If you're planning on something (like, a career) other than law school or academia, I wouldn't recommend majoring in philosophy. At the time I didn't really think of college as a career step...I'd do things differently if I had a do-over
. Studying for the sheer joy of it is...joyous...but American universitys are an expensive way to have that kind of fun.
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Originally Posted by UFOmoplata
That's true. Philosophy makes itself almost too complicated. In that regard, science is easier to read and grasp when the author knows what they're talking about. Went from science books and regressed into philosophy (if that's what you want to call it).
Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is a fun read. It's easier than Stephen Hawking's version.
For skepticism, Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World" is AWESOME.
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I'd only call it a regression if you completely dropped science books. Otherwise, I'd say the two aren't really separable. For example, the two slit experiment tells us what photons do under those experimental circumstances. Interpreting those results - determining what they say about our universe - is definitely philosophy in my mind.
It's a tremendous and often under-appreciated skill to dumb it down enough for laypersons to understand, but not so much that meaning is lost. I thought Hawking was pretty impressive in that regard; his books are very accessible. I haven't read Sagan (I guess I should), but Cosmos is pretty great.
Oh, if anyone hasn't read Richard Feynman's lectures (or books), they totally should!