Where can one study philosophy in Malaysia?

Is there a channel where I can inquire for the prerequisites?

what kind of philosophy u're looking for?

I am not looking for a specific branch of philosophy. Is there a philosophy 101, where all beginners start, i.e, an introductionary course?

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/

Deadlocks,

They are ALL available FREE from MIT over the Internet...

You can find those from Princeton and Harvard university too...

Dreamer

Are there no traditional classrooms for philosophy in Malaysia?

This post has been edited by Deadlocks: Aug 14 2011, 08:12 AM

Deadlocks,

Why do you want LOW CLASS education when you can get WORLD CLASS education from MIT, Harvard, and Princeton??

Philosophy is THINKING about THINKING...

Why do you need a classroom to THINK??

Dreamer

Because I prefer human interaction, not that I insisted on choosing questionable quality of education, of course.

Deadlocks,

Do you MEAN that YOU are NOT a human being?? YOU cannot interact with YOURSELF?? YOU cannot QUESTION yourself??

Philosophy is THINKING about THINKING. That also mean the ABILITY to see / think from more that ONE POV. Nobody can do it for YOU. YOU have to be ABLE to QUESTION and DEBATE and look from multiple POV. Including ONE that is TOTALLY opposite your current POV.

Dreamer

I understand what you mean, but I prefer interaction with another person than myself. I like philosophy for what it is, but I will be joyful should I have study + human interaction as a package.

Surely education is not a lonesone journey? Unless you think it is.

Try checking out this distance learning site. You can get a University of London external degree in philosophy from it. To be frank, you will not get any philosophy courses in Malaysia, either in local universities or foreign. Not a "practical" or a degree which can cari makan. Malaysian mentality. Do go and learn philosophy, it does broadens one's mind and encourages one to think properly. But don't expect to get a job from it. Used to have a friend who studied philosophy in UK, did it for interest. Still ended up working in a bank and went through their training program. Could have been promoted faster if had gone through an accounting degree or something more practical and related.

http://www.philosophypathways.com/programs/index.html

Same goes for Art degree holders. A friend of mine however, became a principal of an international private school by having that degree in LESS THAN A YEAR, shocking everyone with business, accounting, and other so-called "practical" degrees, while everyone is wondering why they couldn't get a job with that degree.

And it is because of this, it reignited my hope that although philosophy and art degree holders are shun by corporations for being impractical, my friend is the perfect example of how that is actually NOT TRUE at all. Here is his view of "degrees".

"Degrees are useless". What you need is enlightenment, philosophically, and spiritually, and you will understand how things work, and when you understand how they work, YOU WIN.

Thanks for the link, will check it out.

This post has been edited by Deadlocks: Aug 16 2011, 05:15 AM

philosophically not about learning only, is about how do u feel.

If u study in internet, u just study ppl experince, the concept in his/her mind.
But unfortunely, many things bound with our environmental grow, from era to era, culture to culture, one place to another place, all teori renew & renew again.

What u study today may diference tomoro. Depend on the environment u live.

Example: look at the england riot today, they r too many student (they r lucky bcos can get high educated) involved in the incident. & one of the riot (graduator) who claim that: "I join bcos i want to know is that i'm still valueble to the community? My "price" in this country. Am i importance to this country????

Sometime Things r easy as eat cake, just that we can't accept it.
for me, philosophic is like an Fate (jodoh), one may or may not meet it.
It destiny, It fate.

Good Luck.

Things as easy as eating cake is what I used to think when I was a 5 year old kid. So I can't think like a kid anymore, I will have to apologize for that.

I agree that philosophy is not all about reading, it has a lot to do with how one perceives his life, with the surroundings. But since there are actually education for philosophy, one can hardly refuse such hedonistic endeavour.

However, I'm quite baffled as how you relate philosophy as "fate", and "destiny". Philosophy means the love for wisdom, and you seemed to be a person who rejected deep thoughts to live things as simple as possible, not to say that it is wrong, but you seemed to be a person who dislike thinking because it is way too hard to do so, and decided to call it "fate" to simplify things, not knowing that you may be limiting yourself.

This post has been edited by Deadlocks: Aug 16 2011, 03:42 PM

Hey Deadlocks!! Good to know someone else other than me is looking for a philo course somewhere xD. HELP used to have an introduction to philosophy class last few years (and a very good lecturer), but the donkey head of dept. for ADP caused stupid problems and made her leave. I'm currently looking for philosophy classes as well, maybe, if you'd like to, we can update one another if we find something? I'll just share with you what I found so far, sorry if they're a bit messy.

The UoL external program is one way you can go about studying philosophy it is accredited and it is pretty good (London philosophy programs are probably some of the best and most difficult ones). Apparently they're accepting applications for the external in September http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/how_t.../malaysia.shtml and I'm planning to take the introduction course first (depending on how I do, I'll decide whether or not to go on with the diploma and degree). Exams will be on next year May.

The philosophy pathways program is also pretty good, from what I've seen, though it can be a little pricey if you couple it both with the UoL diploma/degree program. From what I gather, they'll give you homework and writings to do, and you'll send your answer to them. The tutors will then check and give you a 800 word comment on how to fix and develop your essays further. Correspondence will be through email only, if I'm not mistaken. There're also private tutors that will tutor you through skype. I don't remember where I've seen it, but I'll update the post if I can find it again. There're no prices, but I'm guessing it'll be a lot more expensive than the philosophy pathways programs, because of the guy's supposed PhD and tutoring experiences in Oxford.

