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Study of Philosophy: |
Studying Philosophy as a Mature Student |
By Timothy HilgenbergFirst of all you need to see where the nearest university might be which will offer philosophy courses for mature students. In London there is Birkbeck College and for distance learning there is the Open University. If you’ve just done your A-levels it’s easy. All you do is apply and if you’ve got the required grades you’ll get the place you want. If you’ve been out of full time education for some time it is a little different. Not all universities offering philosophy courses will require A-levels, some will let you study philosophy without any school leaving qualifications. A part from an O or A-level or now a GCSE in philosophy there are few things you could have done at school that would provide a useful basis. You should however be prepared to sit some kind of entry test so that the department and the admissions tutor can gauge whether you are a suitable candidate or not. At Birkbeck College, London, where I studied, admission was based on a "philosophical questionnaire" - a list of questions loosely based on the main topics of philosophy and followed by an interview. According to one admission tutor at Birkbeck, one can usually tell from the answers if you have an aptitude for philosophy or not. Passing the entry qualifications alone though won’t make you pass your finals - having the ability is only one part to getting the degree. For mature student there is another point to think about. Full-time or part-time? The latter tends to take longer, is may be based on evening classes and may require that you are in some kind of employ. Others may involve distance learning with occasional group meetings. In either case you will need a lot of will power and enthusiasm to stick particularly when you hit the fist problems... and you will, but it will be worth it! Once en route to doing the degree you might want to get hold of some kind of preliminary reading list to prepare for the years of study that lie ahead. The list will usually feature the standard philosophical works either from an analytic or continental perspective, depending on the traditions of the philosophy department where you are due to start your course. Many of my fellow students as well as myself read "Philosophy for Beginners". Not only is it funny, it is also a good guide through the subject. It is a comic book based overview which provided me with at rough of idea of what I was in for. It is an odd feeling to finally find yourself among a whole host of other "mature" students, all with an interest in philosophy and each one holding a different view of what it is. One thing we were told during our induction was not to forget: All mature students constantly think they are behind - and not to let us worry us unduly. Easier said than done! Non of my fellow students ever really stopped to worry and you’ll find it a constant topic of conversation if you have read this book or that and how difficult it is to get hold of the reading. Once the course is under way you will quickly realise that any hope of just "popping over to uni" in the evening to take in a lecture was in vain. Not all lectures will grip you and after a long day at work they can seem to last forever. In addition to lectures you will have to do readings to prepare for the topics and eventually you will also have to write essays. The number of lectures you have to follow can be deceiving - each lecture will require several hours of reworking the material and the readings you will be required to do are an important part of any study of philosophy. They will give you an idea of how philosophy is done professionally and will also acquaint you with ways of thinking and ideas already out there. Writing essays is one of the things that will take up a lot of your time, first you need to read the primary literature and then some secondary literature, the important commentaries on the ideas and finally present it in a succinct and interesting way. Don’t worry, nearly everyone I studied with found essay writing daunting. Some went into overdrive and just knocked them out at a phenomenal rate, others would dither until the last minute. Some would have a plan to provide them with several essays per exam topic, others would just do the minimum. The most critical point when doing a degree in philosophy is the summer break after the first year. At Birkbeck the drop out rate after the first year is about 30-35%. But with mature students it isn’t just because the course is too hard, or it isn’t what was expected. Many face particular problems such as changes to the work situation or problems at home. After the first year one of my fellow students left for a concert tour in America lasting several months another got married. Other typical problems are changes in employment, from losing the job to promotion or even re-location. But it is not just a never ending battle. Over the months and years philosophy begins to take shape, names you will have heard or been referred to, will be given a context and a great number of new ideas will be added to yours. No longer the amorphous subject it was at the outset you begin to feel that there is some kind of structure to the subject. Depending on the structure of the degree you will either sit exams for modules or do them all in one big session at the end. If you have to take "finals" you might also sit sessional tests to provide you with an idea what exam conditions are like and give you a chance to see if you have got to grips with the material. Studying at university means there have to be some rules. In Philosophy this means there are a set of compulsory subjects you will have to take and where you don’t have a modular approach sit finals. These usually include: Logic & Metaphysics, Epistemology & Methodology, Ethics or Politics, Greek and Modern Philosophy. In addition you may have to take one or several options, some examples are: philosophy of mind, aesthetics or philosophy of mathematics as well as a list as long as your arm - however they may not always be offered at your location and you'd do well to check before. If you sit finals the last year will be slightly different, you will be preparing for you exams and you may even have to write a dissertation as part of the exam requirement. Time really starts to get wings! Exams at the University of London take the form of seven three hour sessions in which you will have to answer three question each and one three hour essay session, where you will have to write one philosophical essay on something like: Truth, Justice or Free Will or another suitably philosophical topic. If you have got this far you’ll pull through, although you’ll wonder how. All of us were nervous. We all were looking ahead with trepidation as May - our exam month approached. Some of us even questioned their sanity to have subjected themselves to this ordeal. But we all went through with the exams - you just don’t give up at this point. One of the very first things a lecturer said was that at first we would be scared and a little confused, as we continued we would find ourselves a little less scared and a little more confused and finally at the end we wouldn’t be scared at all, but very confused - something many of us found to be closer to the truth than we ever thought possible. For some this was the end of the road. "I’ve had enough of this" was a common expression. "I’m not sure what I’ll be doing next, but I think I need a break from philosophy" was another, but there always is a core who will continue. However I fear, anyone doing philosophy as a degree will find at one point or another that it’s not the years of study, nor the finals that are the worst thing about studying philosophy, but the feeling how much you miss it when you realise that it is all over… © Copyright Timothy Hilgenberg 1998 |