Philosophy/History majors (1 Viewer)

[polarcola]

Is anybody here majoring in either Philosophy or History? If so, how do you find your classes and would you recommend majoring in either field?

 

[symple]

Is anybody here majoring in either Philosophy or History? If so, how do you find your classes and would you recommend majoring in either field?

Philosophy: Pretty good, there is *usually* a very high quality of lecturers / tutors. Tutes tend to be on the large size, but there are plenty of slackers and ppl who are too shy to say things, so it's still easy enough to distinguish yourself. The essay/exam asessment system is great if you like that kind of thing, which I do.

Philosophy tends to require a lot of basic, general critical thinking / reasoning skills, so if you just want to acquire these skills and major in something a little more practical, a shortcut would be to do "Introductory Logic" (P1012) and/or especially "Critical Thinking" (P2642). "Reality, Ethics and Beauty" (P1011) is also a good overview if you want to try out the theoretical stuff, but the rest of it can get VERY theoretical.

History: My experience of history has also been pretty positive, the lecturers tend to be *outstanding*. However, the class sizes tend to be pretty huge as well, which can be more of a problem as they're more likely to set actual tute assignments instead of just essay + exam + bang you're done.

By all means major in these fields - an arts degree is still a *little* bit like the HSC in that it may not matter what major you pick, so long as you do it WELL.

 

[polarcola]

Thanks a lot for the answer, symple. It's really appreciated.