I’m a 3rd year philosophy undergrad, and this is a blog where I’ll try to articulate my various frustrations with the way philosophy is taught and practiced. There are a lot.
Enjoy!
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I’m a 3rd year philosophy undergrad, and this is a blog where I’ll try to articulate my various frustrations with the way philosophy is taught and practiced. There are a lot.
Enjoy!
I love your blog. I’m a philosophy student and have been going through the exact same pile on with utilitarianism. It caught me completely off guard. I think I may have started a war in the department because of my interest in any value that utilitarianism may possess- say responsibility for consequences?! I’m thinking pragmatism will be where I find some philosophy friends! You are a bit ahead of me, anyone you have found interesting?
Thanks for the comment! I remember how frustrating it was for me initially when professors would just say, “well, utilitarianism used to be popular, but it fell out of favour because we came up with thought experiments where utilitarianism was counterintuitive.” Gah!
For recommendations, John Stuart Mill’s good (specifically his book Utilitarianism) . He usually makes good, sound, simple arguments, which is a rare talent to find.
I can’t be of much help regarding pragmatism though. I agree with the basic pragmatic stance (as I understand it) that the worth of a piece of philosophy should be evaluated in terms of how useful it can be, but I don’t know much about it beyond that. The only pragmatist I’ve done is William James, he seemed smart enough but I don’t remember him too well.
Both of them are pretty hard to read, but that’s a given for anyone born before 1900.