Studying Social Science and Philosophy

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Pmartc36
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Studying Social Science and Philosophy

Post by Pmartc36 »

Hey guys,

I'm a quizbowl newbie who decided to take up Social Science and Philosophy as a focus but I don't know where to start studying.
I've started using Quinterest, Protobowl, and this site; but I haven't found any good strategies or other materials for studying.

Thanks

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AGoodMan
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Re: Studying Social Science and Philosophy

Post by AGoodMan »

To learn about philosophers (e.g. Montesquieu, Pascal, etc.), I think a careful reading of their respective Wikipedia articles and then cross-referencing Quinterest and old questions for relevant clues should give you a good idea of what you will need to know (at least at the high school level). You can then learn these clues through a flash-card program or other study methods.

And I think this method can generally be applied to social science as well.
Jon Suh
Wheaton Warrenville South High School '16
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Re: Studying Social Science and Philosophy

Post by i never see pigeons in wheeling »

randomguy1997 wrote:To learn about philosophers (e.g. Montesquieu, Pascal, etc.), I think a careful reading of their respective Wikipedia articles and then cross-referencing Quinterest and old questions for relevant clues should give you a good idea of what you will need to know (at least at the high school level). You can then learn these clues through a flash-card program or other study methods.

And I think this method can generally be applied to social science as well.
This might be helpful for quiz bowl, but it's not a particularly good idea for learning what philosophers and social scientists actually said and what they meant. These fields are based on ideas, and understanding those ideas is key to being able to buzz on something other than the title of a work that comes up in philosophical contexts. I would advise you to choose some selected very famous works that give a sense of the argumentation employed in those fields, like The Republic and Meditations on First Philosophy for philosophy and Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead (take the very old social science works asked about in quiz bowl with a huge grain of salt; they're not an accurate representation of how the fields are conducted today!). Obviously, you don't have time to read every original work. Looking up clues should not be done with the goal of simply memorizing them. If you're going to study a commonly used clue, like the "teleological suspension of the ethical" from Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, figure out what it actually means in the context of the work.

There are a bunch of great sites dedicated to summarizing the overall work of philosophers without the sort of editorializing or bad commentary Wikipedia might give you. For instance, http://sqapo.com/ has great summaries of a bunch of core works. There are academic peer-reviewed online encyclopedias like the straightforward Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.iep.utm.edu/) and the very dense, exhaustive Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/).

Social science also frequently shows up on those philosophy portals. Otherwise, if you Google social science works online, universities will invariably have a ton of great summaries. Otherwise, a lot of social sciences, like psychology and economics, are often best approached by introductory textbooks used in AP classes to give you a broad sense of those fields and the people and ideas important therein. Hope this helps!
Ankit
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Re: Studying Social Science and Philosophy

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

Use question archives to find out which philosophers and social scientists are common asked about in quizbowl. Then do what Ankit says to learn them deeply.
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