April 13, 2015
Exams are only weeks away. Perhaps many of you woke up earlier than usual this morning so that, after the usual chores, you could continue revising a subject that you began working on last night. I did. But as is often the case in philosophy, this very ordinary scenario raises some fascinating and remarkably difficult questions. One of them is called ‘the problem of personal identity’, which we could put, at a first pass, like this: How do you know that the ‘you’ who awoke this morning and continued revising is one and the same person as the ‘you’ who was revising and then went to sleep last night? Let’s call this the Basic Question.
I realize that this problem – or even the suggestion that it actually is a problem — may sound ridiculous to many of you. But I shall try, as Bouwsma said a philosopher must, to ‘quicken the sense of the queer’ – that is, to explain why it is in fact so wonderfully problematic. And later, I shall try to explain some of the practical implications that follow from how we ultimately answer questions like the Basic Question.
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Philosophy | Tagged: Birkbeck, Distance Learning, eric, personal identity, philosophy, University of London, USA | 
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Posted by efd12015
March 27, 2015
Questions about study habits and practices are very personal questions. They’re not personal in the impolite sense that to raise them evinces a bit of social ineptitude on the part of the enquirer. Rather, they’re personal in the sense that what ‘works’ for each of us will be determined by largely subjective or person-relative factors: What are our goals? What resources do we have access to? What sort of preparation have we undergone? What learning-strategies have we found to be most effective? What extra-academic obligations do we have? And so on.
Given that studying is so deeply personal in that latter sense, this post will only be about how I approach studying. Specifically, it will be about how I approach the study of philosophy as a University of London (UoL) student. My aim in sharing my approach to studying philosophy is threefold: first, I hope that it will provide those who may be interested in studying philosophy both with an idea of what it’s like to study it at the university level, and what it’s like to study it as a UoL student; second, I hope that others who are studying philosophy, or other essay-based humanities subjects, will glean some ideas from my approach that might help them with their studies; and third, I hope that others will share their ideas on studying with me (perhaps in the comments section of this post!) so that I might learn from them.
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13 Comments | Philosophy | Tagged: Birkbeck, Distance Learning, eric, essay writing, independent study, philosophy, study tips, subject guides, University of London, USA, VLE | Permalink
Posted by efd12015
March 16, 2015
Philosophy students love questions. Most of us were introduced to philosophy through memorable encounters with particularly riveting questions – questions that gripped us as soon as we gripped them. Is there a god? What are rights? Do we have free will? Is any action really right or wrong? Why does anything exist rather than nothing at all?
But there’s one question that most of us don’t find particularly compelling. Unfortunately, it may also be the question that we are, as philosophy students, most frequently asked:
“What can you do with a philosophy degree?”
I’m going to try to answer that question. But first, I’d like to reformulate the question in the following way:
“Why study philosophy?”
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4 Comments | Philosophy | Tagged: Birkbeck, Distance Learning, eric, independent study, philosophy, University of London, USA | Permalink
Posted by efd12015
February 16, 2015
One frustration most philosophy students share is a consequence of the gulf that exists between what the study of philosophy actually involves, and what many people who have never studied philosophy – which includes most of our family and friends and acquaintances — think it involves.
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5 Comments | Philosophy | Tagged: Birkbeck, Distance Learning, eric, independent study, philosophy, University of London, USA | Permalink
Posted by efd12015
February 11, 2015
In my previous post ‘the other side of negativity’, we touched on negativity and how to understand its true nature. Here we shed light on embracing the roots of optimism and satisfaction. Social sciences are not just useful to understand the society, but can also provide invaluable guidance on how to know ourselves and live a satisfied life.
I have always personally struggled with stoic philosophers and their ideas; they seem on first impression, very pessimistic and self-defeating. They say that hope is the root of all anxiety; but if we do not have hope, we will not do anything. It is only the anticipation of something beneficial that moves us to think and take action. How can then we shun hope and still perform?
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1 Comment | Courses directed by LSE, Philosophy, Sociology | Tagged: contentment, Danish, Distance Learning, happiness, negativity, optimism, philosophy, Sociology, University of London International Programmes | Permalink
Posted by Danish Ali
February 4, 2015
When someone studying philosophy begins a discussion with the question ‘Who am I?’ your instinctive reaction may be to look for the nearest exit. But before you take your leave, let me assure you that my aim in asking and answering that question is much more prosaic than the label ‘philosopher’ might at first lead you to believe.
My name is Eric DeJardin, and I live in the state of Rhode Island in the United States. I’ve been interested in philosophy since I was a teenager, but I didn’t begin to study it formally until I began to work towards a Bachelors degree at Harvard’s Extension School in Cambridge, MA. My classes on the history of philosophy and on logic with Hugo Bedau, Eli Hirsch and Jay Harris were among the most enjoyable and enlightening I’ve ever taken. I had planned to attain a degree from the Extension School, but after completing about half the required coursework the costs of travelling three times per week from Providence, RI to Cambridge, MA became prohibitive. So I put my formal academic goals on hold and began to look about for an affordable — but, very importantly, high quality — alternative.
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