As the end of my final semester at UF approaches and one of my many ambitions comes to fruition, I find myself constantly reflecting on an eventful college experience.
When I tell someone I’m graduating this year, they often respond by asking me practical questions such as whether I can recommend any “easy” courses to take or who the “easy” professors are.
It is this sort of “easy” line of questioning to which I possess no answer, as each student has his or her own study habits and preferences, tailored to a very specific type of major.
Instead, I try to lure them into the very discipline that has taught me to question and doubt everything — a habit, which I am obliged to warn you, can prove irritating during an exam.
Yes, I am talking about philosophy: that which too often evokes images of old men debating in ancient Greek garb and thinkers sitting around with their chins perched on their hands, pondering the existential questions of life.
Stereotypes aside, philosophy is far from useless.
In fact, devoting your time and energy to relentless inquiry can actually be quite practical.
In a philosophy class, a new brand of writing will be demanded of you, one that critically evaluates other people’s ideas as well as your own.
Professors will force you to think extensively about the subject at hand and help you write in a manner that is clear and succinct.
You will also read voraciously, and as a consequence, you will become familiar with a number of themes and historical figures in the interest of context.
Over the course of my undergraduate career, I’ve taken philosophy classes concerning subjects as diverse as politics, religion and morality and was lucky enough to have been introduced to thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Nietzsche, Sartre and — to save the best for last — Hume, who once said, “All sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself, and is always real, wherever a man is conscious of it. But all determinations of the understanding are not right; because they have a reference to something beyond themselves, to wit, real matter of fact; and are not always conformable to that standard.”
Whether you’re an aspiring doctor, law student, engineer, journalist or simply a lover of wisdom, the truth is that philosophy is valuable beyond measure.
It is no wonder, then, that the third most-popular class at Harvard University is a philosophy class.
Michael Puett, the professor of Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory at Harvard claims “this course will change your life,” according to The Atlantic.
Similarly, between 2001 and 2011, the number of philosophy majors at the University of California, Berkeley rose by 74 percent.
These students have realized the benefit of taking philosophy classes, as they can be applied to virtually any major.
Although I may not be the best philosopher or even label the love of wisdom as an “easy” discipline, I do recognize that critical inquiry is as rewarding as it is tedious.
So, the next time you are up late, coffee in hand, with your eyes keenly pasted to ISIS, consider a class or even a minor in philosophy.
It may change the way you live.
Richard Vieira is a UF political science senior. His column runs on Fridays. A version of this column ran on page 6 on 11/22/2013 under the headline "Not your mother’s Plato: Philosophy matters"
