“Brain Hurt” and Other Student Descriptions of Philosophy
Every once in a while a student will make some remark about philosophy (or about reading or writing philosophy, or about a philosophy course) that perfectly captures an aspect of it in an interesting or new or funny way. Sometimes these are in the form of complaints that their professors take as compliments, e.g., “this course makes my brain hurt.” Sometimes they are expressions of surprise, e.g., “I did not realize there were so many questions.”
I heard a new one the other day. A student said: “philosophy is like looking at a microscope through another microscope.” Nice. It evokes the reflexive scrutiny of philosophical thought and the attention to detail that characterizes some philosophical inquiry—sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
I imagine many of you have your own collection of such gems. Let’s hear them.
image by Bedelgeuse
“Every time I leave this class I feel like I know less than I did before.”
In one sense this is good — Socrates, etc… On the other, not so, right? It all depends on what “know less” means. I often worried about this idea that we are telling student4s they know less than they know.
One student about my philosophical writing course: “This is not like other writing classes I have taken. It’s like writing on steroids.”
Two different students at different schools said the same thing: “I don’t like philosophy because I don’t like thinking so hard.” They were not, thankfully, at my current school.
A few times a term a student will garb their head with both hands and shout “Stop! My head hurts!!”
“I’m supposed to be getting less confused”
Insomnia-inducing, but better than sex.
Kind of a dumb response, no? Unless one sleeps through sex.
A student in my ethics class was overheard saying — while in the campus study center — to another student: “Boy! You sure can’t sleep in his class!”
“I learned that philosophy is not just bullshit.”
“Everything I know about philosophy I learned from Meta Treks.”
A student last year (male, if that matters) went by me as class ended and said “This class today gave me a brain orgasm!”
“This course makes my heard hurt… but I’m really enjoying it!”
One of my favorites is: “Philosophers are people who worry about things that no one in their right mind worries about.”
Another: “I used to be sure of everything and now I’m not sure I am sure of anything.”
Reminds me of Isaiah Berlin’s quote: philosophers are adults who persist in asking childish questions.
“Philosophy is about a bunch of people talking about a bunch of bullshit.”
And we find this positive?
Me: Today we’re going to do a quick review of the Lacan.
Student in the front row: You mean Lacan’t?
One more I remembered: Professor F makes philosophy interesting, which it isn’t. But maybe I’ll read more when I get his age.
“Some of the philosophies we’ve discussed sound more like mental disorders than ways of life, prof.”
I think a case could be argued that at least a couple of them, in fact, are.
One thing throughout this thread is that students can be very perceptive, humorous, and make it clear that we teach for a good reason.