[otibom]

Good article. I'm french and I did this (but in science, not literature like in the article). I've also been to US college for one semester and I had the chance to take an "Intro to Philosophy" freshman class. So I've had two formal introductory philosophy classes, in different languages, cultures and contexts, but definitely aimed at the same public (17-19 y. old). It's quite interesting to compare these two. In France the focus was definitely more on authors, philosophical theories, texts and ideas. In America the material was more on reasoning, logic and formal arguments. Never once were we presented a formal Modus Ponens layout in France. We were told never to write our own ideas in our essays --- "You'll do that if you get a master in philosophy". However the American class had too much of "learn those 10 arguments by heart" I would say. So they definitely had subtle and interesting differences.

Of course both had their share of "how the hell is this relevant to my life" reactions. But also those invaluable "ahah" moments, which make philosophy so wonderful. Hacking has this too. You walk out of the classroom with new cognitive pathways that you didn't know you had. You'll never see the world with the same eyes again.

[nilaykumar]

"You walk out of the classroom with new cognitive pathways that you didn't know you had. You'll never see the world with the same eyes again."

I couldn't have put it better myself. I came into my required undergraduate philosophy course doubting that I'd get anything out of it (having mostly finish the undergrad physics+math majors)... and I was pleasantly surprised.

[calinet6]

Bingo. It's all about learning new ways to think about anything. It's like a multiplier on all the knowledge you've ever had and will ever have in the future.

[im3w1l]

Is there empirical evidence for this?

[calinet6]

Please, this is philosophy.

[chevreuil]

Yeah, that's the biggest misunderstanding about the teaching of philosophy in France. At the start you think "Cool, I'm going to learn to think by myself!", though what you actually do is learn what other famous thinker have been thinking, and spit it out in your personal fashion. It really has little to do with thinking by yourself, it's more about answering an open question by cleverly articulating school of thought.

Quite disappointing , but still very enlightening (even more if your teacher is cool).

[troebr]

I believe this is dependent on the teacher, I've had two teachers in France in my senior year. The first one was definitely of the "swallow and regurgitate what I tell you", while the second one was angry at students rereading notes before essays, because she thought we had to think by ourselves. Needless to say, I preferred the second one.