The Philosopher Inside

"A lot of computer science majors seem to like that class..." Hell, I barely even let her finish the sentence before I decided that I was gonna enroll. Besides, had she--my advisor--not told me, chances are I still would've found it. What the heck am I talking about? Probably one of my favorite classes that is not complete bulls*beep*. And ironically enough, it just so happens to be one of the less certain branches of "science": philosophy!

To be exact, the class is called Philosophy 1204, Knowledge and Reality. Again, you may be sitting there wondering what exactly I just accomplished; what is the class about? I'd respond by simply stating, "Philosophy." Haha, man I love being vague. No, but in all seriousness, when I first walked into the large lecture room (comfortably sits 200) I really had no clue of how the class would be. It's been about five weeks or so--technically we're on the sixth, but who's keeping track?--and I'd say that I have a decent idea... even if I don't know how to get a good grade in it ^^;

The basic schedule for class breaks down like this:
1. Read a piece (as of now it's been either a story from our Science Fiction Hall of Fame book or one of Descartes Meditations)
2. Go to class and have a big discussion (I mean big, remember how the room holds 200?)
3. Take notes on anything important the teacher says (oh, there are so many interesting things!)
4. Once a week go to recitation to have a more intimate discussion (...unfortunately mine sucks. A lot.)
5. Once every month or so, write a position paper (more on those later)

It's actually quite a simple class, as you may be able to tell, that involves a very small amount of work. However, that doesn't mean that it's boring! Oh no, unlike the majority of my other classes, I am actually learning extremely interesting things in class. Not only am I a huge philosophy lover (remind me to tell you some of the thought-provoking discussions I've been pondering about) but the class teaches you how to formulate a good argument about more or less anything! No, it really does. Since it's philosophy and we're trying to convince others why we're right on a topic that is more or less incapable of being proven, you have to learn how to write and speak well. Oh, I guess your ideas have to be somewhat good also, but we all remember the old saying, "A good argument can convince a penguin to buy sun tan lotion." ... or something like that.

But yeah, you all get the point. While arguing logically is a good skill to acquire, the real fun comes from the different topics we end up talking about in class. The existence of God, what is intelligence, what is knowledge, the existence of God, plain regular existence, what defines a human, the existence of God, and--not necessarily most important, but it's up there--the existence of God.

Actually I'm just kidding, the existence of God isn't the only topic we cover. It just so happens that Descartes, in his fun meditations, likes to give proofs as to why God exists. So we discuss those pretty often, usually pointing out flaws in his theory or things that he flat-out skips over and assumes. Really, the most interesting topics and theories are brought up on the days in which we read those short stories in the "Hall of Fame." Hell, there have been times when people have brought up some of the most random things--one example being the anime Ghost in the Shell. Fun fun!

Mmmm, now, there is one thing that makes this class hard. That is the papers and how they are graded. If you give it a quick thought, how many freshmen college students have ever written a philosophy paper before? I'd say maybe a handful (a handful being equivalent to a baker's dozenth of a Brittish bushel... sad part is that the engineering class has taught me how to calculate that there).

So it comes down to one simple thing: the C+ I just got on my paper. Sure, a C+ ain't that bad, but I really would've liked a B. But, thankfully, the professor is giving us another chance at writing the papers. This is especially good since we can fully utilize the comments we recieved from the TA's in order to score slightly to significantly higher. And reading through the comments I got, I think I could pull the latter. The only down side is that I'll have to rewrite it from scratch in order to fit it all on the two page limit. Bummer.

But yeah, very fun class, just a bit difficult when it comes to the papers. Hopefully, though, by the end of the semester I will have gotten a lot better at it. We'll see, neh? I do believe that's the majority of what I wanted to say. If ever you wanna strike up a conversation just e-mail me or AIM me or something. I think one of those is on here >.>;