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.
A possible nonfiction plot based on this idea of the necessity of philosophy would to create a fictional situation where the world doesn’t have philosophy. The story would show the effects a world without philosophy would have on in it. It would cause many people to lose hope and meaning to their lives. In society like today, survival is not as difficult in the past where there is a need to fight against the weather, animals and limited resources. Humans wouldn’t live to survive and the lack of philosophy would take away some peoples purpose of
Philosophy originated from the Greek word “Philosophia” which signify the love for wisdom. It was coin by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras around 500 B.C. It deals with a systematic and critical study of fundamental questions that arise both in everyday’s life and through the practice of other disciplines.
Philosophy is defined by Webster as "Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline" or "Investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods." This essay is a general look at those who pursued that intellectual means, those who investigated, even those who reasoned Reason. Because volumes could be written and this is a rather quick, unworthy paper: apologizes.
Philosophy is a very important part of people’s lives. Philosophy is quite basically asking inquiries about existence, reality and nature of knowledge. To better understand philosophy we must look throughout history. Looking back through history helps better show what the philosophers thought during the time period in which they lived. The relativity of the theories, to the time period, is a very important factor in how efficient these theories they were. The first philosopher’s ideas to people today would be considered either very basic, or insane. Yet, in the time period they lived in, they were considered to be geniuses. Also, looking back through time and studying philosophers and what they believed can help create a better idea for our own philosophical creations. The first philosophers were also known as the Presocratics. They were called this because they were in a time period before Socrates was born. They mainly focused on answering what is the explanation of nature, also referred to as metaphysics. Even before the Presocratic philosophers, we need to look at the ancient Greek poets that created myths and examine how their stories came into being made and how it had an effect on their civilization. These myths are a part of Philosophy because they were the first ideas about creation. The transition between these mythic worldviews and pre-Socratic philosophers’ worldview was important because it lays down the structural work for great philosophers to learn from them and develop further theories based on their findings.
Bertrand Russell is a very influential writer within the realm of philosophy. His specific work titled, The Problems of Philosophy discusses the many things that he believes is wrong with the way people think, act towards, treat, and study philosophy as a whole. The one specific essay focused on was titled The Value of Philosophy in chapter xv. This essay focused on why he believes that philosophy was worth studying and why he believes that those who don’t see his vision are wrong and at a disadvantage. More specifically he addresses the “practical man”, which he defines specifically as “one who recognizes only material needs, who realizes that men must have food for the body, but is oblivious of the necessity of providing food for the mind”
... wise person's and philosopher's opinions with truth. Both truth and opinions are important aspects to philosophy but the distinction between the two is even more important. Without the search for truth and the base of opinions to test for truthfulness philosophy as an institution would fail to exist.
If it cannot be experienced, then there is no real benefit of this knowledge. If there is no benefit, then logically, the knowledge is not valuable in terms of the individual purposes of any human. Therefore, the value of knowledge is diminished if it is not applied and it would be fair to say that the use with purpose is the only way to develop and maintain knowledge. Furthermore, how can any knowledge that cannot be used be useful? Indeed, if some information is not applicable to any aspects of a particular person’s life, then this person is extremely likely to forget it. This implies that the value of knowledge is relative to each individual knower and always depends on his/her own perspective. Therefore, the application does determine the value. Whereas, without application in the real world the knowledge is just a belief since it cannot be experienced and thus cannot be
I believe what he meant was if we just accept things as they appear to us without ever questioning anything, then we will live meaningless and miserable lives. In the article, Russell writes, “The life of the instinctive man is shut up within the circle of his private interests: family and friends may be included, but the outer world is not regarded except as it may help or hinder what comes within the circle of instinctive wishes,” I think this is his representation of the unexamined life. He also wrote, “In such a life there is no peace, but a constant strife between the insistence of desire and the powerlessness of will. In one way or another, if our life is to be great and free, we must escape this prison and this strife” I think that what he meant by this is that if we want our lives to be meaningful and pleasant, then we must study philosophy. The only way that our lives can be “great and free” is to question everything and accept nothing
Situations that philosophy would be useful in my life are to do with important decisions that informing an opinion about would be very helpful such as career options, place to live, and motivational use. To form a philosophy would be very helpful for me when deciding a career because without a preference I would have the same path in life as everyone else or none at all. In deciding on a place to live when I’m older a philosophy will be crucial in deciding what I find is ideal in a living space and location. To gather motivation you have to have goals and to have a philosophy such as ‘you should do what you have to do now, to do what you want later.’ Philosophy is probably the most important in the times for me to make the most important decisions in your life. It will separate me from the rest, and define my originality.
We humans like to think. Some people take it as a hobby. While others take it as a job. That is basically what a philosopher is. A philosopher is a person that usually thinks about life and tries to find out mysterious questions, and how to solve them. Since a long time ago, in ancient Greece, many people would just meditate about life, and would sit or talk and write books about life. These have always been one of Greek's reasons of why it is so famous. Because of their marvelous philosophers. The most important philosophers from that time and always are: Aristotle, Plato and Socrates.
The term “philosophy” means the love of wisdom, and those that study philosophy attempt to gain knowledge through rationality and reason. 1 Socrates, the father of ancient philosophy, once stated “the unexamined life is not worth living”. This is the most important part of life and it is need to find purpose and value in life. If a person chooses to live their life without examination, their life would lack value and they would be unhappy. They would also be ignorant to the effects of their choices on themselves and the people around them.
“…Those who are about their souls and do not devote themselves to the body disassociate themselves firmly from these others and refuse to accompany them on their haphazard journey…” (Phaedo, 82d). Socrates is talking about how others waste their time focusing on the body when the soul should be the focus. He refuses to go and do what everyone else is doing because God has commanded him on his journey of philosophy. These people do not devote themselves to the correct way of life. You need to gather knowledge and wisdom through questioning with the Socratic Method. Wisdom and knowledge is knowing you are ignorant and doing something about it by getting more in touch with the non-physical world. Asking others questions and seeking a wise person to ask questions is how you should attain wisdom. He says you should also gather knowledge from yourself and look inside yourself for answers and cultivate the soul through virtue. Philosophy is also essential to human life. Living your life through philosophy and using it as a guide to ask questions is the way to live
Philosophy can be described as a chance for a person to undertake an opportunity to understand themselves, our world and society, and relations between ourselves and one another. Those who are able to study philosophy can find out what is to be human, what kind of person is it good to be, and especially how are we to live a good life. I, myself, have had an opportunity to take a philosophy class and as my time in philosophy is starting to come to a close, I am suddenly realizing how philosophy has changed the aspects and my outlook upon my life.
The word “philosophy” is derived from two roots that are “philo” and “Sophia.” Philo means love whereas Sophia means wisdom. Therefore, philosophy means the love of wisdom. In actual practice, philosophy entails study of, pursuit, and enquiry into wisdom. A good number of great philosophers have referred to philosophy as the art of thinking. Others have only defined it as the systematic study of human feelings and thoughts.
Philosophy has a strong influence on everyone’s day-to-day life. We all enrich our lives by thinking about things with a substantial value. We use philosophy as a sort of roadmap to direct us through our lives. We, of course, take other things into consideration while we are going through our day, but philosophy is one of the more ample ones.