The Useless College Degree

jaymc, what did your philosophy classes cover? At my college, all of the post-Heideggerian philosophy, which the exception of Gadamer, was housed in the English department. In philosophy we had the opportunity to study anything between the pre-Socratics and Gadamer, and that was good but lacking. I mean, a lot has happened since Being and Time.

I did a lot of Freudian psychoanalysis in college, death drive and all that; my professor based his career on his reading of The Pleasure Principle

xpost

Thankfully, being an English major, I was able to study Zizek, Derrida, and many others.

Being a philosophy minor, I was lucky enough to obtain more of a firm grounding in the Western philosophical tradition than many of my peers. Even then, though, there was still no opportunity to study, say, Deleuze or any of the thinkers in the Speculative Realist movement. That being said, I'm thankful for what I did get to study.

xxxxxp eh no but imo it's a mistake to be all like these enlightenment principles are grounded in reality and freud isn't. tbh i don't even like to think of stuff as "based in reality" and not based in reality. i don't know. this could go on forever, i can't even explain it to myself.

lol lawyer

see dyao this is what i mean

yeah, i didn't even do that on purpose

you get to create your own reality though, which is really useful

yeah max but lawyers can get paid $$$ to do this

xpost

dyao, was the Freud guy a relatively old professor?

I recently heard an English major talk sadly about how all of the psychology professors only mention Freud in passing. My response to that attitude is to basically fault a lot of continental philosophy and critical theory for not incorporating the insights of empirical psychological research sooner. Many people in English seem to feel like once they read Freud (or Lacan) they have a complete and unfuckwithable grasp of the human psyche.

Which is bullshit.

dude you said you wanted real answers not $$$! xxpost

yeah kshighway, very old, and I'm not even sure he still remembers me (though I took two classes with him)

at least english professors have the decency to be deeply anxious about authenticity

harbl secretly I just want to fund my sardine habit

i know a place called sea world you can get paid in sardines

really what do I have to do

at least english professors have the decency to be deeply anxious about authenticity

― Bobby Wo (max), Monday, October 12, 2009 3:13 AM (46 seconds ago) Bookmark

If they only read some Heidegger!

Reading Derrida without a working knowledge of Heideggerian phenomenology is, at best, an awful idea.

language is a bunch of bullshit anyway, I eagerly await the day where humanity evolves into a big interconnected hive mind so meaning is always clear

i say, get a nursing degree

I've thought about it, parents would laugh at me

i think its important to base life decisions on what your parents would think

language is a bunch of bullshit anyway, I eagerly await the day where humanity evolves into a big interconnected hive mind so meaning is always clear

― dyao, Monday, October 12, 2009 3:16 AM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark

But is meaning EVERY REALLY CLEAR dyao?!?!!!

nursing would be cool imo!

my friend is at nursing school and shes been employed the entire time

no kshighway, there's this coin where both sides are worn out you see

I bet ants never worry about authenticity

Then they're immoral little fuckers.

i think they are amoral, like lawyers

dyao, if your point is to say language is not the center of the universe, then you are 100% OTM and the #1 failing of English departments might be the fact that they continue to propagate that notion for obvious, self-interested, and RONG reasons.

my dealings with literature have made me deeply suspicious of anything and everything, which is probably why I don't sleep too well

dyao, if your point is to say language is not the center of the universe, then you are 100% OTM and the #1 failing of English departments might be the fact that they continue to propagate that notion for obvious, self-interested, and RONG reasons.

― kshighway1, Sunday, October 11, 2009 11:22 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude

What, max?

i think he thinks ur bombastic

Yeah, that was a tad bombastic.

Still, point holds.

you switched pretty fast from using the phrase heideggerian phenomenology to acting like a weird reactionary physics prof

I've never read a word of Heidegger but Arendt a movie about him once

Well, I just graduated as an English major, so I think I can speak to the failings of English departments, as much as I love mine. And the fact that a lot of theory--postmodern and otherwise--that's flogged in English departments dismisses or ignores empirical research is a failing and saying so does not make me reactionary.

I read an article awhile ago about two philosophy professors in california who were trying to incorporate MRI scans and stuff into philosophy, which sounded pretty cool, although most philosophy departments seemed pretty embarrassed about it

Teaching Freud as if he alone knew how desire and the human mind worked is reactionary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_philosophy

you see, that seems like something which can give me real answers (and $$$ for sardines)

i moderate a little board called ask dr. freud and i think he alone knows everything

Can he tell dyao how to get money for sardines?

dyao go to nursing school

I probably will after I burn out of some other graduate program first

Well, I just graduated as an English major, so I think I can speak to the failings of English departments, as much as I love mine. And the fact that a lot of theory--postmodern and otherwise--that's flogged in English departments dismisses or ignores empirical research is a failing and saying so does not make me reactionary.

― kshighway1, Sunday, October 11, 2009 11:30 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude u r actin like a crazy person with all this talk

I can say though that I'm well on my way to becoming a creepy high school English teacher