Why is philosophy seen as a "********" subject?

GCSE English Lit is easy but I don't think English Lit is entirely BS. A bit pointless, maybe, but a lot of interesting things don't have a direct practical application. At lower levels it is useful for encouraging one's analytical skills, ability to argue points, and understanding of multiple/contrasting interpretations, as well as exploring ideas about human nature and informing us about historical human experience when we learn from older literature. It may seem stupid when you're arguing some obscure crap that the author definitely never consciously thought of but on the whole I wouldn't say it's BS.

pardon the language but this is exactly my view on english lit where you're trying to expand something from nothing

There are much better ways to improve analytical techniques i'm sure and there's better ways to improve ones arguments and argumentative skill

Yes I have seen this but meh. To me, it's not about what the author had on their mind when they were writing the piece, it's about what the reader brings to it. I think an open mind goes a long way and all our experiences are pretty much subjective anyway; English Lit lets you explore that. Tbh it is the more philosophical discussions that come from analysing a text that interest me and indeed Philosophy is an intriguing subject to me; I was quite up for taking it at uni for a while. But I think English Lit offers something more concrete at GCSE level and the only subject that encourages similar skills to the same degree is History, though that has less emphasis on things like subtext and metaphor and analysis of large bodies of work.

pardon the language but this is exactly my view on english lit where you're trying to expand something from nothing

There are much better ways to improve analytical techniques i'm sure and there's better ways to improve ones arguments and argumentative skill

Not much in proper literary criticism is as simple-minded or as provably false as your simple example though.

At its best, criticism really lifts veils and helps with understanding pieces of fiction. I was thinking today about JRR Tolkien - last night there was a programme on about the Battle of the Somme, where Tolkien served and a literary critic has written a book about how strongly JRRT was influenced by his experiences there. He wasn't simplistic about it and you couldn't help agreeing with many of his conclusions - it really illuminated thinking about Tolkien's work.

I don't understand, why are people so "short-sighted" in this matter and only perceive what they want and refuse any other possibility which may actually the truth.

All people say is "Oh philosophy is so easy it's just ******** and it's so easy i could get an A* in it" and i'm sat here wanting to crush their thick heads in. How can you be so ignorant, yes some a level will be easier than other but not far from other a level subjects.

I would've said(back then) "if it's so easy then why didn't you take it and get an A* in it then?" then they probably would've given me some ******** reason why they don't want to do it.

In any case where they obviously don't want to do it, that's fine because you have other prospects which you want to do and other jobs/courses/dreams you wanna pursue. However you can't just say a subject is "********" just because you think that. Especially with subjects you must try them before you have an opinion on them.

Why do people not say "oh English is just ******** all you have to do is waffle on and then it's easy to get an A*" why do i never hear this being said? Philosophy is so much more difficult than English. Philosophy you must have knowledge facts and justification and many examples to back up your claim, English however (i heard from my philosophy teacher who had a degree in English lit) said that you can literally just know almost nothing about the texts, waffle on write a huge essay and still get a good grade. Like i said philosophy you can't do that.

TL: DR People think philosophy is ******** at first glance and refuse to change their opinion about it. If people say that it's so easy to get an A* in philosophy then why don't they do it and get an A*? Why don't people criticise English for being "********" ? it's much worse than philosophy and you can write a huge waffle essay on almost no knowledge of texts yet you can still get top grade whereas you cannot do that with philosophy.

This is why I love maths. You learn the rules and apply them and there's no ******** interpretations.

I don't understand, why are people so "short-sighted" in this matter and only perceive what they want and refuse any other possibility which may actually the truth.

All people say is "Oh philosophy is so easy it's just ******** and it's so easy i could get an A* in it" and i'm sat here wanting to crush their thick heads in. How can you be so ignorant, yes some a level will be easier than other but not far from other a level subjects.

I would've said(back then) "if it's so easy then why didn't you take it and get an A* in it then?" then they probably would've given me some ******** reason why they don't want to do it.

In any case where they obviously don't want to do it, that's fine because you have other prospects which you want to do and other jobs/courses/dreams you wanna pursue. However you can't just say a subject is "********" just because you think that. Especially with subjects you must try them before you have an opinion on them.

Why do people not say "oh English is just ******** all you have to do is waffle on and then it's easy to get an A*" why do i never hear this being said? Philosophy is so much more difficult than English. Philosophy you must have knowledge facts and justification and many examples to back up your claim, English however (i heard from my philosophy teacher who had a degree in English lit) said that you can literally just know almost nothing about the texts, waffle on write a huge essay and still get a good grade. Like i said philosophy you can't do that.

TL: DR People think philosophy is ******** at first glance and refuse to change their opinion about it. If people say that it's so easy to get an A* in philosophy then why don't they do it and get an A*? Why don't people criticise English for being "********" ? it's much worse than philosophy and you can write a huge waffle essay on almost no knowledge of texts yet you can still get top grade whereas you cannot do that with philosophy.

The fact that it is hard to get A* does not imply that it is a desirable subject.
Good luck.

This is why I love maths. You learn the rules and apply them and there's no ******** interpretations.

Hey!

I get how you feel - philosophy is a fairly underestimated subject mainly because it is not a very popular A-level! I think it's quite hard for the layman to grasp the complexity of all the theories learnt and how this subject requires a lot of thought outside of the classroom setting. I personally studied philosophy for 4.5 years (4 years because it was a compulsory subject in my previous school) and another half a year at AS because I decided that I preferred to study it as an interest and less of an examinable subject.

It took me ages to understand the argument for justified true belief and Gettier's problems and apply it in an essay I spent the most time studying for this subject (as compared to economics, chemistry, biology and maths) so I definitely think it is one of the tougher A-levels.

From the outset, philosophy seems easy because most of it is made out to be simple logic but you could always just blow their minds with, say, the ontological argument In all seriousness though, I've received countless looks of admiration from fellow peers when they discover I study (or rather, studied) philosophy! I'm sure the people you've mentioned in your post are simply quick to judge and are in the minority.

Kudos to you for studying philosophy at A-level! It's no mean feat and you deserve to be aristotle-y proud of yourself whoo

Personally, I would dread the idea of doing alevel philosophy and would gladly study a level chem or bio instead.