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Discussion => Philosophy, Economics and Justice => Topic started by: joywind on May 29, 2013, 11:49 pm

Title: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: joywind on May 29, 2013, 11:49 pm
Why philosophy students do the most drugs

Nearly 90% of them have taken drugs, a higher proportion than in any other discipline, according to a poll of 21 UK universities



An Oxford philosopher this week described their drug experiences in a survey by online student newspaper the Tab. "Having dinner with parents while seeing the world in monochrome and feeling supremely dizzy! I think my speech was barely coherent."

Yawn. Other drug experiences recounted to the Tab are more entertaining. The Nottingham classicist who ran 4km home in 3D glasses while off their nut on illicit pharmaceuticals. The Oxford maths student who took MDMA, ketamine and laughing gas: "I thought I was Godzilla."

The Tab's survey of more than 5,000 students at 21 British universities reveals that 87% of philosophers polled had taken drugs, compared with 57% of medical students. Why this discrepancy? Is it because philosophy is easier than medicine and thus offers more recreational downtime? Really? Is grasping the Kantian noumenon less demanding than dissecting corpses?

The Tab's editors, sensibly, say the survey should be taken with a pinch of salt since respondents are self-selecting. But if so, why would philosophy students be more likely to self-select than others? Is it – and this is just a theory – that relative employment prospects drive philosophers to seek solace in drugs? If so, why would a higher proportion of business administration students than lawyers claim to be drug users?

Another theory is that philosophy – more than any other intellectual discipline (with the possible exception of a level three plumbing NVQ) – requires one to recalibrate the portals of one's consciousness in order to get one's intellectual freak on. In Thomas Nagel's superb essay What is it Like to be a Bat?, for instance, the great philosopher wrote: "I want to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat. Yet if I try to imagine this, I am restricted to the resources of my own mind, and those resources are inadequate to the task."

Nagel didn't think to take drugs to expand those resources, but other philosophers have done. William James took nitrous oxide and found, as he reported in The Varieties of Religious Experience, that it served to "stimulate the mystical consciousness to an extraordinary degree". It was only then he understood Hegelian philosophy's notion of god: "[T]o me the living sense of its reality only comes in the artificial mystic states of mind."

Perhaps James's drug experimenting is inspiring today's philosophers: 45% of students polled claimed to have taken laughing gas. Or perhaps not – 68% had taken cannabis. Until a cross-referencing of which types of students favour what kind of drugs, we are lost in a world of diverting speculation.

In ancient Greece and Rome, there was a drug called the tetrapharmakos, consisting of wax, pork fat, pitch and pine resin. Yummy. Hadrian considered it a delicacy and, possibly, commissioned a wall while under its influence. I mention it because Hellenistic philosopher Epicurus used tetrapharmakos to designate the four-part means of leading the happiest possible life. Clearly, too few of today's philosophers read Epicurus. Forget druggie hedonism, he counselled, the cure for what ails you is intellectual, not mystical: don't fear God, don't worry about death, what is good is easy to get, what is terrible is easy to endure.

With this cure, Epicurus recommended, one might achieve ataraxia – freedom from worry and distress. Good point. But if you want to understand Hegel or know what it's like to be a bat or Godzilla, try laughing gas.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/shortcuts/2013/may/22/why-philosophy-students-do-most-drugs
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: Rastaman Vibration on May 30, 2013, 06:31 pm
If SR is any indication, clearly computer nerds do the most drugs  :P
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: SealTeam6 on May 30, 2013, 06:48 pm
What better way is there to learn about life than getting high?
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: touchthesky on May 31, 2013, 05:22 am
I think philosophy demands that you explore realms that others have not explored. You ask questions others haven't asked. You look to experience things others haven't experienced. And since we are limited by how much of our brain and intellect we can use consciously, drugs are a gateway that lead to you using your brain a lot more
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: jackofspades on May 31, 2013, 08:03 am
What better way is there to learn about life than getting high?

Bingo
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: oldtoby on June 01, 2013, 12:58 am
So many potential answers. To the philosophy student, arguments from authority mean nothing. The nature of everything is in question. Drug use combines the tempting explore-the-universe-from-your-armchair perspective of the Rationalist, while embracing the proof-in-the-pudding demands of the Empiricist. They are the original scientists, and the only subject they can truly know is their own mind.

I wonder if psych students come in second for similar reasons?
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: enpiping on June 01, 2013, 01:31 am
I wonder if psych students come in second for similar reasons?
Psych students seem to be a bit more conservative than philosophy students in my experience.  It might stem from the desire to discover 'natural' behaviour or something, which plenty of philosophers question the existence of.
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: sharonneedles on June 04, 2013, 10:37 am
I understand this is a mock article and so there really is no definite answers.

