We live in a materialistic and capitalist world. (The PRC can continue spewing socialism idylls but it obviously doesn’t work) Therefore, the value-based debate of this title will be centered on the amount of benefit that one can derive from the study of either subject matter.

Literature is a creative writing of recognized artistic value, like Metamorphoses by Ovid. (I am referring to literature strictly in the sense as works written before the 20th century） In the meanwhile, philosophy can be defined as an umbrella of modern theories and schools of thinking, with examples ranging from Occam’s razor to neuro-linguistic programming.

As we study literature, we get a chance to delve into the minds of great writers over 19 centuries. Their writings provide intriguing insights into the purpose of civilization and human life in general. However, this kind of literature is not easy to comprehend, and it takes time to filter out useful or thoughtful information.

Modern philosophy on the other hand, is straight to the point and highly relevant. However, the writing tends to get repetitive. More than one thousand such books are published in the world every week. It is nearly impossible to ever find some new content. Maybe this is simply and articulation of the King Tut theory. As object nears perfection, more energy is exhausted is required.

Given the time frame of 30 hours, which field would you explore, or would you look into both at the same time?