Doing Well in Philosophy Class

Becoming successful as a student—including successful as a philosophy student—is not a mysterious process beyond your control. Granted, it is a complex process. But you can control it to a considerable degree. Almost surely, you can become more successful by adopting certain practices, nurturing certain attitudes, and developing certain skills. The process whereby one becomes a better philosophy student resembles the process whereby one becomes a better student in general, though some subtle differences seem to exist. We begin with how to become a better student in general.

How to be a Successful Student in General

  1. Hang on the professor’s every word. During class sessions, nothing is more important than what the professor says, and what you think about what she or he says.
  2. Do the reading assignments carefully, preferably before they will be discussed in class. (Yes, responding to unavoidable events, beyond your control, sometimes must take precedence over academic work, but remember: Your academic success will help you to control events in the future. An investment now will reward you later.)
  3. Think carefully enough to become confused. (There is a difference between one’s thinking carefully enough to become confused, and one’s becoming confused because one is not thinking carefully.)
  4. Turn your confusions into questions, and ask for clarifications.
  5. Use notes; do not let notes use you. See the discussion of note taking below.
  6. Get to know two or three classmates personally; you can help one in various ways.
  7. Talk with the professor as soon as possible about any obstacle to your academic work, whether the problem is personal (e.g., illness, divorce), interpersonal (e.g., something that I am doing or another student is doing that concerns you), or purely academic (e.g., not understanding the readings or lectures).
  8. Take personal responsibility for knowing your grade status. Taking responsibility does not in any way imply that you should not consult with the professor about your status. Rather, it implies that, normally, your consultation with the professor would concern confirmation or interpretation of your own record, not information whereof you have no record.

How to be a Successful Philosophy Student in Particular

  1. Hang on everyone’s every word (but exercise judgment in letting others know that you are so alert.)
  2. Do the reading and writing assignments promptly and very carefully, but accept that, in the deepest sense, philosophy assignments are never completed.
  3. Think carefully enough to become confused, and rejoice in the fact that, in this class, you are in the company of people—philosophers—who are comfortable with confusion. Philosophy begins in confusion and progresses toward the elusive goal of clarity.
  4. Turn your confusions into questions, ask for clarification; search the answers for new questions.
  5. Use notes; do not let notes use you. Again, see below.
  6. Get to know two or three classmates personally; you can get together and think philosophically.
  7. Check everyone’s reasoning, including your own. (Again, there are situations in which it is wise not to express one’s doubts or questions, even though it is wise to have doubts and questions.)
  8. Open your mind to as many alternatives as possible.
  9. Take pride in your rationality, not your positions. Become logically monogamous but positionally unattached.
  10. Talk with the professor as soon as possible about any obstacle to your academic work.
  11. Know your grade status, as explained in 8 above.

Note taking

Philosophy relies on concepts, distinctions between concepts, questions, claims, and reasons in support of claims. Human beings express all of these—concepts, distinctions, questions, claims, and reasons—with words. Human beings think with words. During class, I sometimes project words onto the screen or write words on the board. I only do so if I believe that the words are important. When I do so, you may wish to take notes. You might also wish to take notes when you have an interesting idea, experience some confusion, or believe that our discussion has identified a fundamental point made by the philosopher whom we are examining.

Although taking notes is important, taking notes injudiciously can distract you from more creative and fruitful mental activity; it can also become physically uncomfortable. Therefore, you don’t want to take too many notes, and you want to take notes in a way that saves time and doesn’t wear you out. The following suggestions may help you to use notes rather than allowing notes to use you.

  1. Limit notes to materials that seem important.
    No formulas exist for determining importance, but here are some tips.
    1. If I put an idea on the screen or board, it is probably important—but there’s no need to put it on paper or into your laptop if you know that you already have it, say, in one of your books or an Internet source.
    2. If an idea interests you, it is important—it might serve in a paper that you’ll write.
    3. If an idea seems basic to a philosopher’s position, it is important, but you shouldn’t write it if you’re sure you’ll not forget it anyway or if you already have it expressed elsewhere.
  2. Take notes, don’t copy words. This is particularly important.
    Whether a lecturer is speaking, projecting words onto the screen, or writing words or the board, your job, as a note-taker, is to compress.
    1. Write only what you don’t already know.
    2. Summarize certain sentences as fragments.
    3. Omit unnecessary words.
    4. Omit vowels.
    5. Replace syllables with apostrophes.

    6. Develop your own code for common words.

      Suppose I said in class lecture,

      “In the opinion of many philosophers, the purpose of philosophy is to help people pursue a meaningful life. A big question now arises. Could the meaning of life be derived from human nature as such, from some basic characteristic or characteristics of people in general? Or is there no such thing as human nature? Are all people individual, and ineliminably, irreducibly so; such that any meaning in life is purely individual?”

      The first sentence you don’t need to write because you know that it’s stated in the syllabus, and we’ve discussed it at length in class. The rest, however, you decide to put on paper or in your computer. You want to get it there quickly. You don’t know what ‘ineliminably’ means or even how to spell it; but you guess at the meaning based on context (perhaps planning to ask me in a minute to define the word, or look it up later on your own). You write,

      “Big q’n: Is thr a hmn nature, or jst (purely?) indi’l natures? Wht th basis of m’g?”

      Similarly, you should compress ideas that I project onto the screen or write on the board, e.g., “Y shd cmprs ideas on th scrn or bd.”

      Such notes will seem odd at first, but you’ll become accustomed to your own note taking. Indeed, the process of translating your notes into standard language requires that you think, and hence assists you in learning.

Tutoring and Talking

You can get tutoring in philosophy through the writing center, here in the Social Sciences building. Some of the tutors have already done well in my classes. Tutoring can help you think through ideas, and can help you write better papers. So can discussing philosophy with family and friends. Coffee, tea, friends, and questions—these are components in the development of many philosophers.