If you want to study in a university, the closest you can get a degree in philosophy will be at Singapore at NUS. I'm not sure of the entry requirements, though, but based on their rankings, I'm guessing it'd be hell getting into the program. I know AIMST in Kedah has introductory philosophy classes as well, but from what my friend recounted to me, it's not worth going there to take.

I was thinking also, if you'd like to, we can put together a reading/study group for philosophy. I am looking for more people atm, so let me know what you think xD And are there any particular fields of philosophy you're most interested in?

One last edit: Deadlocks, if you want to read more about philosophy this is a good place to begin. This is an encyclopedia of Philosophy - http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html online. If you want an easier to read book, I suggest you go to the bookstores and buy The Philosophy Book - it's an encyclopedia by DK, very accessible, very easy to read. Gives you a summary of almost all the prominent philosophers from the past until now. It's 90 bucks, I saw it in Borders and Kinokuniya. For a more classic introductory text, try Bertrand Russell's Problems of Philosophy - http://www.ditext.com/russell/russell.html (and if you want to get the ebook http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5827 ) Compared to other writings by other philosophers, it's quite easy to read, and I know some universities use this as a basic required reading for their philosophy courses.

Also, I'd like to respond to some of the other posts made. First xenotzu, on the practicality of Philosophy, I must say i completely disagree with your view. Philosophy encourages analytical and critical thinking abilities, which are of a lot of value to employers. My uncle, who is a GM with a timber company in Sarawak has banker friends that prefer people with a philosophy degree, because of their ability to think. His friend himself has a degree in philosophy, and outshines the people with financial/banking background. And contrary to what you think, some bosses actually have some knowledge of philosophy - and knowing some popular names in philosophy does help e.g. Karl Marx, Adam Smith. I back my arguments also with the fact that philosophy graduates tend to have higher GRE scores than grads from other fields (in both written and quantitative aspects). Philosophy students can grasp banking fast. But banking graduates might not be able to grasp thinking fast. And this - is a major advantage.

Dreamer 101, thinking about thinking is not philosophy, it's metacognition (I can tell you all about metacognition because I learn it in psychology =)) And while I agree with you that thinking is mainly a personal process, it is difficult to learn about philosophy on your own. I'd like to see you self-learn Heidegger or Kant by yourself, without help from others. Well if you can, I'll concede that your point makes sense. Also, I agree that MIT is world class, no doubt. But what makes their graduates world class is not their lectures. It's their tutors and their discussions. Students are assigned private tutors that help them develop their thinking skills outside the lecture. That is what classroom/university interaction entails, and what makes students step up and become better thinkers. I watched the entire series from Yale about the philosophy of death. Yeah, it's good. I learnt a lot. But honestly, it's not enough. I won't be able to write essays on the subject just by watching the lecture.

And limfreelance, well, it's good to know that you acknowledge the development in thinking processes. I'm a bit concerned though, cause if its true that we're developing so fast, you seem to be thinking that we should just stop learning altogether, since "what u study might be different tomorrow" instead of trying to step up to learn what's new. A bit dangerous, no?

This post has been edited by mktu12629: Aug 24 2011, 12:15 AM

Well, well, well. What do we have here? I'll check out the sources you've posted, but really, it's nice to know that there are someone out there who are...well, alike.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Lol np xD for one I am absolutely certain that education is never a lonesome journey. There are way more people who want to learn more than we might expect (even in Malaysia, just... Less common?)

Less common? That's an understatement. It's almost void of any philosophical thought, never forgetting to mention the absolute absence of questioning, except for the rare, handful people around who are either hard to find, or simply have left the country.

Philosophy is an invitation to ponder, in the largest possible perspective, the weightier, more stubborn problems of human existence. It is also an invitation to think—to wonder, to question, to speculate, to reason, even to fantasize—in the eternal search for wisdom. In a word, philosophy is an attempt to weave interconnecting lines of illumination between all the disparate realms of human thought in the hope that, like a thousand dawnings, new insights will burst through.

This is only a suggestion, after evaluating your personality based on some of your canny posts. My inference could be less than accurate, but if you like Philosophy so much, and if you really have strong interests in the study of human minds and behaviors, perhaps then you may want to consider Social Psychology. Social Psychology has been defined as “the scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others”.

It isn't just the study of human behaviour I am interested in. It is about understanding how provoking, and why are similar things in everyday life will actually become strange when you think about them. Normality, is as good as absurdity.

I might be missing something here because I’m not sure if I understand what you are saying, but you sounded almost as if you are a Xenophile. Well, nothing wrong with the behavior, as that's just part of the bigger picture, Curiosity. Most people have affections for unusually strange or unknown objects, people, animals, or provocative concepts, etc. to a certain degree out of curiosity. I can tell by your style of writing that you are a revolutionist about philosophy, which I like about that. Perhaps, you may even creatively start a new branch of philosophy. You don't need a PhD to become a Philosopher, isn't it?