Philosophy students are rather sensible about their drug use. They definitely have tried a higher number of drugs than other disciplines but do not necessarily abuse them more. From experience medicine, nursing and pharmacy students do alcohol way more frequently and harder than others. Philosophy do more psychedelics i.e. cannabis, shrooms and lsd. This isn't to say there isn't an overlap because a med student could hang out with a group of philosophy students, and vice versa.

I would think philosophy/science students want to gain insight into the topics they study, i.e. the noumena "things in themselves" of Kant by decomposing their usual cognitive apparatus and trade it with an alternative look at the world. This is literally applying what they study in theory to the real world. Throughout history philosophers have found a lot of answers in doing drugs.

Look at Francis Crick who discovered DNA while on acid, or Freud who developed psychoanalysis and was a coke fiend. When we devote our time to something we gain great insight into it during moments when we least expect it. Either we take drugs because we want to gain this insight, or we take drugs and it happens to be a moment of insight.

Philosophy is by far the deepest and most through provoking science there is. It is no surprise that people turn to substances to seek solace when they discover that there is no absolute truth, or whatever. I had a friend who took a module of philosophy and he became an alcoholic for a while. Then again I have plenty of long term philosophy friends who are very sensible about their drug use and will rarely take anything other than cannabis (not even alcohol). Each to their own I suppose.
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: karensupreme on June 05, 2013, 04:39 am
I honestly believe it is because they tend to be the most intelligent group of any major on any campus and from everything I've read and experienced, the more intelligent a person is, the more they seek novel experiences. I've read numerous posts about majors broken down by average IQ and philosophy majors outranked engineers, mathematicians and physicist majors in almost every ranking I've seen. Or, if they weren't at the top, they were very close to it.

Interesting side note, I had a philosophy class recently and the teacher taught in Iowa for a while. He was chatting with a group of us before class once and talked about poor attendance in one particular class he taught up there. One day he asked that class why the attendance was so consistently low. He jokingly asked "Where are all your classmates, smoking meth?"

He said the entire class somberly nodded, almost in unison, with one student saying very matter-of-factly "Yeah."
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: chil on June 05, 2013, 06:29 am
How about philosophers taking more drugs than others because they are more curious than other people ?

Anyway, in my university, my fellow philosophy students do not seem to be so keen on drugs...many seem to value their brain so much that they won't even smoke a joint in fear of losing neurons. 

Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: sharonneedles on June 05, 2013, 09:29 am
I honestly believe it is because they tend to be the most intelligent group of any major on any campus and from everything I've read and experienced, the more intelligent a person is, the more they seek novel experiences. I've read numerous posts about majors broken down by average IQ and philosophy majors outranked engineers, mathematicians and physicist majors in almost every ranking I've seen. Or, if they weren't at the top, they were very close to it.

Do you mind sending me the link to this study? The only study which I've seen that correlates IQ with studies shows that Classics is at the top, followed by engineering and medicine. Music was on the bottom I think.
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: happyhippy on June 05, 2013, 08:32 pm
If SR is any indication, clearly computer nerds do the most drugs  :P

"DELURKZ" Lolz , Rofl , yep I reckon . No.... Wait... Buggerz , that's me :-(
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: happyhippy on June 05, 2013, 08:43 pm
Why philosophy students do the most drugs

Nearly 90% of them have taken drugs, a higher proportion than in any other discipline, according to a poll of 21 UK universities



An Oxford philosopher this week described their drug experiences in a survey by online student newspaper the Tab. "Having dinner with parents while seeing the world in monochrome and feeling supremely dizzy! I think my speech was barely coherent."

Yawn. Other drug experiences recounted to the Tab are more entertaining. The Nottingham classicist who ran 4km home in 3D glasses while off their nut on illicit pharmaceuticals. The Oxford maths student who took MDMA, ketamine and laughing gas: "I thought I was Godzilla."

The Tab's survey of more than 5,000 students at 21 British universities reveals that 87% of philosophers polled had taken drugs, compared with 57% of medical students. Why this discrepancy? Is it because philosophy is easier than medicine and thus offers more recreational downtime? Really? Is grasping the Kantian noumenon less demanding than dissecting corpses?

The Tab's editors, sensibly, say the survey should be taken with a pinch of salt since respondents are self-selecting. But if so, why would philosophy students be more likely to self-select than others? Is it – and this is just a theory – that relative employment prospects drive philosophers to seek solace in drugs? If so, why would a higher proportion of business administration students than lawyers claim to be drug users?

