Philfag here. I have a philosophy professor at Harvard who I feel was intellectually abusing his philosophy undergrads...

Philfag here. I have a philosophy professor at Harvard who I feel was intellectually abusing his philosophy undergrads. He assigned us inhuman amounts of philosophy homework and taught his classes like we were born already doing graduate philosophy while still gestating in our mother's wombs. He even smugly enjoined (probably jokingly though) that anyone who wasn't at the level of Wittgenstein or Kant intellectually speaking would be better off dropping the course; that, he said would intellectually behoove them in the long-run. He forced us to read the Critique of Pure Reason in less than a week and a half, expecting anyone who couldn't symbolically or modally represent the chapters on Transcendental Aesthetic, to wit, Kant's proofs of space-time being an a priori form of intuition that made experience possible, that they'd be dropped from the course de facto: they'd receive, automatically, the lowest grade.

Not only that, but when we couldn't represent parts of Hegelian logic using Kripke–Platek set theory in class he'd call us idiots or retards. Obviously he has tenure or else he wouldn't say those things. If we riposted with anything, he'd say the Holy Ghost is watching and he's gonna send us to hell. This, patently meant that we'd get a low grade. Everyone already knew that. It was almost impossible to get an A in that class unless you were able to turn the whole field of philosophy on its head. For him an A was completely original work, Socratic/Kant-tier.

The class is dehumanizing, dreadful, and I have no other choice but to keep learning with him because my focus intertwines with his. At the same I love philosophy, but I can't handle learning with this guy. He's even blackmailed students who didn't complete their homework, and literally stopped teaching the class one day to find a student who didn't show up. It's fucking ridiculous. I need help.

Pic related, he made this face every time we were doing something wrong or just before he'd call us a "Derridean idiot."

What should I do?

spooks_spurdo.png

If this is true i wish i was in your class.

stay in the class so you can write a book about him afterward. make sure to also write in some eccentric/lovable teacher who gets fired by the big bad boss. also write in a love interest with a big butt. then, make lots of money.

/r/thatHappened

Given the responses, sounds like I'm fucked for the next several years

>What should I do?
learn how to use commas

I was actually going say that I wasn't going to bother proofreading in the OP, but then I just stopped caring.

Next time you walk into class knock him out. If you are a weakling use a three inch piece of pipe. While he is blubbering on the ground like a little pussy tell him that this is a calliclean refutation of philosophy.

this tbhfam

Haha this made my day. I wish. I don't have the intellectual balls though. This is probably why I can't get an A in any of his courses.

Sack up and become a Philosopher King or drop the course.

While it is true that Plato expected everyone to know geometry before an valid acceptance into the academy, he didn't call them idiots nor did he blackmail them. This teacher might be a sort of Whiplash-esque dream for members on this board, but he's an asshat and he doesn't act like a true philosopher.

a*

>but he's an asshat and he doesn't act like a true philosopher.

No true Scotsman, seriously? Stop complaining, you're lucky.

He's more of a Diogenes than a Plato, fine.

seems like your teacher is quite the autistic little man

>He's more of a Diogenes than a Plato

Do you still not realize how fortunate you are? Studying at Harvard? Good god. Just put up with him a while longer.

Admittedly, I have done things I never knew I could do. You have a good point. I've thought about suicide while taking his courses though. I've had to start taking anti-depressants.

Maybe it is No True Scotsman, but OP obviously has an implicit definition of philosopher he's working with. CAN a true lover a wisdom be an asshole? Doesn't meanness, crudity, and fear make people worse? Shouldn't wisdom make people better? Shouldn't someone who loves wisdom love what it does (make people better) and try to do it in all things?

I know there's an alternative notion: a philosopher is an expert is some skill, and skilled craftsman sometimes use reward/punishment to teach their skill, so an ass-kicking philosopher isn't a controdiction. But I'd argue 1) a philosopher isn't a craftsman and 2) even a craftsman who teaches is still trying to make someone better at their skill, and should always keep that end in view. The abuse OP described doesn't sound like a craftsman teaching a skill, he just sounds like an asshole.

And he knows I'm Jewish too. He has something against me. He's an old fuck, but an anti-semitic one. It's going to be even harder getting good grades in his courses with that bias in hand.

I imagine Diogenes was an asshat too. He walked away from one of his students who wanted to get taught by him without saying a word. I forget the exact details of the case, but I think the student was a strict Parmenidean monist who abjured motion in all cases.

Maybe you've learned how to grind, which is a valuable skill. But have you deepened your love of learning thanks to his class?

