[Stasis5001]

Math classes ramp up in a gradual way that develops critical thinking and intuition in a very small sandbox, where it's easier to appreciate the results. Thinking in, say, just the x-y plane makes it far easier to isolate relationships than philosophy, which tackles much bigger problems and gets you into controversial problems almost immediately, with no clear answers. The basic math framework is rigid and precise, whereas philosophy only gets that rigidity at much higher levels where, guess what, it starts to merge with the field of mathematical logic.

Of course, a one size approach won't fit everybody.

[musgravepeter]

To me the key point is "no clear answers" in philosophy.

In math you learn to follow a series of developments, building structure that leads to statements that are true. These are the foundation for more bricks in the wall and even bigger constructions. e.g. The proof of Fermat's last theorem.

My sense of philosophy - after reading maybe a dozen of the classics, was there was little that was accepted as true. Yes, there are self-consistent chains of reasoning but the foundation blocks are more a matter of "taste", and the amount of rigor in the chains varied - complicated by the fact that human language is inherently not very precise.

[tremon]

True, but that is because philosophy doesn't deal with answers. It deals with a more fundamental question, the question of truth itself. Instead of providing a framework for finding singular answers to exact formulations like mathematics does, philosophy ultimately provides a framework for exploring and expanding the limits of certainty.

Please remember that the entire STEM field grew out of the questions of those philosophers you dismiss as "no clear answers": our entire scientific process (empirical theory-building) is based on the previous explorations of philosophers on truth and knowing. Similarly, both capitalism and Marxism grew out of the questions of philosophers about the structure of society.

You need questions before you can answer them. Philosophy deals with the questions. Our answers to those questions have become the main pillars of modern society.

[smelterdemon]

Mathematics is also based on foundations which are in some sense a matter of taste e.g. Euclidean vs non-Euclidean geometries. IMO at a certain level of abstraction mathematics and philosophy are the same thing.

[boomboomsubban]

This seems like a poor curriculum rather than an actual flaw in philosophy, without the logic framework philosophy is just the history of ideas. If taught in a manner similar to math, where you learn logic tools and then build on top of them over time, I would expect similar and overlapping development.

[Stasis5001]

A philosophy class teaching fundamentals in logic - taught in a way similar to math - is probably more like math in the sense of the article than philosophy in the sense of the grandparent post. The grandparent probably meant something more like a class on ethics, which doesn't really have the same style of beauty and truth that math does. This is certainly my impression after taking a few philosophy classes and a ton of math ones, including a philosophical logic class cross-listed with math.

This isn't a flaw of philosophy. Lots of fields of human study are great. Math just has some things that make it unique. But just like defining what art is, it's hard to pin down exactly what it all is.