Chris asked:

Is there a high school for us? A few people in my school are awake and don't understand why we
have to go to school.

I don't want to learn anything else but Philosophy. What do I do?

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Yes, a dilemma. I assume that you're in a high school or middle school (if you're in the States — or
the equivalent)? And not in either college or a school for gifted kids? Alternative one: get into the
latter. Alternative two: if you can't do that, grit your teeth and keep going. Stay in school, do well,so
that the next school you can pick verycarefully.

Now, as to philosophy, and school. Yes, sure, you want to do philosophy... but the question is, what is
philosophy, that is, what is required to doit? Just sitting in an armchair and deciding what's correct?
Surely you can see that just can't be sufficient; the world is too complex. To put it another way, in the
far past, the 'philosopher' knew allknowledge. In the more recent past, this wasn't so true; there was
so much philosophy to learn. Now, however, we are in a very different situation. Science has, like it or
not, gotten to the point where it is relevant to philosophy. You just cannot do philosophy of mind, for
example, without knowing a) neurology, b) artificial intelligence, c) cognitive science, d) some
linguistics, to mention a few. Sorry, but you can't.

You want to do pure metaphysics — without knowing physics? Forget it. How do you think
metaphysics got started, anyway? Physics is just the modern experimental branch of it. Do you have
anyidea of the debates still going on about quantum mechanics, as it relates to a) the many-worlds
problem, b) consciousness (to name just two areas)? (There was recently a fantastic article in Nature
which pushes physics further down into the quantum realm than anyone thought it could go.) You
want to do epistemology without knowing cognition? Ridiculous. Cognition is the 'data' end of how we
know. You have to have it. You want to think about logic without knowing formal logic and math (not
to mention computer programming)? Absurd. You see what I mean? Are you still sure you want to do
philosophy (and yes, I do know a something in most of those areas)?

So, you can do one of two things. First, drop out and educate yourself. Hey, why not, I almost did it
myself. Here's what stopped me: I knew that I would never know whether I knew what everybody else
knew, if I didn't get some sort of "standard" education. So I went to grad school. Second, stay in
school, and be very careful that you get what you need for what you're interested in. And while you're
in school, don't forget what you're there for (after you have constructed a very clear idea of what that
is).

Steven Ravett Brown