[arctangent]

I'd agree that Philosophy is a tough subject.

The reason I'd give for this is that in some sense philosophy does have correct answers, if and only if a question is framed within an existing philosophical model.

The point of philosophy (as I see it) is trying to work out which philosophical model is most correct - a bit like a choosing between scientific theories.

Instead of testing against measurable things in the real world, philosophers derive logical outcomes from propositions within linguistic/logical systems and compare them to detect inconsistencies.

Therefore it's fine to ask a question about the consequences of a particular line of thought if a particular philosophical framework is specified, because you can mark a student not only on whether they arrived at an expected answer but also on the quality of their argument (i.e. how they got there).

[sliverstorm]

Would it be wrong to call philosophy "abstract {math|logic}"?

[ezyang]

A large an interesting part of being a philosopher involves logic in its purest sense, but it wouldn't right to claim that this is all philosophy is.

[cafard]

Yes, or at least incomplete.