Before I really get into writing this blog about my philosophical thoughts, I think it is important to talk about what philosophy is and what an argument is. So, this very first post is a brief explanation of what philosophy means to me.
As a student, when I was asked what I was studying, people always wanted to know what philosophy was anyway? What is it? What do you do with it? What job will it get you? The list was endless.
The word philosophy is from the Greek word philosophia which means love of wisdom.
The idea of philosophy brings to mind stuffy old men standing stiffly in ornate academic drawing rooms, speaking crap to each other that no one without a PhD in something or another could hope to understand. As a friend of mine once described to me they would be engaging in ‘mental masturbation’. This is not philosophy at all for me.
Philosophy for me is about taking a topic or problem exploring it from many angles, understanding what other people have thought about it, then coming up with my own ideas about it. At the most basic philosophy = critical thinking.
The most exciting thing about philosophy is that you can delve into any subject matter you like, the world is your oyster and apart from those pesky little things, called reason and logic, there are not many boundaries.
Traditionally philosophy tackles the following BIG questions.
- What is the meaning of life?
- Does God exist? What is God like?
- What is real?
- What can be known or what is true?
- Who am I? What is the self?
- What is Freedom?
- How should I live my life?
- How should society be structured?
These are pretty overwhelming ideas to explore. Some may wonder in this day and age if they are even relevant questions to be thinking about. From thinking about these ideas I could come up with, a new form of political organisation, a different moral code or legal system, a new way of viewing knowledge apart from through science, an argument for or against teaching religion in schools, a different way of perceiving the world and what is important within it. In short, philosophical ideas have and still have the power to change how humans exist and think of ourselves in the world we live in.
You can also have fun with philosophy and turn you and your friends’ heads inside out with questions like:
- When you say you see a blue sky, are you seeing the same colour that I see when I describe blue?
- Can a person be harmed by their own death?
- How would you know if the passage of time stopped and then restarted? How do you know it has never happened?
- How do you know that you know what you know?
