The Value of Philosophy

The Value of Philosophy

Consider a man that looks to material needs as the necessities of life. He moves through his world in a twenty-four hour cycle of the mundane, never reaching for a less ignorant existence. Bertrand Russell believes that these "practical men", as society deems them, are wrongly named. A meaningful life to this "practical man", certainly does not include the understanding of a need for knowledge. Russell states, "It is exclusively among the goods of the mind that the value of philosophy is to be found; and only those who are not indifferent to these goods can be persuaded that the study of philosophy is not a waste of time" (page 9). The value of philosophy can be found when anyone chooses to step over the line between things and ideas.

I am claiming, in this instance, that philosophy is valuable for being a source of knowledge and understanding, among other things. Those that attempt to gain these are in turn going to benefit from their efforts. A man does not necessarily need the ability to comprehend the entire universe, but just to be open to thought. In the past, men that worked towards this task of thinking, such as Newton, were able to take

philosophy and evolve it into a separate science. This reasons that philosophy's value is largely in the possibility of a greater enlightenment that has yet to be determined. There is value in the fact that a deeper reality exists. That life does not just run blindly through time, but streams around reason and thought. Knowledge should alone be enough of a value for philosophy to be an appreciated source of gaining exactly that end.

Thomas Nagel writes, "...humans have the special capacity to step back and survey themselves, and the lives t...

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... Then, any attempt to push beyond that line between things and thought will create a positive end.

Knowledge, the total range of what has been perceived and learned, is the absolute value of philosophy in my opinion. Philosophers, as well as man, can only benefit from the scrutiny placed on thought. Without the knowledge that philosophy can provide, the world would be a very simple place based exclusively on materialistic views. The old saying that ignorance is bliss would unmistakably be true. Man would continue in his everyday life, unaware of the chance that he is missing. Think about what a waste such a world would be, when the possibility for undiminished intelligence and open mentality is right beyond the baggage that man carries around with him. Philosophy's value in knowledge is that it makes man's life worth not just surviving but truly living.