Doing a course as opposed to reading books?

Freiheit

Is there any advantage in doing a Philosophy course with the Open University or Oscail (the Irish equivilant) as opposed to just reading some books? I just fancy some stimulation.

Can anyone recommend books?

Danke

F

18AD

I'd highly recommend doing a course of some sort. It'll make you focus on sustained arguments and themes.

If you're just reading you tend to stay in your comfort zone of personal understanding and pick up on what is important for yourself. Which is grand, but only goes so far.

There's a sticky thread there with book recommends.

Freiheit

Thanks,my own concern with some of the Intro courses,usually modules of an eventual B.A. is that they are very general,maybe too broad for any in depth learning? any courses you could recommend?

18AD

To be honest you get the same problem all the way through. I've done a B.A. and nearly finished an M.A. I still had some vague classes at masters level. I'd highly recommend it! Not sure about part-time courses or online stuff (except free lectures etc...)

What I find is if a course is designed to overview an entire field of philosophy it's going to be vague. If the course is on one particular philosopher or one specific text it's going to be more in depth.

Black Swan

You might start by browsing Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, especially the "What's New" page for links to current topics. See if anything catches your interest, then follow-up by reading the journal articles and books referenced. It's a place to start, without committing to a generic online programme.

Once you have discovered a specific philosophy interest, you may wish to search the web for online university classes that address your specific interest; i.e., cherry pick from various university programmes that follow and elaborate upon that specific interest.

When you do find a topic of interest, you are welcome to bring it here to discuss it.

Histie

There is quite a lot of variance in third-level philosophy courses, Philosophy being the neglected subject it is. As a way of sort of compromising, you might actually find some reading lists and course outlines on university websites to direct you in private study; for example, here's a link to Cambridge's website: http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/u_grads/u_grads_intro.html. Another good way to find reading lists is simply to utilise the bibliographies of books which cover topics of your interest.

I don't know your personal circumstances, but if you are a very self-disciplined person and do not intend to enter academic philosophy, you would in many respects be as well to study the subject in your own time, because even in College most of the work is private reading. An area particularly suited to private study is formal logic, because most FL textbooks have exercises with answers at the back, enabling you to test yourself and see how you improve.

The Circular Journey

Whether you decide to go down either route, do take notice of the Social Science Research Network (ssrn.com). There is an abundance of intellectually stimulating literature uploaded onto that site, and it is the joint project of a number of leading universities.
Certainly back when we were studying philosophy at university (and that wasnt a terribly long time ago) our main lecturer suggested that if we only paid any attention to the information on that site, there would be enough to carry us beyond post-doctorate level.
Hope it will be of some use to you, OP.

Regards
TCJ

CillianL

You can get much more wisdom out of reading good books and experience of life than doing a philosophy course. Wittgenstein, loved detective novels, and claimed there was more philosophy in them than academic journals.

I'd recommend The Republic and the Symposium by Plato, get an older translation if you can they're a joy to read, whereas Aristotle is as dull as they come.

Avoid metaphysics, its a waste of time, most good philosophy concerns ethics, logic and life itself rather than bottomless arguments you get in Idealism for example.

countrynosebag

good site here - plenty of very useful information
thank you

Freiheit

Am considering a last minute enrolement with Oscail for Philiosophy 1. To be honest miss not having a project,a purpose to my reading. Does anyone know anything about it?.

Cannibal Ox

I know Open Uni have a good department, no idea about Oscail. If you live in Dublin UCD and Trinity both offer (mainly evening) short courses that (used to, haven't checked in a while though) cover philosophy, which could be an option. If you don't, but there's a university near you, it might be worth seeing what they offer. Frederick Copleston's series of books is also, for my money, the best introduction to philosophy you can get, but you'll need to invest time and effort into them.

In general, I think it's best to get an overview of philosophy, ideally through a course, and then pursue what interests you through books, novels, films, music, art, etc, etc. From what I know of them, Open Uni seem a good place to start.

Freiheit

Hi the Open University are no longer accepting admissions for this academic year,even though the courses themselves haven't started. In any event the E2500 for an introductory course is more than I'd commit. No I'm in the Limerick region. Oscail isn't a great college,was with them before for Psychology,but it can be done from home so I might go for it,depends on whether I'd be forced to do the ridiculous study plans for introductory modules.

the culture of deference

I am reading Socrates to Sartre and Beyond as my intro to the subject.

Would like to hear what comments you Phil students have on it.

For those interested in taking an online course to get a taste for philosophy, I would recommend Coursera, which is a free resource.

Starting on January 28th, The University of Edinburgh will be offering Introduction to Philosophy, which is a 7 week course; not exactly philosophy, but interesting nonetheless, is the 13 week course offered by Wesleyan University, titled The Modern and the Postmodern, which begins on February 4th; Know Thyself, a 10 week course beginning on March 4th, is offered by The University of Virginia; finally, and, again, not exactly philosophy, but still relevant, is the 7 week course offered by Wesleyan University, beginning on March 18th, studying The Ancient Greeks. Of the previously listed, I'll be taking the The Modern and the Postmodern course myself.

If the above interests you, I would recommend that you keep an eye on Coursera's course listing, as new courses are added regularly — and added with about 6 months of notice, giving you plenty of time to decide whether to take part. Similar to Coursera is edX, their courses being visible here; no courses related to philosophy are offered as of yet, but I would recommend you keep an eye on their listing throughout the coming months.

Cannibal Ox

To add to the above, in iTunes University, Berkeley has introductions and more advanced courses to philosophy by John Searle and Hubert Dreyfus, who are pretty hard to beat as guides. There's also lots of other courses on iTunes university.

countrynosebag

I had heard there were some courses to join in with but i did not know where.
thanks to you and others who have provided this information - lovely.
small worry, can one participate and learn without exams and essays - not up to it just now.
and....do they cost on youtube or are they free?