teacher clearly says what is the truth.

[William]

I have been following this thread with great interest and if you will allow me to offer my comments. IMO, there is a big difference in being a student of philosophy and a philosopher. Being a philosopher is a universal compulsion in my meager opinion. It is unavoidable. I honestly think it has to do with "karma" actually. This can get really deep and I would rather not go there. You see I do believe in our eternal existence and what goes around comes around and those who want to know the truth some how caused, in the past, the problems we are experiencing today and it is the role of the he who did, to solve the problem he created. I am by no means an exception to that rule, neither are we all. It is our universal "education" process as we search for that which is indeed true, just and right and we have an eternity to finally get it right. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Nietzsche etc, etc, etc still live as is Adam, the very first among us if i am at all correct. To me it is common sense.

The ego is a power entity. Most students find a philosopher that "fits their case" and hang on for dear life and often quote those philosophers who support the foundation of their thinking which gives them solace. But that does not stop the aguments and encourages a debate and so we continue the game as we match wits with each other solving nothing.

We are all on that path to reach the truth, if only we didn't argue so much, a game the ego enjoys so very much. Knowledge is such a wonderful thing if it is complimentary with the knowledge of another allowing peaceful communication. We honestly don't know what that means. We don't do that. The ego will not permit it. It has to win. Life is not a game, IMO. It is real and we all are "players", we just differ in opinions. Some are just "smarter" than others and use that to trump the deck, until those opponents become inept and incompetent to compete and are turned away in defeat. Such is the reality we live in. You can't have a winner without a loser. You cannot have wealth without poverty, etc; such is the reality we have created. It would be nice if we were all on he same team, working together in this thing we call life to perfect it as we look forward to tomorrow with anticipation as to what it will bring. Time to reel me back in. Ha. Food for thought. Man, I can get out there. Ha.

William

[jgweed]

Even if there were enough students interested in philosophy and capable of understanding it at that age (especially considering the quality of education received in other ancillary subjects), one doubts if there would be enough teachers with the ability to teach it, and very few public schools could afford the necessary faculty to provide anything like a well-rounded philosophical curriculum.

If a skeleton is to be preferred to a living human, it might be possible and realistic, though, to provide teaching in formal and informal logic that easily fits into a single class. Formal logic supplements mathematical studies, and informal logic has practical applications useful to anyone in a democratic society.

Outside of this class, both useful and teachable, what could be taught except a very general survey of a few important philosophers, probably without allowing students access to the original writings, and with the same profit as a survey of ancient history done without requiring acquaintance with Herodotus or Thucydides. One wonders how much such a Cliff-note excursion into philosophy would benefit even a freshman in college except to be able to recognise a few names when mentioned in lectures in other humanistic disciplines.

Kant notes, in his Critique, that philosophy is not for everyone. Those who are seriously interested in philosophy, who receive from her a summons that cannot be refused, and who revere a tradition of two thousand years maintained by those who came before and consider them companions, will find their way to her on their own and as solitary thinkers.

[HexHammer]

Philosophy is a very subjective based thing, and are very vunerable to manipulation. The one with the greatest rethorical gift wins, not the one with logic. It's a demagogues paradise.