As several others here have said, study what interests you. I have been told innumerable times by innumerable professors and legal professionals that a curriculum that fosters the development of your writing, public speaking, and ability to create and counter arguments is the best one to follow. If you decide to study philosophy, your school will likely have a quot;Pre-lawquot; track in the major; however, nearly every philosophy class will build the skills that I mentioned. As a philosophy major, I will tell you the ways in which philosophy has helped me with each of those skills; you can take from it what you will. Even in your very first introductory philosophy class (ethics, logic, etc.), you will read. And read, and read. Some of the material will be clear, accessible, and fascinating (mostly modern philosophers like Kripke, Frankfurt, Foote, and Davidson). On the other end of the spectrum, you will find texts from early modern philosophers like Hume and Kant; medieval philosophers like Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockam; and ancients like Aristotle and Plotinus. The texts from those philosophers is tedious, confusing, long-winded, and sometimes just downright poorly written (Kant). While all of the philosophers possess exceptional intellects, their brilliance can get muddled by their lack of clarity and unconventional use of language. That may seem unrelated to your writing, but try to follow: the philosophizing of the clearly written modern philosophers deals largely with the exact same ideas that the more arduous texts of the philosophical elders wrestled with. When you write your philosophy papers for class, your professors will want to see that you understand what you have read, and that means you must express in your own CLEAR words the arguments put forth by philosophers potentially dating back thousands of years. And, when you move on to philosophizing of your own, your argument will be compelling only to the extent that your audience understands what you are driving at. Put tersely, philosophy has taught me to strive for clarity above all else. If you one day find yourself in a courtroom, or writing a legal document, a clear course of argument will be exceedingly compelling and comforting to your audience. (Modern) philosophy is conducted as discourse. That is, a philosopher presents the fruits of his philosophizing to his philosophical peers where it is reviewed, dissected, scrutinized, praised or lambasted. In a courtroom, you will similarly present an argument (perhaps to spare your client s life) to a group of peers. The more ironclad your argument, the more clear, simple, and logical your reasoning, the more support you will garner with those peers. While a philosophy undergrad, you will spent the majority of your time making and perfecting your ability to bulletproof arguments, often against the most unforgiving of audiences: tenured philosophy professors. Your fellow philosophy majors will be a tremendous resource in your college education. It is immeasurably beneficial (and fun) to talk about philosophical ideas with your fellow budding philosophers. Not only will you learn the value of being able to express yourself clearly on the spot, your fellow students will often surprise you with just the insight you needed to understand a philosophical problem that had troubled you. So, if your philosophy education ends up anything like mine, I would say it would prepare you at least as well as more traditional quot;pre-lawquot; curriculae would for a legal career. Bear in mind, however, that the LSAT has no idea what your major is; you could major in physical education and get a 180 if the brainpower is present. Likewise, a law school will hands-down prefer a physics major with a 3.7 GPA and a 175 LSAT to a political science or philosophy major with a 3.0 and a 162 LSAT. Study what captivates you. If you love studying French, by all means study French. If you decide that a legal profession is for you, then law school will supply you with what you need, regardless of undergraduate work.
The actual philosophy that you study is less important than the process of studying. In doing philosophy youo have to grapple with very complex arguments, that often take a great deal of understanding and cannot be solved intuitively. Words are also used quite differently. For example when studying maths or physics you may have seen apage full of mathematical formulae and felt lost. In philosophy you can have a page full of text where you understand all the words but the meaning of the whole is lost to you. Struggling for a couple of days enables you to understand it. This is why philosophy is a quite good basis for legal training
I studied philosophy and now I m studying for the bar. My advice is to study whatever you want. When I started college, I wanted to be a physicist. I switched to philosophy after a year and a half and graduated wanting to go to grad school for philosophy. A year out, I decided to go to law school instead. My point is that you will probably change majors at least once and there s a good chance you ll change professions once or twice too. I only know a few people who started and ended college in the same major, and most of them regretted it. One biologist moved to New York to become a puppetier. You really never know. So study philosophy if you want to. If you are interested in law, study the philosophy of law, get a sense of it. Political science is also interesting and useful for lawyers. Definately take some classes that have nothing to do with any of that, but just sound fun. It might change you re world. Ultimately, everything you need to be a lawyer, you learn in law school. In college study what interests you. People have every kind of major you can think of. If you still want to be a lawyer when you graduate, you re major in college won t matter that much. Your grades will, your LSAT scores will, but your major will make very little difference.
Argument and reasoning. However, the way that such a class breaks down argument is not how the arguments will play out in either your textbooks or court. Argument is logical but people are illogical. The best course you can take for yourself, in preparation to be a lawyer, is the follow the course of study that your hearts directs you to and bring that passion to your law studies.
Rhetoric isn t a part of most philosophy departments. I think it is usually under English. Yes, philosophy is great for law school, and many philosophy departments tout their undergrad programs as good preparation for law school. The ability to reason, argue, read difficult text, and analyze make for good practice for law school. You should talk to either your academic advisor or else the chair of the philosophy department. They may offer specialized pre-law tracks. My school had a quot;ethics and lawquot; track, among others. You will probably want to take courses centering around social and political philosophy, philosophy of law (duh), ethical theory and applied ethics. Most likely you will have to complete an upper level logic class for your BA, but a track specifically in logic at the undergraduate level isn t too common. Epistemology might be useful, but no more than any other philosophy course. I really doubt that it has much bearing to law studies.
Logic, especially Fallacies, because your opponents will use every fallacy they can get away with, whether they know it s a fallacy or not. If you know the fallacies, you can stop them, and get over their objections. Epistemology is the science of the quot;validationquot; of ideas, so that s a big one too. You ll naturally get ethics, so don t take it as an elective.
I was not the one that said it, but I have said it before. Ethics is great. It shows you the various shades of gray you encounter in life and in the law. The key is to learn various views of life, not to accept them. My Contracts prof was very much the Socratic mold. From the first question, quot;What were the facts of Hamer v. Sedway (sp) the questions never stopped. Splitting the hairs of law, and what a word means, and what a word is accepted as. Law school changes how you think. How you approach problems. Philosophy begins that process. Life is seldom black and white. It is many shades of gray.
I disagree but if you are adamant, then rhetoric and sophistry would do nicely. Start with the Greeks (Sophists) and segue to the Romans (Rhetoriticians.) I can t imagine reading Cicero would do you any harm, but stay away from Kant.
political John Stuart Mill (His book on liberty, is quite interesting) whatever u do, dont do philosophy of mind sooo hard!
Rhetoric, Logic and Epistemology Jeremy Bentham, John Locke, David Hume
Fairness!!!
one which u wud need wud be logic and maybe ethics
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