On the Value of Philosophy
When I was in high school, one of my classmates, in his monotone voice, used to cite all kinds of Marxist philosophers. At the time, this one school of political philosophy with a particular Chinese touch did not catch my interest and I shut the door to the whole of philosophy.
When I entered college, I told myself I would take a philosophy class right before I graduate. In everyone’s eyes, it’s the perfect liberal art subject, but I did not want to nor did I have the courage to take it sooner. The reasoning being first, it is a “useless” subject for job and internship; second, it seems too much work for my average-quality brain (not a chill fifth or sixth subject to take); third, my reading and writing sucked even more back then. It did not seem like a subject I would excel in.
Oxford, to my surprise, revived my interest in philosophy sooner than I anticipated. During study-abroad, I attempted a philosophy class. I remember asking my tutor what the point of learning philosophy was and he proceeded to go into a long spiel. I only remembered something about “critical thinking” but that’s too wishy-washy of a reason back then. The class was sort of average and I could not care about “philosophy of logic and language” any less. Just when I was about to abandon philosophy once and for all, I started meeting some philosophy students, philosophy fanatics in my opinion, and got invited to a small weekly philosophy lunch. Most of the time I was just sitting there like an idiot. But I enjoyed hanging out with people who are smarter than me, so I kept going. It was funny to me back then how they were so eager to explain some creepy thought experiments to me whenever I asked. These people are totally in love with the subject.
As my familiarity with the subject grew, I signed up for three philosophy classes in my senior year. I graduated college having taken eight philosophy classes. I started begging people to talk philosophy with me and basically lived outside professors’ offices. I became one of those fanatics. If there is one regret in college, it’s that I didn’t major in philosophy. I know I wouldn’t have because the idea of studying philosophy always raised eyebrows among Chinese parents. The value of a subject is measured through its utility. In their eyes, philosophy is a useless subject. It doesn’t get you jobs and internships. It’s also a stereotypical “white people” subject, not a subject Chinese students can excel at. “Critical thinking” was not part of the curriculum we were brought up with. Lastly, there is a general sentiment that philosophy is boring and (ridiculous enough) that girls shouldn’t study philosophy because outsmarting everyone doesn’t make you marriage material. I wish I wasn’t so brain-washed by this nonsense! Even if some of it is true, we shouldn’t perpetuate stereotypes, but change them. I hope this post can demystify philosophy and make more people be open to this life-changing subject. Here are four reasons why philosophy is worth everyone’s time and it would be a shame to graduate without exploring it.
1. Learn to Read and Write.
One of the goals of college is to make students adequate readers and writers. Philosophy is one of the best subjects that help achieve this goal. I used to believe that because I wasn’t good at reading and writing, I wasn’t going to take classes that require those skills. I didn’t understand that one wasn’t born to be good at reading and writing! I will never be good at them if I didn’t give myself the fair chance to practice. During a talk my club hosted, an alumna said she majored in English precisely because she was bad at it. She was getting “C”s and one of her English professors even asked her to change major. Nevertheless, she persisted, and told us that learning how to write was one of the greatest treasures she gathered from college. To learn, we need the attitude for learning, which requires being humble and admitting what we do not know.
Philosophy classes challenge students to become strong readers and writers. From reading 20–50 pages per week for introductory classes to 200–300 pages for advanced, you would be hard pressed to find someone who not a good reader after a few classes. Philosophy texts are notoriously hard to read, which teaches students to slow down and read over and over again to savor the deeper meaning.
Writing philosophy essays shape one into a clear and logical writer. Philosophical writing is extremely logical, almost like a mathematical proof or lines of code. Words are just a way to express logic. The writing should be so precise that even a single unnecessary sentence is unacceptable. Such brevity and precision are exemplified in the introductory paragraph where one is only allowed to state one’s position and how one is going to support it throughout the essay. I did not realize how important writing clearly is until I started interning as a product manager. 80% of my role is to convince others of the right plan forward. What other skills are more helpful than being able to convey ideas powerfully?
