What Subjects to Take for Philosophy

[NotAProcrastinator]

Hi, I am a pre-IB student planning to go on to do a philosophy major. I do not know what subjects I am going to take, however, I have got the following outline in mind:

English B HL (I think I could have done A2 as a second language, however, it is not offered in my school)

Maths HL (Inspired by Bertrand Russell on this one)

Turkish A1 HL/Physics HL/Economics HL (I am pretty much in turmoil)

Philosophy SL (If I could take it HL, I would, however, it is not offered in my school and IB Online only has philosophy in SL

Physics SL

Turkish A1 SL 

(If I take one of last two in HL, I am going to replace the one I took with either chemistry or economics SL)

Now, you may be all over the place as I am. That is why I shall be explaining this peculiar choice. In Turkey, no matter what we do, the national curriculum imposes upon us near-HL-level workload on chemistry, biology and physics. If I take any one of these lessons -except physics HL, which I think can be useful for understanding the philosophy of science and the point to which modern physics has come from a philosophical point of view- it is solely to reduce my workload. I do not think I will even so much as glance towards the national curriculum if our normal exams in school are not in that style -probably they are not, though I have to ask that. If our exams are just on what we learn in the IB, then I will probably choose the following courses:

Hi, I am a pre-IB student planning to go on to do a philosophy major. I do not know what subjects I am going to take, however, I have got the following outline in mind:

English B HL 

Maths HL 

Turkish A1 HL/Physics HL/Economics HL (Turmoil continues)

Philosophy SL 

Physics SL/Economics SL

Turkish A1 SL/Economics SL 

Let me add that if I take economics, I will be taking it online just like I did philosophy.

Now, here are my main questions, but all advice is welcome:

1. Will physics SL or HL help me to achieve my objective (i.e. understanding how Newton invented the concept of mass and from that the philosophical foundation of Newtonian physics in general)?

2. What can be the contribution of economics to my study of philosophy? The only thing that I can think of is that some great philosophers after the 19th century (Karl Marx comes to one's mind but John Stuart Mill counts as well) were economists, and I believe that only a basic comprehension of economic principles can support my learning in university on these topics.

3. Can Maths HL have any contribution? You know, maths being an important source of knowledge from Plato in the antiquity to Spinoza and Descartes and modern attempts to rederive the whole of maths on the basis of logic are pretty strong reasons for me to take maths HL. Plus, I am very good at maths; the natural curriculum sucks and the only thing we do is to memorise long theorems in advanced Euclidean geometry, but even in that I could prove by myself many of the theorems we studied.

4. Can Turkish A1 HL have a contribution? Well, let me be pretty straight-forward in here: New Criticism and close inspection of the text to derive meaning is horrible, and I am certain I am not going to ever read a novel in that way. However, literary criticism seems to have strong ties with philosophy, especially with Derrida and his deconstructionism, and Lacan and his "philosophical psychoanalysis" and I try to create my own independent way of looking at literary texts, one that I feel is more meaningful. In view of all this and also considering that the skills that are necessary for writing a well-structured, coherent essay are crucial in all fields, doubtlessly so in philosophy -unless you are Nietzsche, but I digress- I think that Turkish A1 HL might be a good choice. 

Thank you all for your response and for sticking with me until the end of this very long post.

Bonus question: Do you know a way in which I can take English A2 as a second language? I passed FCE with distinction, which means that my English proficiency level is C1, and I think I can very well go beyond the curriculum of English B. I spent the last year studying English B from the Cambridge textbook and it was like having a leisure ride- I had zero difficulties.

Edited June 22, 2017 by NotAProcrastinator
I forgot to delete some unnecessary parts