Write in the margins: ask the philosopher questions, note possible interpretations, mark sections you didn't understand, and restate things in your own words. Ultimately, you will have to write short essays. This is when you put all the philosophical bits and pieces together into a coherent whole. As you try, you'll note that some parts don't quite fit, or it's much less clear or compelling that you had supposed while you were reading and thinking. Writing is the only time you'll do any serious thinking, so don't stop short of it. It helps to use simple language -- avoid technical terms -- geared towards 13-year-olds. If a 13-year-old can understand what you've written, you have likely mastered the material. It can also help to frame the philosophical topic in its historical context. And, yes, you might have to read the same sentence 10 or 20 times before something finally clicks -- and you get it. That's normal. And, yes, you might fall asleep within 30 minutes in the middle of the day while reading philosophy. Your brain needs to exercise to build stamina. It's almost always better to struggle first with the primary texts, pondering and taking seriously the problems under consideration. Typically, the hardest part of philosophy is simply understanding the problem. Coming up with criticisms of any theory or philosopher is often the easiest part of philosophy. The difference between a good philosopher and a run-of-the-mill philosopher is in the questions they ask. Once good philosophers ask their questions, anybody can come up with responses, sometimes ingenious responses or theories, but that's also easy.

the intelligence of a mouse might itself be a philosophical question

Really grateful for this. Thanks you so much for making these great videos!

Thank you for this video

This is very helpful as someone who would be considered an autodidact this was very needed

An excellent, natural and motivated talk on this most neglected but most necessary subject.

Really helpful. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you very much. I did exactly what you said to do, and my discussion post was easy to compose; however, I enjoyed the reading a lot more. Hart, General Law. Thanks again!

really useful thank you professor

I am a first year student of philosophy subject at first I was so confused about how do I start but finally this video is helping me so much I got all the ideas how to prepare myself for the test . Thank u so much sir for this video

I love philosophy because it encourages critical thinking!

Bro i love your video i alredy watched it on my main channel now i use second channel and your video pop up in recomend ❤

