I learned a lot during my MSc Philosophy of Science at the LSE. At my arrival, I knew I had the philosophical, creative intuition that is so important to come up with new and challenging ideas. However, my reasoning was not firm enough to really hit the nail on the head. I needed a lot of words to say relatively little. The courses I took – Rationality and Choice and particularly Set Theory and Further Logic – provided me with the formal logic, and the strict reasoning, I needed to assist my intuitions, and to clarify – and hence better understand – my own reasoning.

I am currently doing an internship at the biggest weekly newspaper in the Netherlands. Herein I write – among other things – analyses and backgrounds on current economic, cultural and political affairs. I expect I will end up somewhere in journalism, or at least in writing or editing. Furthermore, the MSc inspired me to write a blog – which can be found at www.theyoungsocrates.com – at which I delve into all sorts of philosophical issues. I can say that my MSc taught me skills that are invaluable for writing critical analyses and backgrounds. It learned me to separate the relevant from the irrelevant, and makes sure I am to the point. Also, I learned to structure my writing (and thinking) – via the logical reasoning that I have been taught at the LSE – enabling me to make the best arguments possible.

The whole MSc experience was significantly different from my BSc experience (which I did at another, Dutch, university). Due to the fact that you only have three full year courses to choose (plus a MSc thesis), you are forced to focus on these matters. The advantage is that you can really get into the fundamentals of a topic, without skipping to the next one before you even grasped the first one. That is great. A disadvantage of this structure is that – in this MSc at least – I was unable to take extra courses besides the three units I had to fill in. I found this a pity, for there are many interesting courses at the Department, and with only three full year courses to choose, you have to be (too) selective.

Overall I learned a lot, and had a great time.