Is it a philosophy professors job to confuse students?

I think a GOOD philosophy professors job to both to expose their students to philosophies of others and to get said students to question themselves. A GREAT professor will assist the students he or she can to get on a path to find, reaffirm or rediscover themselves.

But any philosophy professor can confuse his or her students. And the ones that leave it at that are giant pricks.

I think the idea is to teach them to use their minds in a systematic, reliable and repeatable fashion.

@talljasperman Hi, I graduated from an online degree in Philosophy last summer. Your question holds a lot of weight—I will give you two brief descriptions.

Is it a Philosophy Professor’s “job” to “confuse” students?
a) No, it is not their “job” to do anything except “teach” you philosophy. You can become confused when you do not understand what they are saying because either they are not speaking in plain language, or you simply do not understand the logic or structure of the topic. This may arouse emotions, but they should not be permanent.

b) A Professor may feel compelled to present deep and pensive questions or topics for students to figure out or attempt to understand themselves, but essentially, it is up to you. When the question of “What are humans made of?” is presented, is it up to the Professor to explain it to the best of his or her abilities? Or is it your responsibility to simplify the question?

My answer alone is in itself ridiculously answered because it is already split into two of many ways your question could be answered. The reason I did this was to show that either you can learn philosophy by persisting or remain confused.

Ask yourself these questions:

Is it the professor who confuses the student, or is it the student who is confused by the professor? There is a difference.

I do apologize if I didn’t make things easy, but I would be more than happy to answer any question(s) you may have regarding my post.

If there is any confusion produced from a philosophy class, I would hope that there are also tools made available by the professor for the students to work their ways through that confusion.

No, it is not our job to confuse you. The underlying goal of a philosophical education is to teach students how to think and read philosophically, which means teaching them how to think logically and how to evaluate arguments. In classes that are centered on a particular topic—such as Michael Sandel’s Justice course—a specific set of related topics or readings will be used to do this. Philosophy will often involve challenging you to think about what you believe and why you believe it, however, so the fact that you are questioning some of your beliefs is a good sign. After all, if you never change your mind, why have one?

Sometimes it seems that way, based on some of the philosophy courses I took in college. I remember one class where on one day, three other philosophy professors joined my professor and had a debate/discussion in front of the class. It was mostly them talking, though students did occasionally ask questions. It was one of the most confusing and fascinating days of my life. The way they were talking relatively casually (laughing, using casual language) about topics that were completely over my head just delighted me. I was certainly out of my element.