2. The Epiphany of Critical Thinking
Liberal arts colleges brand themselves as the place where students learn to critically think, but classes aren’t equally successful at achieving this goal. Some classes are more informational while others are more evaluative. The evaluative ones are the best at training critical thinkers. After taking classes from pretty much all disciplines, philosophy stands out as the epiphany of critical thinking.
So what is critical thinking? The underlying idea of critical thinking is to question everything one sees and hears instead of taking things at face value. To arrive at the right conclusion, one needs to seek evidence from the opposing sides and fairly evaluate the strength of all sides. This practice is what makes Western education so attractive. The origin of such an attitude is the philosophical school of Skepticism. What skeptics do is refuting everything other people have said. They show that when there is a strong argument, there is always a counter-argument equally as strong. Therefore, one should suspend judgment and keep seeking evidence. This ability to think critically is especially important in the age where Google makes information readily available. Searching “Is being a vegetarian good for you?” and “Is being a vegetarian bad or you?” gives the same number of search results. What Google cannot help you do is make a rational decision for you. If one does not evaluate but simply accept every information presented, one can be convinced of anything, even that the earth is flat!
What philosophy teaches is precisely the ability to dig deeper into things. We lay out the argument in class and attack the underlying logic and each and every premise. When we propose an argument, we need to anticipate every possible objection and how to reply to them. This is the secret weapon to never losing one’s livelihood in the era of artificial intelligence. No other subject enables this power better than philosophy.
3. Revive Curiosity
When I entered college, I was not very curious. Learning had always been a task and I learn because I have to graduate. I remembered following the adults asking a million “whys” when I was young, but also remembered that I barely questioned “why” since middle school. Sadly, people who don’t ask “why”s cannot enjoy learning.
What philosophy does is asking the “why” questions. It asks really big and fundamental questions. Among those, there are: Does God exist?; Do/Can we know anything at all?; What’s the meaning of life? To seek answers to these questions, one needs to keep asking “why” until the first principles. I also see numerous subjects coming together in philosophy. For example, the philosophy of mind combined knowledge from psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and even physics. All these subjects didn’t exist back in Ancient Greece, only philosophers asking really big questions. These subjects gradually branched out from philosophy. Being able to ask the “why”s and see different disciplines of knowledge coming together help revive one’s curiosity.
4. Contemplate Life’s Biggest Questions
Socrates famously said, “An unexamined life is not worth living”. To live a good life, one has to constantly examine the choices one is making. In other words, one has to have clarity in life. It’s interesting that people who are going through mid-life crisis or existential crisis in college turn to philosophy (or religion). It’s because these disciplines aim to answer the most existential questions: Who am I? Why am I alive? Does my life have any meaning? What’s after death? What makes life worth living? What is a good life?
These are the questions philosophers contemplate since the beginning of time. However, we don’t study philosophy to get answers, we study philosophy to learn the tools to seek answers ourselves. The ultimate thing we wish for ourselves and our parents wish for us is always: a good life. Start to contemplate what that might mean to one at a young age help one arrive at an answer sooner.
I hope I have succeeded in persuading you to try out a philosophy class. Introductory classes on moral philosophy, epistemology or metaphysics are all good choices. Don’t take logic as a first class (like I did); you won’t get a taste of what philosophical inquiries are. There are so many subjects within philosophy and it’s crucial that one starts with what is interesting to them personally. For those who are not in university, I recommend listening to “Philosophize This” podcast by Stephen West from the first episode or “Death” (Yale Opencourse) by Shelly Keagan. “Sophie’s World” is good for interest building. “The Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell and “Think” by Simon Blackburn can make good introductory texts.
Happy thinking!
