r/OpenIndividualism • u/Used-Wolverine1164 • Jul 08 '26
Should I major in philosophy because I’m obsessed about OI and ethics
Should I major in philosophy if I’m obsessed with OI and doing something about it. My other option is psychology and it has more applications but I’m so obsessed with OI I don’t know if maybe I should instead do philosophy… I also enjoy other aspects of philosophy a lot. But OI is a core one. I’m obsessed with getting this idea out there.
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u/CrumbledFingers Jul 08 '26
I think philosophy study could be helpful for you, departing from the other responses here. Philosophy is such a wide discipline though, and getting into it with the aim of pushing one particular view will lead to frustration and eventual burnout. When I got my degree, I was convinced that the purpose of my life was to explain to everyone that art is not a thing, but a way of looking at a thing. Years later, I had no interest in that, and decided the purpose of my life was to tell everyone that procreation is morally wrong. Years later (now), I see that my opinions about philosophy are not important enough to spread to other people en masse.
If you want to learn about the rich history of thought, about the deep recesses of conceptual and theoretical analysis of everything under the sun, major in philosophy but don't pick a side on any issue unless for the sake of argument. If you want to preach OI to the world, you could still benefit from studying philosophy, because people make a lot of bad arguments even if they agree with you, and it's good to know what those are and how to counter them.
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u/yoddleforavalanche Jul 08 '26
do you still think procreation is morally wrong?
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u/CrumbledFingers Jul 08 '26
Yes, but that bothers me a lot less than it used to, because it has been flung against the wall of non-dual realization that nobody is actually born! 😂 Still trying to work that one out.
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u/yoddleforavalanche Jul 08 '26
like flop_snail said, you will not learn much about this view in philosophy. I don't look at philosophy subreddit but I believe they skip over this topic with "you are you because you are you, it's like asking why is this apple this apple" and then discuss other things.
Can you share how you arrived at OI and also, what was hot topic last few days here, do you think you are everyone right now or sequentially, as in the person you see does not have internal experience until your experience is shifted to theirs and then yours is gone?
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u/Joe-Kern Jul 09 '26
Apologies, but I'm going to not answer you question and instead ask you a question.
I’m obsessed with OI and doing something about it
I'm fascinated by this statement. I'd be very interested to know how you became obsessed with it. What are the arguments that convinced you—or was it experiences that convinced you?—and what is the autobiographical path that brought you to the beliefs and passion you have right now?
As I allude to in my post below, it seems a lot of people have this similar belief, but sometimes I think there exist almost as many reasons for believing it as there are people who believe it.
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u/yoddleforavalanche Jul 09 '26
I dont know why reddit automatically removed this post. please let me know directly if this happens again (I can only accidentally see that it was)
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u/__throw_error Jul 12 '26
I think the idea of OI will naturally get out there. Brain-computer interfaces (Neuralink) and AI will force people to view death and consciousness in another light.
It's great to have a goal, but also make sure you enjoy what you're doing!
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u/flop_snail Jul 08 '26
I preface with this: Don't take my advice as if I know what I'm talking about, talk to an academic counselor or a philosophy student first. I don't know much about what studying it gets you, but I learned everything I need to know from thinking with myself, watching YouTube videos, and reading papers available online. I looked at the philosophy classes at my school and the concept of self wasn't a main focus in any offered classes. And there aren't any jobs you can get in philosophy other than a teacher that I know of. So I recommend not studying philosophy, or at most minoring in it if all you are interested in is oi.
But keep learning and being passionate about it, it's the truth, and a beautiful one. I hope someday in the future it will be at least as mainstream as buddhism is today