Your professor sounds like a dick who should save that shit for grad students. A liberal arts education at Harvard should be broader are more joyful imho. You want potential philosophers to come out the otherside of undergrad with their wonder and curiosity still intact, with a wide familiarity with Western culture to boot. Grad school is the time for becoming a professional.

serious?
dude you need thicker skin
if he's like that to everyone it's not even personal, you can just think "this has nothing to do with me, this guy is just an asshole" and let that shit roll off you like water off a duck's back

think of it as a class in dealing with assholes in power. Thats a much more practical lesson to learn than the minutia of philosophy, anyhow.

Is this pasta or what?

If not, beat him with a tire iron while reciting passages from Zarathustra

What's the name of the professor?

>professor of philosophy
>philosopher

Pick one muchacho

>But have you deepened your love of learning thanks to his class?
I have learned ungodly amounts of things about philosophy while taking his courses and, like I already stated, have become a sharper thinker. The process isn't as fun though. But the information I have consumed is divine, I will admit.

You know what to do, OP.

Catch him off guard with pic related.

Call every piece of work he dares to assign a spook. Wait patiently for him to reveal his philosophical preferences, and then, when he's in the middle of waxing lyrical about them, loudly proclaim in front of everyone that he is spooked.

If he tries to punish you, merely claim you are the Unique One, the Creative Nothing that cannot be punished.

When he finally starts trying to reason with you, state that you are prepared to overlook all of his shenanigans if he joins your Union of Egoists.

He was clever wit who forced other philosophers to confront their pretensions and maybe have a laugh at the absurdity of some of their propositions. I know of know stories where he abused young learners. In the version of your story which I heard, it wasn't a student, just a dime-a-dozen Eleatic who was ripe for satire.

I've already gotten a thread deleted when I started mentioning names. I'm going to have to abstain, sorry.

moran...?
i honestly don't believe you op
the jew thing especially, harvard's a third jewish

This.

You're just a bitch. If you can't even handle an intelligent egomaniac, you're never going to survive in the field once you graduate. Tbh, I'd kill to take a class like that. You think getting called Derridean idiot is bad? Get back to me when you write your whole life without getting acknowledged for it like Schopenhauer or Nietzsche. Your professor is doing the field of philosophy a favor by thinning out entitled brats like you. We should thank him for saving us from the ideas of minds like yours.

boyle

This.

>think of it as a class in dealing with assholes in power.

That's another good lesson to learn from this teacher, I guess. I just think it sucks that undergrad departments have fallen so far that lessons like this and "how to grind" are the best you can hope for from some classes.

What about keeping the wonder and respect for Western tradition alive? Where else are liberal arts undergrads gonna have a chance to do that? They're certainly not gonna go on to do that from grad school, or learn it from wider society. Undergraduate institutions are supposed to be finishing school for good citizens, not more cogs in the capitalist machine.

Is there a single person outside of this board who takes Stirner seriously?

>PhD from Pittsburgh

Bullshit. You're a troll.

Pittsburgh is among the top 5 philosophy departments in the world.

Pittfag detected

No it isn't

God you sound just like him. He's even said some of the same things.

>philosophy undergrads
>What should I do?

I think you already know.

you don't know shit about phil, bud

>He thinks modern universities are of any intellectual value

Wew lad.

PHIL 158x or PHIL 129?

Never went to college so I wouldn't know which institution has the most undeserved reputation

I'm light years ahead of all those academic clowns anyway, as will soon become apparent

Musicfag here. I have a jazz instructor at Shaffer who I feel was intellectually abusing his studio band students. He assigned us inhuman amounts of new material and held his rehearsals like we were born already playing bebop heads while still gestating in our mother's wombs. He even smugly enjoined (probably jokingly though) that anyone who wasn't at the level of Joe Jones or Buddy Rich musically speaking would be better off dropping the course; that, he said would musically behoove them in the long-run. He forced us to play Whiplash perfectly without ever practicing together as a band, expecting anyone who couldn't recognize that he's out of tune or tempo, by ear, having absolute pitch and the ability to count tempo in your head being an a priori form of intuition that made music possible, that they'd be dropped from the course de facto: they'd receive, automatically, the lowest grade.

Not only that, but when we couldn't play Caravan's double-time swing in quarter note 330 in class he'd call us idiots or retards. Obviously he has tenure or else he wouldn't say those things. If we riposted with anything, he'd say "not quite my tempo". This, patently meant that we'd get kicked from the band. Everyone already knew that. It was almost impossible to get into the core band in that class unless you were able to turn the whole field of jazz on its head. For him a core performance was completely original work, Louis Armstrong/Charlie Parker-tier.
The class is dehumanizing, dreadful, and I have no other choice but to keep learning with him because my focus intertwines with his. At the same I love music, but I can't handle learning with this guy. He's even blackmailed students who didn't complete their homework, and literally stopped teaching the class one day to talk about one of his more ambitious students from previous generations who had just killed himself. It's fucking ridiculous. I need help.