论哲学的价值
在我上高中时，一个同学常常引用各种马克思主义哲学。当时，这一个具有中国特色的政治哲学学派并没有引起我的兴趣，我因而以偏概全地关上了整个哲学的大门。
当我进入大学时，我告诉自己在毕业之前一定要上一个哲学课。这是每个人眼中完美的文理学院课程。但我不想也没有勇气早点上它。理由是第一，这是一个对于找工作和实习“没用”的课程; 第二，对于我的质量一般的大脑来说，这门课似乎太难了（不是一个可以随随便便加的第五或第六门课）; 第三，我的阅读和写作比现在还差更多。哲学不可能是我擅长的学科。
在牛津的学习出乎意料地改变了我的计划，神奇地恢复了我对哲学的兴趣。在交换期间，我尝试了一节哲学课。我记得问我的导师为什么要学习哲学，他很高兴地说了很久。我只记得他说了关于“培养批判性思维”的东西，但对我那时的我这话太空了。课一般般，我当时上的“逻辑和语言哲学”干的要死。在我准备彻底放弃哲学时，我开始认识一帮牛津的哲学学生，并被邀请参加一个每周见面的哲学午餐。除了性别相同之外，这帮人还有一个共同点，就是他们都是哲学狂热分子。大多数的时候我只是像个白痴一样坐在那里什么都听不懂。但我喜欢和比我聪明的人在一起，所以我每周都去打酱油。对我来说很有意思的是，当我问他们问题时，他们总是特别高兴地给我讲解那些令人毛骨悚然的思想实验。这些人是完全狂热地爱着哲学。
随着我对这个科目熟悉程度的提高，我在大四的时候一股气报了三门哲学课。我毕业的时候上完了八节哲学课。我开始央求朋友们跟我聊哲学，并且基本上住在了哲学教授办公室门外。我成了狂热分子之一。如果说在大学里有一个遗憾，那就是我没有主修哲学。回首，我知道我不可能主修哲学，因为学习哲学的想法总是会让中国父母的皱眉头。他们是通过一门学科有没有用来衡量它的价值。在他们看来，哲学是一个没用的学科。它不会帮你找到工作和实习机会。这也是一个潜意识里的的“白人”学科，不是中国学生能擅长的学科。 “批判性思维”从不是我们受过的教育教过我们的。最后，有一种普遍的观点认为，哲学很无聊，而且（很荒谬的是）女孩不应该学习哲学，因为如果比别人都聪明该没人娶了。多么荒谬可笑！ 即使其中一些是真的，我们也不应该加深这些印象，而应该尝试改变它们。我希望这篇文章可以帮大家揭开哲学的神秘面纱，让更多的人对这个能够改变人生的学科持开放态度。以下我来谈为什么学哲学的四个原因：
1.学会阅读和写作。
上大学的一个实际目标就是让学生有很强的阅读和写作能力。哲学是帮助实现这一目标最好的科目了。我曾经错误地认为因为我不擅长阅读和写作，所以我不上需要阅读和写作的课。我竟然没意识到没有一个人天生就擅长阅读和写作！如果我不给自己充足的练习机会，我永远也不会擅长他们。在我的社团组织的一次活动中，一位校友说她之所以主修英语文学完全就是因为她文学能力很差。她总是得“C”，还被她的一位教授劝导转专业。她最后坚持下来了，并告诉我们良好的写作能力是她从大学得到的最大的财富。要学习，我们就要有学习的态度，这需要我们谦虚并承认我们不知道的事情太多了。
哲学课程不断的挑战学生，帮助他们成为优秀的的读者和作家。从入门课程每周阅读20–50页到高级课程读200–300页，在完几门哲学课程之后，没有一个人不是好读者。众所周知，哲学文本晦涩难懂，它教导学生放慢速度，一遍又一遍地阅读，并且深刻地领悟其义。
写哲学论文使一个人成为一个调理清晰并合乎逻辑的作家。哲学写作需极其合乎逻辑，几乎就像数学证明或计算机代码。词藻只是用来表达逻辑的。写作应该如此精确，以至于不允许任何不必要的句子。从开篇第一段就能看出这种简洁性和精确性，其中只允许陈述一个人的立场以及文章构架。在我开始作产品经理实习之前，我没有意识到写作的重要性。现在认识到我80％的职责是说服其他人正确的计划是什么。还有什么能力比能够有力地传达自己的想法对工作更有帮助？
2.批判性思维的制高点
