Anthony asked:

Philosophy is all in the mind of the individual. One does not go to school to learn about how to be a
philosopher, one goes to study how others used their own ability. One cannot learn how to do
philosophy; One just does. One can learn about others thoughts and then build on the idea.

I am a freshman art student and iowa state university in the US...just found this website while trying to
find some answers.

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Philosophy, as I see it, starts with appreciating and understanding the arguments of the great thinkers
of the past and present.

Are you going to come up with all the issues on your own? Going it alone, might you not be an
amateur? For all I know you might be a genius, but it doesn't really show in your question.

In England we study one subject for three years to get a degree and I felt that even after three years
of the study of philosophy there was room for improvement and had to go on to a graduate course.
For a BA you learn to understand the issues and write philosophy and then you go on and learn to
think, more confidently, for yourself.

You can't criticise from outside because you don't know what you are criticising.

If you were to go on a philosophy degree course, you would see that there is plenty to learn.

At London University it was said that English Literature students were always in a dream world in
contrast to Philosophy students who were always highly anxious because they were in a constant
state of feeling that they didn't understand.

I don't know why people denigrate philosophy. After philosophy I studied law as a post-graduate and
that is much easier than philosophy. Revising for law exams you get bored and go to bed early, in my
experience, but you still pass. Philosophy, on the other hand, is really hard work and you stay up into
the early morning before exams.

Don't know what you have read. If you are an art student and haven't read Sartre's trilogy, Roads to
Freedom,which is literature, then this might start to get you interested in his philosophy, and you can
move on from there.

Otherwise, get the Complete Works of Aristotle and see what you think. It is really amazing.

Rachel Browne

I want to question two assumptions in your question.

Firstly, philosophy is not all in the mind of the individual, as your later comment on learning about the
thoughts of others indicates. Philosophy is in the public, intersubjective space between people. It is a
communal activity par excellence. Only derivatively can it take place in an individual's mind.

Secondly, one does have to learn how to be a philosopher, and we learn that, too, in the same shared
intellectual space. We are not born with intellectual ability (although we are born with its
underpinnings) - we must develop intellectually through engagement with others. We become
philosophers by taking part - at first, very hesitantly and poorly, later more confidently and skillfully - in
philosophical inquiry with others. [I point out that this is not restricted to philosophy, but applies to all
disciplines - indeed, it applies to being a person at all.]

Tim Sprod