Ask a philosophy teacher anything

Ask a philosophy teacher anything.

Is morality human nature or a construct we created?

Live in the US?

First, I'm not a philosopher. Just a teacher. I can't say that I know the answer, but I know a bunch of good answers by a bunch of good philosophers. In my opinion, I don't see why morality can't be both. Dialectic is not just a word.

Nope. I'd love to see the centre of the Empire before I die, though.

Oh I see I'm going to have to take philosophy in college soon (because core subjects )what books should I start reading to get a head?

I assume you still come from western culture. How much have you studied African spirituality?

Meditations by rene descartes you will prpbably hear about him alot during your philosophy study.

Nope I live in an Asian country and never talked African spirituality

Who's the worst student you had to deal with?

Thanks a lot!!

Are you suggesting OP has had students who went on to become famous professional philosophers whose names you might recognize?

What is your opinion on the current state of Marvel Comics

>those who can not do teach

I don't know the mandatory readings in your country. I'd say: why not read Plato's Phedo, or Phaedrus, or Symposium; why not the Discourse on the Method by Descartes; why not take a look upon Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, or his Lecture on Ethics and Aesthethics; or read some of Augustine's Confessions. That should be way enough.

You assume right. I've studied none of it. I it counts for something, I was willing to read the epic of Sundiata this summer.

Lol no, just want to know if he's ever had a student that he didnt like.

how often do you apologize for being white

Favorite Philosopher?

What's your opinion on objectivism? Pertaining to morality?

A girl who decided to lie down during an exam, just to chill out, because why the fuck not. Nothing serious, really.

I have the opinion that I don't read Marvel Comics at all.

Yes and no. It depends what you mean by that.

Why?

Never. I don't have to, thank god.

A bunch. Recently, I've been reading a lot of Plato and Wittgenstein.

I thought it was cool when I was in high school. Then I stopped reading silly books.

Why?

i asked first

>Then I stopped reading silly books
What do you mean by that, exactly? To clarify, I'm not a follower of objectivism, just curious on your opinion.

Do you think there is an inherent personality in human beings, or are we simply products of our own experiences?

I'm slamming on you for not having any original insight so you pass on the words of people who have come and gone that actually did

>'
you're missing out

Well, it's poorly written and poorly thought. Reading Aristotle is much nicer: he explains most of the same things that the objectivists explain, he explains much more, and his is a better writer.

Are your parents disappointed?

Whitehead said
>The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.

Thoughts?

is probability more than a concept?

Do we have free will?

What is philosophys opinion on zoophile and sex with animals?

I wouldn't call it inherent personality, but I don't see why it should not be molded by our own experiences, as much as what you call our "personality" defines our experience. Have you read Dewey? I'm not a big fan, but he has a nice reputation in the US. And he talks about those things.

what does he mean? that ayn rand is a cunt who was just trying to develop a complex explanation for her desire to be selfish and greedy. ffs user, are you even trying?

Discourse on the method focuses more on the method itself as the name would imply. Meditations on the other hand have a much more versitile view on the cartesian philosophy. in Meditations you get to know about the method and the metaphysics side of the cartesian thaught.

Philosophy teacher...

So you got a philosophy undergrad from a state school and now you teach idiotic public school kids about Kant while pretending to be deep?

Hedonism or Die.

Surely our genetics influence our innitial brain structure, i believe that innitial structure would have an impact on how the brain develops through life

Nope.

He's right. Plus, Plato is a funny writer. But that doesn't mean every other philosopher than Plato is less a philosopher than Plato was.

I guess so, but again, my opinion doesn't count much.

Philosophy isn't a person who has an opinion. And I don't know any philosopher interested in that kind of stuff. Maybe some talked about it, but I doubt it.

Why do you worship the writings of gay pedophiles like Socrates?

Do you consider many buddist teachings to be a philosophy more than a religion?

Disprove solipsism

I fully agree with you. I just think most young men on the internet would be bored by its length.

Not exactly that, but kind of like that, actually.

>I guess so, but again, my opinion doesn't much.

Based on what? Just the feeling of being free?

Also, thoughts on antinatalism? Is suffering something to escape or avoid, or Is it a benifit?

Because it is very witty.

I don't know anything about bouddhism.

I won't. Have you read Berkeley? It's hilarious.

The feeling, of course. And many other reasons, but they are irrelevant. I don't pretend to have like cool answers and definitive replies.

What is antinatalism? Never heard of it.

I wanted him to elaborate one what books he was referring to. It's fine though, I guess I got my answer, either way

If my distance from an object can be calculated with the formula 6d, what would my acceleration be when d = 9? Assume perpetual motion for all unstated values.

one.

there is only one book.

by one author.

everything else is just a lame attempt at an apology.

jesus. fucking. christ.

...

I have not, I will look into him tho. Thanks!

Antinatalism is an idea popularized by heidegger, which claims that having children is a fundementally bad thing to do because it inflicts suffering on that person. To live is to suffer and eventually die, and that can be avoided by not bringing people into this world.

You are welcome.

Okay then

What a sad life must Heiddeger have lived. What a sad life must live someone convinced of that.

Fuck off faggot, you dont have to like all the content on this website.
Go to fucking reddit or some shit where its more catered to your interests

that's what Sup Forums was supposed to be for, until you faggots started to turn it into tinder.

I'm the one who posted the cancer pic. Bottom user is right. You fucking fags ruined /b with your attention whoring bullshit. No gives a fuck what you think or do, philosophy faggot. Go put your useless degree to use somewhere the fuck else.

