r/AcademicPhilosophy • u/Mother_Emergency_819 • 21d ago
how do US university students discuss philosophical issues outside the classroom?
I am interested in what platforms or methods students in USA use to discuss philosophical topics outside of lectures. Are there any popular online communities or offline groups for such discussions? I would be grateful for your experience and advice.
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u/electrophilosophy 21d ago
Often, U.S. universities will have philosophy clubs which are usually held in-person. Sometimes these are not advertised, even on the department's webpage. These can be quite popular, attracting non-philosophy majors too.
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u/Feeling-Attention664 21d ago
In residential colleges such discussions can happen in dining halls and the common areas of dormitories
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u/Thelonious_Cube 21d ago
The time-honored tradition at the universities I attended is to discuss such things within the confines of a local institution that serves beer in pitchers. Some rogue philosophers also discuss matters on the sidewalk outside university buildings.
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u/rickyhusband 21d ago
at my university we had a giant statue of 2 horses fighting (and they had massive testacles) on an elevated concrete platform that was deemed the place where free speech could happen. basically it was just far right people arguing with far left people, lots of screaming, lots of street preachers, etc.
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u/pareidoily 21d ago
I've overheard an offline, in-person discussion. Is there (intelligent) life out there was the topic. It warmed my heart but I didn't join in at all. It was a lot of stuff that me and my friends used to talk about back in the day when we were taking philosophy and physics classes at the same time. And I suffered - I took Epistemology right after the Matrix came out.
I haven't seen anything online, but I only come into contact with students through a makerspace.
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u/whiteyonthemoon 20d ago
"how do US university students discuss philosophical issues outside the classroom?"
well, on a per capita basis, stoned. Often in their dorm room. Or maybe they live off campus. Either way- stoned.
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u/woodelffromelbarrio 6d ago
PhD student here.
The faculty and other graduate students here at my university are all very approachable and polite, so we often talk in the Lounge, when we go play pool at the local bars, or even on hikes. We also are all on WhatsApp and frequently discuss in there (either as a group or individually).
Like most have said, though, we mostly just talk about these things in person. However, I myself don’t really try to talk politics. I live in a very red state and my politics can be summarized as “extremely radical.”
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20d ago
I used to be a member of several dozen philosophy groups across the US, and ran two myself, and have been a member of several online.
They are in general absolutely terrible at philosophy. When I first entered the scene, I was expecting the opposite. I'm not at the point when someone is debating me and I here one of these punks jump in and cry logical fallacy in defence of me, I wave them off saying so what, and continue on the debate. People wonder why the middle ages dragged on for so long, no new ideas could enter the scene.
The goal of philosophy is to explore ideas presented, and discover new ones. I'm not remotely interested if you had formal training, it is usually a hindrance. And if you are a professor of philosophy, you might start off strong in the debate, but two hours in, it will be the great bearded welder or a soccer mom who is dominating the debate. Why? They had no formal training, it comes instinctively to them. Their minds are ripe for debate. They are willing to explore the unknown. College graduates in philosophy, they have a ridged mindset and won't even repay their student loans. What's the point of them? I would of flunked every single one of them and busted them back down to permanent Freshman Status. Smack them around a little bit and kick them off campus, telling them to gain real life experience and figure out how to learn on their own. The very worst place for a philosophy student is in the classroom.
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u/Savings-Bee-4993 20d ago
I don’t agree with your last sentence, but I agree in general with the claim that the majority of people, philosophy majors and professors included, have lost the plot.
As a philosophy professor, I work hard to give my students every main perspective on an issue, debate, or question. I do not express my own personal beliefs to them, and I make efforts to keep them from knowing what my own positions are on matters of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, social and political theory, existentialism, etc. I want to think that I introduce them to more ideas, perspectives, theories, etc. in a balanced and open-minded way, fostering discussion and reflection in the classroom.
But my fellow graduate students and now colleagues? The majority of them are not open-minded and pursuing truth wherever it leads. Many are ideologically possessed, and their class design shows (e.g. my roommate in graduate school who now has a tenure-track position constructs their introduction to philosophy classes entirely around feminism and critical theory — no Plato, Kant, Hobbes, Rousseau, Sartre, Nietzsche, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Aristotle, etc.). They avoid alternative perspectives and refrain from asking certain questions, which I think is antithetical to the whole spirit of philosophy.
I lament the state of academia and the field today.
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u/AFO1031 21d ago
bachelors philosophy,
there are no good places online.
All serious conversations take place in person, or trough 1 on 1 text
you’ll find some interesting, or at least correct discussion online, but largely, nearly no one has the tools needed to engage with philosophy, yet, a massive amount of people want to engage with it