"This is why everyone hates moral philosophers."

-Henry the pointy boots aficionado

While I didn't take any philosophy courses in college, I took most of an intro to one as a high school elective (long, dull story involving school district boundaries) one of my roommates and childhood friends was a philosophy major, and I too was an insufferable twat*! I had that textbook, read Bertrand Russell's history of Philosophy, Robert Pirsig, some Socrates and Plato, and essays and excerpts here and there. We had lots of self-important discussions that would have been much better if I actually had been drunk or high. That said, I hope I always had a certain humaneness that let my edges soften over the years.

I have found that a simplified and a bastardized version of the Hegelian dialectic is a pretty good way to approach many everyday conflicts. I'm not rigorously analyzing every little thing (see quote above), and for me the influence boils down to little more than being open to the idea that the "truth" at least might lie somewhere in the middle of two diametrically opposed viewpoints. Even if it doesn't, there is value in the analysis, to understand people's experiences and motivations, and if they must be dismissed or opposed, why and with what level of vigor.

* - Still am, probably, but also WAS.