Arts subjects as breadth, minus the crap

[Russ]

What's creative writing like? (For people who have done it)

It's exactly what you would expect from a subject called Creative Writing...
You look at works of fiction and discuss the techniques they use (eg Chekhov's gun) and then try to write your own works

[kamil9876]

I've done two breadths in History/Philosophy of Science and perhaps someone like you would find it decent because instead of analysing the so-called "lit BS" you would be analysing the philosophy behind the Scientist's approach, which is something someone with desires to pursue science may find at least a little bit relevant. (personally, "From Plato to Einstein" I enjoyed much more as in the lectures you just scratched the surface of everything and then only later chose what you want to study in depth for the essay. In the other one it was more specific case study which didn't tickle my fancy as much as I'm not interested in geology).

Secondly, do you really have to like literature to survive in Arts? I did Science and know hardly any chem or bio (did zero of that) and only like 2 physics subjects, rest all maths/some comp science/ logic(actually logic was an Arts subject lol, again I ask why?).

[EvangelionZeta]

^^re: logic, it's mostly because logic is a philosophy/maths overlap thing.  Fairly certain that a lot of philosophers pioneered a lot of stuff with logic as well, hence why it's probably done under Arts.

[kamil9876]

Yes, there were philosophers with a mathematical inclination, or even people that were both mathematicians and philosophers. Frege, Russell etc.  But what makes me cringe is when people trolls and cranks throw around stuff like Godel's theorems in a naive way to make arguments in stuff like philosophy of mind, ethics etc. and I think by placing it in Arts you may be encouraging such an approach.

[Planck's constant]

Yes, there were philosophers with a mathematical inclination, or even people that were both mathematicians and philosophers. Frege, Russell etc.  But what makes me cringe is when people trolls and cranks throw around stuff like Godel's theorems in a naive way to make arguments in stuff like philosophy of mind, ethics etc. and I think by placing it in Arts you may be encouraging such an approach.

I understand that a few hundred years ago, philosophy meant Natural Philosophy, what we now call 'Science'
Isaac Newton's major work was 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica'.

Contemporary philosophy is obviously something completely different

[Mech]

Consider that Mary Shelley was married to Percy Shelley and was friends with Lord Byron (and also Keats, I believe?)

I was under the impression Lord Byron was not very fond of Keats; Byron largely dismissed him as being a plebeian, a failed anatomist who wanted to become a poet. Percy Shelly was very fond of Keats and wrote a poem called "Adonais" about him and his death.

Unnecessary bullshit is one thing, but a well written and articulate etc. grant request is always going to be more favourable than a very simplistic one.

And the PhD in 3 minute speeches aren't about grants, they're about teaching scientists to not confuse the lay community

Okay then. I do not think I was saying well-written and articulate would not be preferable, but it would be less flowery and more prosaic.

[kamil9876]

Yes, there were philosophers with a mathematical inclination, or even people that were both mathematicians and philosophers. Frege, Russell etc.  But what makes me cringe is when people trolls and cranks throw around stuff like Godel's theorems in a naive way to make arguments in stuff like philosophy of mind, ethics etc. and I think by placing it in Arts you may be encouraging such an approach.

I understand that a few hundred years ago, philosophy meant Natural Philosophy, what we now call 'Science'
Isaac Newton's major work was 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica'.

Contemporary philosophy is obviously something completely different

That's right, the good old days But then again you can do a Doctor of "Philosophy" without knowing any philosophy. (btw the word 'Philosophy' came from the Greek phrase 'love of wisdom', I don't know why only contemporary philosophers love wisdom these days).

[EvangelionZeta]

Yes, there were philosophers with a mathematical inclination, or even people that were both mathematicians and philosophers. Frege, Russell etc.  But what makes me cringe is when people trolls and cranks throw around stuff like Godel's theorems in a naive way to make arguments in stuff like philosophy of mind, ethics etc. and I think by placing it in Arts you may be encouraging such an approach.

True, although the people who try that tend not to do very well in philosophy anyway.  :p  If you look at the history of a lot of famous philosophy academics nowadays, it's a field that is dominated by people who often have very strong maths/science backgrounds. 

[paulsterio]

I'm considering philosophy now

But if I do it, I reckon it's more out of interest than any concrete or practical reasons.

[Eriny]

Yes, there were philosophers with a mathematical inclination, or even people that were both mathematicians and philosophers. Frege, Russell etc.  But what makes me cringe is when people trolls and cranks throw around stuff like Godel's theorems in a naive way to make arguments in stuff like philosophy of mind, ethics etc. and I think by placing it in Arts you may be encouraging such an approach.

I think it is always annoying when people overstep the boundaries of their discipline when they are naive about how other disciplines actually work. For instance, the thing I find most annoying is when theoretical physicists/physics students think they're doing philosophy. IMO, they tend to be boring and speculative at best. I also find it condescending because often they won't have studied philosophy (or maybe like, one subject in first year) and think that just writing down random thoughts is a categorical part of the discipline.

(no offence intended to any budding physicists)

I'm considering philosophy now

But if I do it, I reckon it's more out of interest than any concrete or practical reasons.

I don't know if there are any directly practical reasons to do philosophy, so I think that's okay

[kamil9876]

Yes, there were philosophers with a mathematical inclination, or even people that were both mathematicians and philosophers. Frege, Russell etc.  But what makes me cringe is when people trolls and cranks throw around stuff like Godel's theorems in a naive way to make arguments in stuff like philosophy of mind, ethics etc. and I think by placing it in Arts you may be encouraging such an approach.

True, although the people who try that tend not to do very well in philosophy anyway.  :p  If you look at the history of a lot of famous philosophy academics nowadays, it's a field that is dominated by people who often have very strong maths/science backgrounds. 

That's good to hear. I remember when I used to be more interested in philosophy I always preferred those sorts of philosophers, i.e analytical.

[Planck's constant]

Yes, there were philosophers with a mathematical inclination, or even people that were both mathematicians and philosophers. Frege, Russell etc.  But what makes me cringe is when people trolls and cranks throw around stuff like Godel's theorems in a naive way to make arguments in stuff like philosophy of mind, ethics etc. and I think by placing it in Arts you may be encouraging such an approach.

I understand that a few hundred years ago, philosophy meant Natural Philosophy, what we now call 'Science'
Isaac Newton's major work was 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica'.

Contemporary philosophy is obviously something completely different

That's right, the good old days But then again you can do a Doctor of "Philosophy" without knowing any philosophy. (btw the word 'Philosophy' came from the Greek phrase 'love of wisdom', I don't know why only contemporary philosophers love wisdom these days).

Yes, the good old days.
Now that all the sciences have branched out of philosophy, I would probably take offence if someone called me a 'philosopher'

"You call me philosopher one more time and I'll punch your head in, mate. Do you hear me ? "    lol