Not the user who posted the pic, but grow up. Sup Forums is a wasteland now, and it's thanks to shitheads like you who reward faggots like OP with attention.

You didnt appose any of the reasons for the belief, you just said
>oh how sad
But its not really. This world is full of people that throw new people out into the world because it makes them feel good, and gives them a false sense of immortality through offspring. Its not love, its selfishly grasping at biological chemical rewards.

>breeder identified

What are your thoughts on the Myth of Er? It's one of my favorites by Plato because I strangely relate to it within dreams I've had.

But it actually doesn't fall in any of those categories. Try harder, nigger.

Are you fucking retarded? It SPECIFICALLY says "Ask a ____ anything." You blind double-nigger.

Why is your head attached like that in your pic OP? Doesn't look natural.

I find it very generous and very beautiful. To each his life and his virtues.

Where'd you study?

I'm currently doing a philosophy graduate degree at Oxford right now. I do mostly moral stuff.

I've got a big neck.

Fuck you. Philosophy degrees are god damned useless and only a weepy, romantic moron would major in it. Enjoy homelessness, faggot.

I'm not a student. I teach in high school.

When do you know you have failed with a student? Like, "is this going to be in the test" or can you find out even before that point?

I'm not sure I understand your question. Can I find out what exactly?

when a student has absolutely no interest in the subject or worse absolutely lacks any sensibility for anything that isn't related to food

Good degree, OP, you moron. How can you know you have an unreceptive student who won't benefit/learn. That was clearly defined in his post. Guess English wasn't a required credit, huh? Fuck you AMA Faggot.

Oh, you see it after a couple of weeks, actually.
No, English is not my native tongue, although I think I understand it well, most of the times. Why the periphrases? If you meant "how do you know if a student is a bad student", it would have been a lot easier.

Look. I'm sure you're an alright guy and all. But you're fucking cancer. Please go.

Dude, don't be a newfag. Go fuck somewhere else.

...

I know, but I assume you did study philosophy somewhere in order to be qualified to teach it. Don't teachers have to have degrees where you're from?

This is a common misconception.

Median mid-career salary for philosophy majors is 81k. Thats not amazing, but it's quite far from homelessness. And remember these aren't people who are going to Grad school or law school afterwards, these are just people with an undergrad degree.

For reference, that is more than Chem, Marketing, Geology, Accounting, IT, Management, Nursing, etc.

This is a common misconception. See, you've fallen into the trap of thinking I give a fuck. All the important philosophical ideas like Materialism have already been thought of. Phosophy now is just a bunch of faggots coming up with new metaphors to appear deep. It's fucking useless.

BPhil bro?

>browsing Sup Forums on eduroam

Oh, in Paris, at the Sorbonne, then in Dijon.

This is kind of a good bait, actually.

is there a way to morally justify the torture that the animals undergo in the meat, milk and egg industries

Yeah. They taste better when they're scared, homo.

personal preferences aren't moral justifications

Morality is subjective, so literally, yes it is. I may think the best think you can do is rape a dead baby corpse. You can't say whether that's OBJECTIVELY moral or not, because all morality is subjective. The Omnicronians from Futurama illustrate this nicely. Also, fuck you. That's a nice thing to say in my ethical code. You're welcome.

How can you say you are not a philosopher and be a teacher of it.... You still study human thought, and think about things on your own do you not? you may not be a published philosopher but you are one nonetheless.

Do you believe Wittgenstein truly 'solved' modern philosophy, and that modern philosophy is just a bunch of word problems?

if morality is subjective than it can be stretched as far as anyone would like and the only thing that dictates what is moral or not is our needs and the environment. so if we need to make money and animal are easy to exploit and there is no punishment implemented by society for doing so than it's moral according to us. what I am getting at is that if morality is so flexible than the only thing that drives a normal human being is his primal instincts like the need to survive and reproduce which means that morality when boiled down to its core is our most basic needs and instincts which means that the moral code of a normal person is human nature

Pretty much. One correction. Multiple humans get together to form societies,like. Those societies as a whole establish the rules, not necessarily our instincts .

That can be Viewed as a take on bhuddism; to live is to suffer, to give life is to give suffering

Russel or neiche, who do you think would win a war of wits (and what would you use as evidence)

Any favorite absurdist analogies you can recall/philosophers that were good humored?

Plato's Republic is a pretty solid book.

In Plato's Republic, there was a chapter in which Socrates was arguing that the soul is tripartite. He took as a hypothesis that a thing which undergoes opposites within itself comprises one or more distinct parts. However, I find this contentious. Take, for example, a magnet. It clearly undergoes opposites within itself, for one side of the magnet may repel a piece of iron while the other side attracts. Thus we refer to the magnet's north and south pole. Yet, while some physicists do theorize their existence, a magnetic monopole has yet to be exhibited. It is conceivable that the "poles" of the magnetic are Inextricably linked and referring to them as distinct parts is merely a linguistic trick. What do you think of my counter argument?

How does it feel to teach a subject that has absoloutely zero merit to human progress?

How many hours per week and how much money?

Urban or rural?

> implying neither john locke nor karl marx impacted western civilization

With tinder you might get laid. Sup Forums at present is a more porny version of tumbler. At least this thread stretches past the moe banal subjects.

Studying philosophy as an academic subject does not entail a future career, unless as a philosophy lecturer.

And yes, John Locke made a huge impact on human progress, and no Karl Marx was not a philosopher.

Always find it amusing when someone knocks philosophy as being useles at whole when typing from a computer.