Becuase it would teach people to think outside of the box, to be unique, and to be individual thinkers, and the schools and the government dont like that, they want all of us to think just like them.
i was a lucky one, i took philosphy in high school through a summer college program, and from my experience the reason they dont introduce it to the masses, and condemn those that practice it as "loonies" is because capitalism would fail. no one would want air force ones, gucci bags, mothers day cards, all that commercialized trash. you dont need that shit to live a full life, and philosophy opened my eyes to that. i still dont really know what a full life is, but thats really what keeps me going,
I'd rather they taught the art of rhetorical thinking. Nobody knows when to take other people seriously these days.
i think thats done with great passion in parts of Ireland. hehehe. (hopefully there's a few irish out there who know what i'm saying) "are you talking about scotland? " i'm not talking about anywhere. i mearly asked the question "Why is Philosophy not taught throughout school?"
I wish they taught philosophy throughout school. I do enjoy the philosophy courses at university though (it's my minor). The best way to maintain a government is to keep the population at a minimum intelligence level. Teach them enough that they can be useful to the economy and that's it. I never had philosophy courses availible in highschool, however a few courses introduced philosophers and their basic ideas (history, english). I suppose it could be argued that teaching philosophy is imposing a religious idea, which is not allowed in public schools. (I could be wrong on this, I had religion availible as a course in hs)
Philosophy is taught all throughout college, I don't know what you're talking about Digit! In high school they have to teach things with much more proof and concrete evidence because otherwise parents bug the fuck out. No big deal, no one learns too much in high school anyway. If you major in philosophy in college, you will learn more than enough about the subject, and that is when you will be more likely to take it in and remember it.
thccrystals, from the tone of experience you speak, am i to asume that you have taken philosophy as a major? i'm not so sure you are correct in your thinking about when we best learn. our minds are most receptive to new information/knowledge/ideas/etc at a much younger age. it is suprising how quickly we become set in our ways. then allow me to remind you. school. ... ...not college. what serenesmoker has said applies to any capitalist quasi-democratic nation. so scotland is included, as is canada, and many others. theres a scale to just how "capitalist" a nation can get though. perhaps its the authoritarianism, or perhaps its the right wing. i say it is both.
I took a philsophy class, as in one....but I've attended three colleges and they all had philosophy programs(for the major). I'm actually a psychology major. But about when it's best to learn something... I think people, on average, take college more seriously than high school. It's pretty much that simple, as a generalization. Maybe they could be more receptive to new ideas at a younger age, but they choose not to be. IMO of course, I'm being subjective while trying to remain as objective as possible. I do however believe that they should offer philosophy courses in high school, which I think they do for the most part. I know there are plenty of high schoolers who are motivated to do well in life, and they need to be 'enlightened' at an earlier age. I guess we left out the obvious fact that philosophy isn't something you go into if you are looking to make good money, which many high schoolers are.
I dont think many people would actually benefit from it though. Like for example history - If you actually paid attention to what happened in the past, you'd realize we are a fucked up nation (america at least). But high school is usually never taken seriously and I know I cheated or guessed for the majority of my classes lol I would assume the same goes for astronomy (I didn't take it). If you pay attention, you can't help but wonder about the nature of the universe, and the role we play as a planet.
When learning is forced, little motivates students. When learning is done through pure interest, mountains can be moved. Thereof, I feel that the education system truly fails at grasping at the students' natural interests and therefore respectively little knowledge is spread in comparison to what can be. Schools have to operate on too strict of curriculum to be able to experiment with what is effectively taught and what is not. This, in my opinion, comes back to government and a lack of ability to have a 'free' society.
Well, to think in terms of philosophy is to think about whether something is right or wrong in and of itself, using logic... When you do this, it doesn't matter who says it, whether the government or media. Regardless, you apply critical thinking. This would cause people to think for themselves, and not just go along with what they're told. This is not what they want. Same reason weed and psychedelics are illegal.
Yeah it increases curiosity and questioning things but people are too quick categorize things as they call philosophy "hippie" stuff as the average person would say but some of this "hippie" stuff is far more than a broad generalization, we tend to learn a lot by going deeper into our conscious minds. I'll probably put Philosophy in my next semester and go there high, sativa tends to horsepower my brain lol.