Philosophy or no Philosophy, that is the question..

**shani21** · 2 Nov 2009, 11:50 PM

Philosophy by Distance Ed??? Yay or nay?

Might also end up doing English Language by Distance Ed, so I'm not sure if two will be too difficult.. I did French by corro this year and I didn't mind the correspondence thing at all.

I also want to know what year 12 Philosophy is like, what do you do in it? Is there alot of your own philosophising or is it mostly reading up on other philosophers?

I haven't done year 11 Philosophy. And I've looked up on the VCAA website at the study plan/design, but those things never seem to make alot of sense, no matter what the subject is..

Thanks for any replies!

**theowlsgo** · 30 Nov 2009, 12:25 PM

Having just completed 3/4 philosophy I would say that distance ed study would make this subject 30-50% harder than it already is.

In my opinion, Philosophy is like the specialist maths of humanities, and I think it would be quite difficult to do exceedingly well in this subject, or even averagely well to be honest without the constant discussions in class.

VCAA have changed the study of philosophy since 2008 and it now involves not only studying 9-10 extracts from philosophers (ranging from ancient greek ie Plato, Aristotle, to more modern day like Nietzsche and Armstrong) but actually "doing" philosophy, and without the 4 hours a week of in-class teaching and discussions my workload would have been double, perhaps triple what it was (which was quite heavy regardless.)

In response to your question, I'd say the course-work is as follows:
Read an extract (then read it about 4 more times)
Discuss points, context, important themes and ideas
Re-read, and then use an example of modern day life to do your own philosophy on the subject. This is a part of every SAC and is on every exam, so you need to be capable of coming up with ideas which will relate to current society/issues.
Read another extract and compare with first
Repeat!

This subject is split into Unit 3 "The Good Life" which is looking at morality and the way we live our lives, and you study Plato, Murdoch, Nietzsche and Aristotle in this area.
In Unit 4 there are two sections, one is more focused on "The Mind vs Body" (You do descartes and armstrong) and the other "Knowledge and belief systems" (Do Kuhn, Popper and Plato).

It's very hard to read an extract, firstly deciphering what the author is saying and then learning about it without the varying views and opinions of other people. I found that I would read an extract, study and learn it well before class, but when we were in class discussing and "doing philosophy" (VCAA actually use that phrase...) the ideas and views that my teacher and other classmates had, increased my understanding of the work a lot.

I know this sounds super negative and if you are really truly interested in studying Philosophy I highly recommend it, although difficult and at some points you may question why you chose to do it, it has changed my whole way of looking at life which I think is incredible, I'm not sure many VCE subjects affect a person like that.

If you love studying hard, and are willing to do a fair amount of extra research online, as there are a lot of philosophy forums around which could fill that gap of not having real life discussions then I really think you should study it, however if you're just thinking about studying it because it sounds interesting and laid back and will be an easy 35 study score then I'd say no.

Just as an afterthought, if you're interested in the classical greek side of literature I'd really suggest studying "Classical Societies and Cultures", although you may study roman literature as well, I did this subject last year and found it enjoyable, had really great texts and it's weighted better than philosophy (+ 2-3 points if you get over 30) in comparison to philosophy which doesn't get any increase (which is ridiculous and should be weighted similar to the harder maths and sciences, at least 4-5 points minimum.)

Hope this helps! - theowlsgo

**shani21** · 2 Dec 2009, 10:07 PM

Hey, thanks for your reply.

I've already signed up to do Philosophy by distance next year, as well as Eng Lang by distance, lets hope I can handle it!

I looked at the study guide for Classical Societies and Cultures and it looked good and like it would suit me well, but my school doesn't have it and you can't do it by correspondence...

But I'm really looking forward to studying Philosophy, and I heard someone else say it changes your perspective on life too, which like you said, is incredible.

Thanks again!

**outofyoghurt** · 14 Dec 2009, 12:23 AM

I did 3/4 philosophy by distance ed this year and I really enjoyed it. If you've done correspondence before then you'll have no issue with it. Philosophy is a subject where discussion is important but you can talk to anyone even if it's only to make an idea clearer in your own mind. It helps you across the board with other subjects. Excellent for english essays! I did 1/2 in year ten which was good because it sets you up well but if you're keen then you'll pick it up easily. Don't worry.
Good luck!