Another theory is that philosophy – more than any other intellectual discipline (with the possible exception of a level three plumbing NVQ) – requires one to recalibrate the portals of one's consciousness in order to get one's intellectual freak on. In Thomas Nagel's superb essay What is it Like to be a Bat?, for instance, the great philosopher wrote: "I want to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat. Yet if I try to imagine this, I am restricted to the resources of my own mind, and those resources are inadequate to the task."

Nagel didn't think to take drugs to expand those resources, but other philosophers have done. William James took nitrous oxide and found, as he reported in The Varieties of Religious Experience, that it served to "stimulate the mystical consciousness to an extraordinary degree". It was only then he understood Hegelian philosophy's notion of god: "[T]o me the living sense of its reality only comes in the artificial mystic states of mind."

Perhaps James's drug experimenting is inspiring today's philosophers: 45% of students polled claimed to have taken laughing gas. Or perhaps not – 68% had taken cannabis. Until a cross-referencing of which types of students favour what kind of drugs, we are lost in a world of diverting speculation.

In ancient Greece and Rome, there was a drug called the tetrapharmakos, consisting of wax, pork fat, pitch and pine resin. Yummy. Hadrian considered it a delicacy and, possibly, commissioned a wall while under its influence. I mention it because Hellenistic philosopher Epicurus used tetrapharmakos to designate the four-part means of leading the happiest possible life. Clearly, too few of today's philosophers read Epicurus. Forget druggie hedonism, he counselled, the cure for what ails you is intellectual, not mystical: don't fear God, don't worry about death, what is good is easy to get, what is terrible is easy to endure.

With this cure, Epicurus recommended, one might achieve ataraxia – freedom from worry and distress. Good point. But if you want to understand Hegel or know what it's like to be a bat or Godzilla, try laughing gas.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/shortcuts/2013/may/22/why-philosophy-students-do-most-drugs


They don't but they DO like to talk about it  ;D
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: enpiping on June 05, 2013, 09:59 pm
many seem to value their brain so much that they won't even smoke a joint in fear of losing neurons.
I always find this perspective a bit interesting.  Certainly abusing substances can have harmful effects on your brain functioning, but I think it's a bit naive to think that you'll permanently fuck your brain up by dabbling in a few recreational drugs here and there.
I'm sure you agree with me, I just thought I'd share my thoughts.  Those kinds of people always creep me out in a way.
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: SealTeam6 on June 05, 2013, 11:47 pm
I honestly believe it is because they tend to be the most intelligent group of any major on any campus and from everything I've read and experienced, the more intelligent a person is, the more they seek novel experiences. I've read numerous posts about majors broken down by average IQ and philosophy majors outranked engineers, mathematicians and physicist majors in almost every ranking I've seen. Or, if they weren't at the top, they were very close to it.

Do you mind sending me the link to this study? The only study which I've seen that correlates IQ with studies shows that Classics is at the top, followed by engineering and medicine. Music was on the bottom I think.

I am also interested in reading this study!
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: leaf on June 21, 2013, 12:17 am
Doesn't it matter which kinds of drugs students have been found using?? And what about compared to other student bodies than philosophy and medical, like business and law?? Were those stats included in the survey??

I am inclined to think that it is very likely that the majority of philosophy students have taken more psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs than students in other faculties -- but i have witnessed a large number of students studying in fields that put them under a very high amount of stress regularly take large doses of various kinds of stimulants and/ or prescribed medication in order to get through the workload assigned to them.

I also find statistics to often be a really ambiguous way to base facts and truth, depending on the case, but oftentimes there's realities that feed into situations that ratios and percentages don't cover...
Title: Re: Why do philosophy students do the most drugs?
Post by: therabbithole on June 25, 2013, 12:58 am
Doesn't it matter which kinds of drugs students have been found using?? And what about compared to other student bodies than philosophy and medical, like business and law?? Were those stats included in the survey??

I am inclined to think that it is very likely that the majority of philosophy students have taken more psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs than students in other faculties -- but i have witnessed a large number of students studying in fields that put them under a very high amount of stress regularly take large doses of various kinds of stimulants and/ or prescribed medication in order to get through the workload assigned to them.

I also find statistics to often be a really ambiguous way to base facts and truth, depending on the case, but oftentimes there's realities that feed into situations that ratios and percentages don't cover...

I guess people who are interested in philosophy tend to question about life, and using psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs helps them to answer their questions.