文科学院将自己塑造为教学生如何批判性思考的地方，但不同的课程在实现这一目标有不同的效果。有些课程更具信息性，而有些课程则更具评价性。更具评价性的课是培养批判性思考者的最佳选择。我几乎什么领域的课都尝试过，最后觉得哲学课是培养批判性思维最至高的课程。
那么什么是“批判性思维”？最基本的解释是质疑所看到和听到的一切，而不是把事情视为理所当然。为了得出正确的结论，我们需要特别寻求反证并公平地评估正反双方的论点。正是这种思维方式使西方教育如此先进。其实，这种思维方式的起源是一个叫“怀疑主义”的哲学流派。怀疑主义者所做的就是反驳其他人所说的一切。他们表明，当有一个强有力的支撑论点的证据时，总会有一个同样强有力的反驳论点的证据。因此，我们应该暂停评判并继续寻求证据。在谷歌能提供一切信息的时代，这种批判性思考的能力尤为重要。在谷歌搜索“吃素食对你有好处”和“吃素食对你有害”会有相同数量的搜索结果。 谷歌无法帮助我们做的是评估这些信息并帮我们做出合理的决定。如果一个人没有评估能力，只是简单地接受呈现的每一个信息，结果就是她会轻易相信任何东西，比如说地球是扁平的。
哲学教授我们的正是这种批判性评价的能力。我们在课堂上列出论证并攻击每一个论据和底层逻辑。当我们提出一个论点时，我们需要提前考虑所有可能的异议以及如何反驳它们。批判性思维是在人工智能时代永不失去生计的秘密武器。没有任何其他的学科教授这种能力比哲学更好。
3.重拾好奇心
当我步入大学的时候，已经不好奇了。学习对我而言一直是一项任务，我学习是为了毕业。小孩子都会有一套“十万个为什么”，这是因为好奇心是人的本性，尤其在童年时期体现出来。然而从初中开始，我几乎没有问过“为什么”，因为我的好奇心被应试教育扼杀了。不问“为什么”的人是不可能享受学习本身的。
哲学就是一个问“为什么”的学科。它问那些很大很基本的问题。比如说：上帝存在吗？我们有可以认知事物吗？生命的意义是什么？为了寻求这些问题的答案，人们需要在不断询问“为什么”直到第一原则。我也看到哲学是使许多科目融合到了一起。例如，心理哲学结合了心理学，神经科学，计算机科学甚至物理学的知识。其实哲学学科在古希腊都不存在，那时只有一帮哲学家仰望星空并提出一些深奥的问题。慢慢的这些学科就从哲学问题中分离出来独自发展。能够问“为什么”并且看到不同的知识学科聚集在一起的效应有助于帮我们重拾好奇心，进而爱上学习求真知。
4.深思人生中虽重要的命题
一句苏格拉底的名言是：“未经检查反思的人生不值得活。” 为了过上幸福的人生，我们必须不断考量自己的一言一行。换句话说，人必须要活的明白。有趣的是，我注意到好多人都是在大学中面对存亡危机或中年人遇到中年危机时开始接触哲学（或宗教）。这是因为这些学科旨在回答我们存亡最根本的问题：我是谁？我为什么活着？我的生活有什么意义吗？死后会怎么样？是什么让生活变得有价值？什么是幸福？
这些是哲学家从史前就一直思考的问题。但是，我们学习哲学不是来获得答案的，而是学会能帮自己找到答案的方法。我们和父母对自己的最终愿望都是一样的，永远是：幸福的度过一生。如果一个人从青年时期就能开始思考这个问题，她会尽早找到答案的。
我希望通过这篇文章我能成功地说服你尝试上一节哲学课。 如果你还在上学，修道德哲学，认识论或形而上学的入门课程都是不错的选择。 不要像我那样一下就上逻辑学，因为它不会让你体会到哲学课究竟是怎么样。 哲学中有如此多的课题，最重要的是要找到自己感兴趣的。 对于那些很遗憾已经离开大学的人，我建议听从第一集开始听Stephen West的“Philosophize This”音频或耶鲁公开课Shelly Keagan讲的“死亡”课程。 “索菲的世界”有利于培养兴趣。 Bertrand Russell的“哲学问题”和西蒙布莱克本的“思考”这两本书可以作为很好的入门文本。
祝思考快乐！