Pic related, he made this face every time we were doing something wrong or just before he'd call us a "a worthless friendless faggotlipped little piece of shit, whose Mommy ran out on Daddy once she realized he wasn’t Eugene O’Neill."

What should I do?

Cute.

I still come in vain to Veeky Forums for conversation (fucking wishful thinking), but stay for the good stuff like this.

>I work on a range of topics in metaphysics and epistemology that overlap with philosophy of science. (Which is to say: the best topics in metaphysics and epistemology.) Are there “fundamental” laws of nature? What are they – as distinct, say, from accidentally true generalizations, or the causal generalizations that seem to figure in the special sciences? Suppose it’s a truism that one of the central aims of scientific inquiry is to uncover the causal structure of our world (at many different time- and length-scales); what does “causal structure” need to mean, for this truism to be not merely true but illuminating? What are the varieties of probability, and can any of them be said to be properly “objective”? What would it take for one science to “reduce” to another? Must fundamental physics have an intelligible ontology – and if so, what does this constraint amount to? Is there any need for a conception of ‘metaphysical possibility’ that outstrips physical possibility? Can there be any basis for skepticism about unobservable structure that is not also, and equally, a basis for skepticism about unobserved structure? (And so on.) I firmly believe that philosophical discourse always goes better if the parties involved resolutely avoid any “burden-shifting” maneuvers, and that teaching always goes better if you bring cookies.

It functions to weed out the memers. He knows who will succeed in the area of study and what it takes. Why let the student waste their time, why let the student waste his time? He is like a coach giving hard practices. Stay dedicated, focused, and diligent and he'll look you in the eye at the end, and you'll have a moment of recognition, a silent nod of respect. You are one of the unmemed, a lover of knowledge. Not an intellectual equal obviously but man. A man.

>in vain
>not in vein

Do you even shitpost m8?

I mean, it's not like we all aren't thinking the same.

Top kek.

I've never even been to Pittsburgh. It just happens to have an excellent philosophy department, as reflected in global rankings.

This thread is really delivering.

OP here. This post for some reason gave me a shit ton of motivation. Feel like going on a run. Might actually start working on my thesis early on. Pretty sure I got the prerequisite knowledge now. Although the thread is full of shitposts, this helped me a ton, whilst being funny.

Fuck...
later anons.

there probably isn't a single person outside of this board who knows who Stirner is, save from the occasional anarchist. if more people knew who he was and actually read him, he'd probably be taken a lot more seriously.

Fling a chair at him.

>struggling in liberal arts subject

OP was focusing on philosophical logic and math you pleb

>global rankings

Lel based on what? Academic output? Elo score? IQ? Number of brown people in the department?

>OP's face when he doesn't take this advice

>I argue that a variety of influential accounts of self-knowledge are flawed by the assumption that all immediate, authoritative knowledge of our own present mental states is of one basic kind. I claim, on the contrary, that a satisfactory account of self-knowledge must recognize at least two fundamentally different kinds of self-knowledge: an active kind through which we know our own judgments, and a passive kind through which we know our sensations. I show that the former kind of self-knowledge is in an important sense fundamental, since it is intimately connected with the very capacity for rational reflection, and since it must be present in any creature that understands the first-person pronoun. Moreover, I suggest that these thoughts about self-knowledge have a Kantian provenance

This retard is a tenured professor of philosophy at Harvard

>if more people knew who he was and actually read him, he'd probably be taken a lot more seriously.

Heh.

If people actually read his edgy shit, they'd long for those halcyon days when they had no idea of anything 'Stirner'.

>passive kind through which we know our sensations

So this retard has only just discovered what 'instinct' is?

heh, this post was adorable

Top memes and OP got reinvigorated.

Ship this thread to the hall boys

i have no occupation with readings right now so
where should I start with Stirner ? What is his most rewarding and enjoyable work?

I think he only produced one work of note; The Ego and its Own.

Ego and Its Own lays down his philosophy fairly well tbhfam. Just start there and call me in the morning.

You put up with all of it, learn something, and ace the class.

>What should I do?
Do what any other self-respecting student would do in a class which they cant stand, but where they still want a good grade...

...blowjobs.

Fucking this.

The whole idea of a 'spook' has been abused to death on this board; people just throw it at anything they don't like, under the impression that 'spooks' trump all. It's the philosophical equivalent of that stupid metaphor with the pigeon shitting all over the chess board.

Basically it implies "Lol, I don't care" to any idea people don't like.

I'd say sensations are more immediate than anything. They have a sort of urgency bordering on impertinence. Plato wrote about 'the mob of the senses'.

