The world today is dominated by debates of inaccurate, misleading or downright false information. While it can seem daunting to stand up against this, students at NC State and other universities are in a unique position to combat this. Taking a philosophy course can enable students to not only see past this misinformation, but to directly combat it and stimulate a healthy discourse in the future.

I signed up to take intro to philosophy my first year, after seeing that I’d need a humanities course to graduate eventually. I came to NC State excited to take classes I’d never even seen in high school, and philosophy seemed like the right place to go.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out not only that the course material greatly interested me, but that I also learned a bit about how people think. Many of the concepts covered were highly abstract and impractical, but when considered in a less absolute fashion, tend to be quite practical, especially for students in today’s environment.

While not my favorite part of the introductory class, understanding arguments was quite useful. Through concepts such as validity and soundness, which have to do with logical flow and accuracy of an argument, I could break up and compartmentalize an idea to understand it better.

Philosophy is also a unique subject in that nothing is truly set in stone. You can hold an unorthodox belief, but there is a large amount of support that, if used properly, can support your claim. This makes the subject perfect for learning how to properly debate something and analyze flaws in others’ arguments.

The third philosophy course I took, philosophy of science, ended up being much more practical. We analyzed several fields typically known as pseudo-sciences and religious aspects and found that they were fairly scientific in structure, which surprised almost everyone.

Take astrology, for instance. It’s rooted in ancient religion, doesn’t offer any physical mechanisms for why it works and isn’t all that accurate. Is it a bad science? Yes, but it isn’t pseudoscientific. It’s testable and systematic, among other aspects of sciences. This is just one of many instances I was surprised to consider; the more we covered, the more I became open-minded and cautious about jumping to conclusions.

The professor stated early on in the class that his goal with teaching it was to plant a healthy skepticism of everything in our minds, and I believe he succeeded, in my case. I’ve grown to jump to conclusions less and look for a broad set of sources in any kind of investigation, something I find especially useful as a news writer at Technician.

Fake news and misinformation run rampant online. I hear the phrase “echo chamber” used once a week, and people frequently jump to conclusions or refuse to consider all the options any time word of some nationally important news surfaces. To solve this, we need a mindset of healthy skepticism.

Skepticism can backfire. This is very evident in the field of climate change, where a vast majority supports the fact that the world’s atmosphere is warming, but a few select scientists are unreasonably playing devil’s advocate amidst overwhelming evidence. This is not healthy skepticism, but ignorant skepticism, and it’s dangerous.

Any time I’m asked for a class recommendation, I point to intro to philosophy, because studying the subject can set someone up for success in a truly unique way. Taking a physics class might be useful for those in a variety of majors and can even have practical uses, but it doesn’t have as broad use as philosophical topics.

While I realize the discipline isn’t for everyone, I think it’s definitely underappreciated. If you’re looking for a humanities class to round off your semester, or just have some free time, philosophy can be a surprisingly practical field worth considering.