{"id":10249,"date":"2011-10-26T05:28:53","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T05:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/10\/26\/suggestions-on-how-best-to-study\/"},"modified":"2011-10-26T05:28:53","modified_gmt":"2011-10-26T05:28:53","slug":"suggestions-on-how-best-to-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/10\/26\/suggestions-on-how-best-to-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Suggestions on How Best to Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just over the transom:<\/span><\/p>\n

Noting your desire to correct spelling, here are two that I spotted: "…gave an argment [sic] a while back (1 August 2010 to be precise) to the conclusion that there cannot, as a matter of metaphyscal necessity [sic]…"<\/span><\/p>\n

Holy moly!  Thanks.  I just corrected them, and then found three more.<\/span><\/p>\n

My current frustrations stem from mental mistakes, not typos.  Thinking clearly about philosophy is more difficult for me than writing about my thoughts, which makes me suspect that I should write more (summary papers, counterarguments) while I'm working through the material instead of just taking notes along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right.  Reading by itself is too passive to be very profitable even if done while alert in a quiet environment in an upright position.  So one ought to take notes and mark passages (assuming you own the book).  But even this is not enough.  The only way  properly to assimilate a philosophical text is by writing a summary and a critique of it.  The summary is an attempt to understand exactly what the author's thesis or theses are, and (just as important) what his arguments are.  Having done that, one advances to critical evaluation, the attempt to sort out  which theses and arguments you consider true\/valid and which false\/invalid.  Blogging can be very useful for this purpose and can lead to worthwhile exchanges and the refinement and testing of one's ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I see it, there is no point in seriously studying anything without a decision as to whether or not one should take on board the author's theses and arguments and incorporate them into one's own thinking.<\/span>  The point of study and inquiry is to get at the truth, not to know what someone else  has maintained that the truth is.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have just completed a semester of Searle's intro to the philosophy of mind via podcast. I worked through the primary readings and also studied his textbook.  It was very difficult and rewarding.  Now it is time to tackle his semester on language.<\/span><\/p>\n

Searle is good.  You will learn a lot from him.  My posts on Searle are collected in the aptly-named Searle category<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Always enjoy your posts.  Occam's Razor is sorely abused by apologists from all corners of the debate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Glad we agree, and thanks for the kind words.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just over the transom: Noting your desire to correct spelling, here are two that I spotted: "…gave an argment [sic] a while back (1 August 2010 to be precise) to the conclusion that there cannot, as a matter of metaphyscal necessity [sic]…" Holy moly!  Thanks.  I just corrected them, and then found three more. My … Continue reading “Suggestions on How Best to Study”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290,72,299],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-of-the-mind","category-sage-advice","category-studiousness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}