The Importance of Philosophy

The Importance of Philosophy

The question is Philosophy. Why is it important? What makes it important? To answer theses questions you first have to know what philosophy is. Philosophy is defined as: the pursuit of wisdom; a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means. This is the written definition of philosophy, but I think philosophy can’t be defined to just words. It’s more then words.

Philosophy to me is an attempt to understand the world. To understand philosophy one must not look for a solid definition. It is easier to understand it if one is actually doing it. Why don’t you try it out now, take the ever so popular phrase “to be or not to be.” One thing can’t, be and not be at the same time. If something is there, that can be touched, seen, held, or even look at, you can consider it to be, to exist. One can’t say that it does not exist because the object in reality is there. It can’t be there and not be there at the same time.

Another way to try to understand philosophy is to find out where it came from and what the word means when it is broken down. The term philosophy comes from the Greek for “love of wisdom,” giving us two important starting points: love (or passion) and wisdom (knowledge, understanding)

First we’ll start off with love or passion. One must understand that philosophy shouldn’t be pursed without love or passion. You must not think of philosophy as work. It must not be force upon you. You have to want to do philosophy. If your love or passion in philosophy isn’t there, then you truly aren’t seeking wisdom. One must have a passion for what they are philosophizing to actually gain the wisdom in which they are seeking.

Next would be wisdom. Wisdom is forever sought out by us as we grow and we mature. One normally doesn’t consider the seeking of wisdom philosophy, but that is where they are wrong. This search for wisdom brings us back to the prior topic of passion or love. When we look at things, most of us look for answers to how they work. For instance, snow; when you were smaller you probably had no idea what snow was. You probably didn’t know what is was made up of and where it came from. As a growing child trying to understand the world, one would probably seek out to understand how it worked. Thus, you probably asked your parents. This asking or seeking of k...

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...uestion is always there but unfortunately the answer isn’t. What’s meant by this is you can always ask a question, whether it is good question or a bad question really depends upon ones interpretation of the question. Since the answer isn’t always there in philosophy you must not give up on it. What you must understand asking questions to further seek wisdom is good for ones mind even if the question can’t be answered. Then again some answers might even lead to into further questions. Therefore, you might be stuck in a certain question or understanding for some time but it doesn’t matter as long as you keep seeking of the true and honest answer.

Now after all these reasoning and explanations, hopefully you can see what philosophy is and how it is important to our daily lives. It helps us understand what is going on around us. It helps us understand how things work. It helps us understand ourselves. For this we should be grateful to all the people who sought out for answers, who questioned other peoples’ thoughts, and who never stop seeking wisdom. For without philosophy, without human curiosity, without questioning, without asking, there in no way we would be where we are today.