If anyone wants a CHRONOLOGICAL ROADMAP into philosophy, Eastern and Western combined, here's my compilation. - Ancient Indian philosophy - 1. Vedic philosophy (2000 BCE) 2. Samkhya sutras of Kapila (~1500 BCE) atheistic school of dualism. 3. The Principal Upanishads (bw 1000 to 600 BCE) 4. Charvaka philosophy of Brihaspati (pre-1000BCE) - world's oldest atheistic and materialistic philosphy. The original Brihaspati Sutras didn't survive. 5. The Nyaya Sutras of Aksapada Goutama (7th century BCE - World's oldest complete book on logic and epistemology) 6. Bhagvad Gita (~500 BCE) 7. Mimansa Philosophy - the principal text woukd be Mimamsa sutra of Jamini (4th-century BCE) 8. Vaisheshika sutra of Kanada ( 7th century BCE - among others these sutras hypothesised the breakdown of matter into atoms and subatoms - Anu and Paramanu) 9. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (bw 500BCE - 400 CE) 10. Samkhyakarika of Ishvar Krishna (~350 CE) 11. Jain philosophy - outlined in the Tattvārthasūtra of Umaswati (possibly between 2nd-century and 5th-century CE) 12. Buddhist philosophy - important texts include those of the Mahayana sect - Mahaprajnaparamita sutra, Maha Ratnakuta sutra, Sandhinimochana sutra, Amitabha sutra, Vimalakriti sutra, Lankavatara Sutra, Shurngama Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, Mahaparinirvana sutra, and Saddharma pundarika sutra. 13. Sociopolitical philosophy - Arthashastra of Chanakya (4th century BCE) 14. Ajivika philosophy - the original scriptures are lost. Hellinistic - 1. Thales of Miletus (624/623-548/545 BCE) - the father of ancient Greek philosophy. 2. Pythagoras (570 BCE) 3. On Nature by Parmenides (560 BCE - 510 BCE ) 4. Anaxagoras (500 BC-428 BCE) - the first to establish a philosophy in its entirety in Athens. 5. Zeno (490 BC-430 BC) 6. Empedocles (490 BC-430 BC) 7. Socrates (470 - 399 BCE - all of him. This man's THE man ) 8. Democritus (460 - 370 BCE - famous for his atomifc theory among others) 9. Plato, (born 428/427 - 348/347 BCE) 10. Aristotle (384-322 BCE ) Classical Chinese philosophy - 1. Daodejing of Lao Tzu (5th century) 2. Analects of Confucius (475-220 BCE) 3. Zhuangzi (476-221 BCE) 4. Mencius (3rd century BCE) 5. Xun Kuang (314-235 BCE) Classical Roman philosophy - 1. Lucretius (88- 55 BCE) 2. Cicero (106 - 43 BCE) 3. Seneca the Younger (BCE 4- 65 AD) 4. Pliny The Elder (23-79) 5. The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (121-180) 6. Porphyry of Tyre ( 233- 305) 7. Augustine (354-430) 8. Hypatia (370-415) 9. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (470/75-524) Islamic philosophy - 1. Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (854 CE - 925 CE) Famed doctor, chemist, and philosopher. First person to describe smallpox and measles as separate diseases and author of the first book on pediatrics. 2. ArA ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila (The Views of the People of The Virtuous City) by Al-Farabi (872-951 AD) 3. Saadia Gaon (882 CE - 942 CE) 4. Yahya ibn Adi (893 CE - 974 CE) Logic theorist and doctor 5. Avicenna (980 CE - 1037 CE) Persian Polymath that is often regarded as the single greatest thinker of the Islamic Golden age. 6. Ihya Ulum al-Din - The Revival of Religious Sciences by Al-Ghazzali (1058-1111 AD) 7. Ibn Rushd (1126-1198 AD) - aka Averroes. 8. Sohrevardi (1154 CE - 1191 CE) Founder of the Islamic school of Illuminationism. 9. Tafsir Al-Kabeer of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149 CE - 1209 CE) 10. Ibn Arabi (1165-1240 AD) the first Islamic postmodern and feminist thinker. Medieval European and Renaissance era philosophy - 1. Augustine (354-430) 2. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (470/75-524) 3. Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) - the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God 4. Scholasticism - 13th and 14th century - Some of the main figures of scholasticism include Anselm of Canterbury (“the father of scholasticism"), Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas's masterwork Summa Theologica (1265-1274) is considered to be the pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy; 5. Humanism - important works include those by Coluccio Salutati (16 February 1331 - 4 May 1406), Petrarch (1304 - 1374), Michael de Montaigne (1533 - 1592), Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457), Rudolph Agricola (1443-1485), Mario Nizolio (1488-1567), Juan Luis Vives (1493-1540), and Petrus Ramus (1515-1572). 6. Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) - the most important Renaissance Platonist. Modern Philosophy - 1. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) 2. Rationalists - Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Baruch Spinoza (1632-77), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) 3. Empiricist - George Berkley (1685-1753), John Locke (1732-1704), David Hume (1711-1776) 4. Political philosophy - Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Jean Rousseau (1712-1778), Voltaire(1694-1778), Giambattista Vico (1668 - 1744), Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), Giuseppe Mazzini (22 June 1805 - 10 March 1872), Karl Marx (1818-1883), Fredrich Engels (1820-1895). 5. Adam Smith (1723-90). 6. The German idealists - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), G W F Hegel (1770-1831), F W J Schelling (1775-1854), 7. Existential philosophers - Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), Simone de Beauvoir, Karl Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Albert Camus (1913-60) 8. Analytic philosophers - Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970), Gottlob Frege (1848-1925), George Edward Moore, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), Moritz Schlick, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) 9. Neoconfucianism - Xiong Shili 10. Neo-Vedanta - Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan 11. Kyoto school of thought - founded by Kitaro Nishida Contemporary philosophy 1. Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947) 2. Cornel West (b. 1952) - pioneered the school of “neopragmatism” 3. Slavoj Žižek (b. 1949) 4. Gayatri Spivak (b. 1942) 5. Gu Su (b. 1955) 6. Postmodernist philosophers - Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, and Jacques Derrida 7. Structuralism/Poststeucturalism - Michel Foucault, Jaques Derrida I may have missed many but this is all too much to finish anyway. 😂 Good luck everyone! 🙂

Can you make a video about how to write an answer in philosophy ? The language used in philosophical texts are really different and difficult do we have to write like that? Can you please teach us

did you make it to the movie on time ?

the intelligence of a mouse might itself be a philosophical question