I have two degrees in philosophy. I quit my PhD with an MA after I realized academic life wasn’t for me.
When people find this out about me… they rarely react positivity anymore. Most are confused, some look upset, others get defensive or crack cliche jokes about how I got a job with a useless degree like that or if I work at McDonalds.
It seems to have gotten way worse the past few years. In my late 20s/early 30s people seemed to react a lot more positively to this fact about my life? People would ask me about it and why I did it and what I studied specifically. I really liked those conversations.
I feel naive as to why philosophy is so controversial for the average person, anymore than English or History is? I really enjoyed my studies and still do them as a hobby now.
you don’t have to teach a particular set of ethics. you teach a framework of analysis and then analyze some systems. you’re still mixing morality with ethics, which is fair, they’re related. basically i’m advocating to teach kids to question every authority with a critical lens. but this hasn’t anything to do with religion, norms, or adopting a pre-existing system, but about teaching how to analyze systems
That is fair. And a sensible part of a school age curriculum (already included in my country, that’s included in philosophy mandatory courses). But I don’t see it having a extension to be included “everywhere”, once taught in school is taught. I won’t see a point continuing that formation in universities, same as I won’t see why someone studying history should have an algebra course in university.
where i am, the united states, serious analysis of philosophy and ethics doesn’t enter your curriculum until you are in college and studying either at a liberal arts school where even the engineers have to study the humanities, or you are majoring in one of the liberal arts. so i’m a little jealous of your outlook right now 😂
that’s where our status comes from teaching history majors math: it’s their first time learning it many times even though many places algebra was covered in middle school. our primary educations don’t start until adulthood here and we’re constantly behind, and those critical thinking courses are elective with it being totally fine to drop out of highschool up to 6 years before you ever would have been expected to be exposed to it.
and as long as that’s possible in one county, it’s possible in any country. our oppressors want us stupid, so talk to a kid today about identifying how someone else is justifying what right and wrong is today!