Philosophy is Important

Philosophy is Important

Philosophy is an important subject, because it helps us understand three big questions; “why are we here”, “what do we do”, and “how do we treat each other”. These are important questions to answer because without them we may end up in a situation much like the Taliban is in right now. Complete chaos created from confusion about those three big questions. These questions are left in a general sense because there are many different ways to look at them. After all we have many different people with many different ideas and so to come to a more concise understanding of such important topics we need everyone’s viewpoint. This is the purpose of something philosophers call “The great conversation”. For example: Think back to the attack on the US of September 11th. These attacks were caused for a variety of reasons, one of which being that the Taliban believed they had the answer as to the correct way to run a society. Therefore “The Great Conversation” was stopped. After all if I am the Taliban and I believe I have the answer as to how to run a society because I feel I have answered the three big questions, then why keep discussing? Why include anyone else’s opinions and beliefs? Because if you don’t then things could become violent, just as they did in Afghanistan. So you say you don’t want to be like Afghanistan? Well good! So then how do you determine the answer to those three big questions, and what if there is more than one answer? That’s the purpose of philosophy and more specifically “The Great Conversation”, to come up with the best possible answer to all questions that may arise without eliminating the possibility that a better answer may exist.

Take “Plato’s Cave” for example: People sit in a cave looking at shadows cast on a wall, from the light of a fire behind them. They have been chained to the floor for centuries. They are fed, clothed, and generally stimulated by the shadows, which are those of puppets on a bridge behind them. The people believe the shadows are real. But ponder just for a second; what if you were one of those people? What if you were released from your shackles and allowed to move about the cave freely. How would you explain to the others that the shadows they are seeing are not real people, but actual shadows made by the puppets on the bridge behind them? Would they believe you? Now switch roles. What if...

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...t is true?” Once again we deal with two opposite ends of a debate spectrum. We focus on a few things here. One of which is where does knowledge come from? Those who believe that the exercise of reason, rather than experience, authority, or spiritual revelation, provides the primary basis for knowledge are called Rationalists. Basically they believe people have revelations, and are born with knowledge (innate.) On the opposite, those who believe that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of knowledge are known as Empiricists. Reason versus experience, you decide for yourself.

For our last and final study we explore Ontology; the nature of being. Is it human nature to fill your space with material goods? Do they bring you happiness? Is that happiness true happiness? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions you may be a “Materialist” while if you answered “no” to any of those questions, there is a chance you may be an “Idealist”; someone who believes that the use of ideas, thinking, questioning, and active mental stimulation are far more valuable in terms of achieving happiness than the passive, vegetable style consumption of goods that plagues many of us.