I always thought it would be cool to be a Philosophy major.
In high school, I took Miss J's Philosophy and Human Behavior class my senior year. College philosophy and high school philosophy are two different things. BC, before college, the myth of philosophy still existed.
The myth of philosophy is more about image than philosophy. Bohemians sit around contemplating history and current events, and when that gets boring, bring on the theoretical. That's essentially what Philosophy and Human Behavior was all about. Everyday, I bugged the guy who sat behind me, and everyday we would listen to Miss J for 15 or 20 minutes, and everyday we would get in about 10 minutes of content. Or not. Or maybe that's what really happened. It just depends on if you are me or the guy who sat behind me. Likely, it's a combination of the two.
In college, philosophy is much different. First, you have these theories that guide you in creating your argument. Many times I heard, "It's the [blah blah blah] conductor [blah] train [blah] people [blah]. And do you save the people on the train or the people [not on the train]?"
I kind of just sat back in Philosophy classes at Auburn. Not because I was bored to tears, but because it was taking all of me to comprehend what was going on.
When the socially awkward guy catty-corner from me started in on Star Trek, I lost all concentration.
I completed my first Philosophy class at Auburn, and my second attempt ended in a W.
Philosophy of War and Terror was very similar to Philosophy of the [blah blah blah], for this purpose it will be known as Medical Philosophy. I felt like I was drowning in Philosophy of War and Terror. My free time was spent reading these big books over and over to try to understand (we had to submit discussion questions to prove we had read) and I kept hearing things about trains and people and which one do you save. I did have a friend in the class and the other people were pretty nice, but a few weeks into the semester, when I heard someone on the other side of the room say, "It's like this one time. On Star Trek," it was over. (BTW, this was the same semester my Great Books class ended up being a Philosophy class, as well. Only more enjoyed. I was also taking a statistics class disguised as "Research Methods". Also, much enjoyed, but a lot of work. Oh! And how could I forget Public Personnel Administration. I'll have to tell you about that later.)
Philosophy at UAB was a whole different story. My two attempts at actual Philosophy classes there both ended in W's as well. I think one was Philosophy of Law (or something like that) and it was just too legal for me. History of Philosophy, where we study Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, that is a whole different story. It wasn't too deep, it wasn't too boring, it wasn't too new to me. Seeing as how all of my non-Philosophy Philosphy classes (Great Books II, Intro to Political Thought, Classical Political Thought, as well as any chance a miscellaneous teacher had to throw in some Plato and Aristotle or Machiavelli), I figured this class would be my fun class. After all, I rocked Classical Political Thought and I rocked History. There was no way I could mess this up. My last fun class of undergrad years. I figured it would be a freebie, and I would love it at the same time.
I sat in between buddies from Classical Political Thought, who were both Philosophy majors. I read my Plato with joy, looking even deeper into it for the umpteenth time. And when I got my test back and the teacher bared down so hard with her red pen while marking through an answer and writing "NO!" across it she put a whole in my paper, that was the final straw. I kind of wanted to cry. Not because I failed a test, but because a teacher, who comes to class seemingly stoned, and doesn't have any logical flow to her "teaching", failed me, a seasoned Plato scholar, a senior in college, who was taking this class for fun because I liked the subject matter.
Ouch!
I guess I was too logical for her.
(In my defense, in all other academic Plato encounters, I passed, with at least a B, in all classes. And I never made below a C on any test.)
A year or so ago, when I was a bartender, one of my regulars would come in to read and smoke cigarettes and drink Diet Coke. We would talk about what all he was reading. At one point, I decided I would read The Republic with him and we could have a book club of sorts.
Fail.
And then I discovered Celia Rivenbark. Philosophy for the people who would rather laugh at all the wack-o people of the world (I'm talking to you, Star Trek guy ... and History of Philosophy Professor) than make themselves miserable contemplating the end of the world (ahem, Philosophy of War and Terror). And the bright side of it, you don't have to dig very deep to bust a gut (as opposed to History of Philosophy).