If I stick a knife in your leg, I don't think you're going to be passively aware of it

>>>reddit

This is some good advice. If you want a better grade, make sure to swallow as well.

You're lucky to have a professor who cares and who forces you to work hard and learn. Now get off the internet and hit the books.

I'm sorry for making a bad joke, user. How should I repay you for this grave injustice?

stop posting, lurk moar

>what s empirical reasoning
>what is instinctive reasoning
>but I need all these extra words to make me sound smarter than I really am

[/spoiler]Is your professor a woman?[/spoiler]

It's the professor OP is complaining about

>this is all definitely true guys, didn't make anything up

Worthwhile post

That's sarcasm :)

Glad you took the time to respond.
:^)

>have excellent experience with my first university philosophy teacher
>speaks in plain English, engages in dialogue with students to fortify his lectures
>funny af
>the mind still hungers, class leaves a lot to be desired in terms of specifics
>"hey I think I'll take THIS course!"
>unknown to me, the teach is a world-renowned obese libertarianfag
>university's resident and most famous philosopher
>go to class
>obese fuck lumbers through the door
>saxophone_music.mp3
>spends the rest of the class not explaining concepts, just paces to and fro staring at the ground murmuring to himself, inaudibly
>all I want to do is burst out laughing
>first thing he assigns is Rawls
>blah blah the law, justice, burp
>tfw I live in America and philosophy is decidedly unsexy
>tfw no zizeks and foucaults to expound on fist fucking or Nietzsche, entertaining even if I disagree

And that folks is why the best Anglo minds have gravitated towards literature and not philosophy, all our traditions are boring as fuck.

0/10.

You dumb niggers, go read Kant. It may be obscure, but this phil is at least TRYING to do serious epistemology. He's explicitly talking about knowledge. What the fuck does instinct have to do with wondering about our capacity to know?

Thank that teacher. He is the only training you'll get for real life. Real life is doing one thing for 8 hours a day with at least fairly high amount of concentration and retention. Whether you do what you love or not, this is your post-college (or for the NEETs out there, post-mommy and daddy) existence; be glad you can learn how to do it with something fun like philosophy, and not something soul crushing like office work or flippin burgs.

>J K Simmons staring in the sequel to Whiplash

Critique off All Reason

well with that

s*ged

Underrated post.

I am tempted to believe just because some of the things administrators and professors.

I was at Yale the the early 2000s and there was a story everyone told about Harold Bloom writing nothing but "Admissions Error?" in huge letters on a student's essay.

A lesbian music professor made passes at several girls I knew.

One professor was notorious for having a seminar where, mysteriously, the best fifteen candidates he could find all happened to be nubile young women of at least above-average attractiveness.

There was a master who was buying weed from students and gambling and she basically disappeared without a trace in the middle of a school year.

Another master used to get drunk and swear loudly at official dinners.

Not to mention Anthony LaSaga (too lazy to check spelling but not to type a disclaimer about it) who was arrested for diddling neighborhood kids he was tutoring and keeping videos of it on school property.

Not to mention all the blatant politicizing of classes that had nothing to do with politics. During strikes I had to go all the way to the New Haven People's Center (hmmm) for a class on counterpoint. And there were all these picutres of Castro and Che Guevara and stuff all over the place. I respect the wishes of people who don't want to cross picket lines, but holding your class somewhere else is a statement enough without having to relocate to some Marxist theme park.

Kids these days complain about the microagressions and what not, but back in the day if you said you were depressed you were probably going to get told something like "At least you're not in Iraq." Some amount of abusiveness is almost expected and occasionally even thrilling, like any other genre of initiatory masochism enjoyed by college kids.

>caring
lolspook
>empirical
>instinctive
nice presumptions
>real life
Why to wageslaves propagate this myth?

>nubile young women of at least above-average attractiveness.
but women in college are ugly.

>he never attended college

haha, oh man.
>>>/worldstarhiphop/


>tfw my astonishment at how the sheer volume of sheltered Ms.Perfect pussy is inconceivable to you
>that perfect girl with the perfect grades and the perfect afterschool activities
>implying she didn't end up at some Ivy, getting ejaculated upon by multitudes of moneykid Chads xanax'd out of her mind in some secret society ritual
>tfw ywn be a Chad of such incredible breeding and caliber
>tfw even in the best of all possible worlds, you could only hope to be a second choice middle class obscurity Lacoste polo Chad who maybe gets the 8/10s
>mfw this isn't my face

I did, old hags are not attractive

>sexual proclivities tend towards the minors of the fairer sex

Ah, ok. Makes sense now. Point well taken good sir. I stand corrected.

>knowing anything about reddit
you have to go back

>thinking anyone cares about blacks outside of the US