Right to the deep end
Ever since I got my PhD, I have been somewhat ashamed of having a degree that implies that I know something of philosophy when I haven't taken one course in it. While studying, I was told that the degree called Doctor of Philosophy exists because all subjects were included in philosophy in the Middle Ages. When I check this now, you could back then get a PhD after completing a rigorous study of Theology, Medicine, or Laws. This all had to be preceded by the study of Arts which in those days included either Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic or Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy - hence the degree Master of Arts. So not much philosophy to write home about in the Middle Ages either, maybe just Logic. When I was 14, I once borrowed a library book on Logic but only remember a simple anecdote that was told first in the book it to illustrate the topic, and I must have soon lost interest in what followed. The anecdote went something like this: There was a cocktail party...