Philosophy, even with its ancient history and seemingly remote concern applies to your life and your times, and your world. Philosophy achieves this closeness by being many good things at once. It is enlightening, thought-provoking, life changing, liberating, theoretical, and practical. Philosophy is the most powerful instrument that we have for evaluating the worth of our fundamental beliefs and for changing them for the better. Through philosophy, we exert control over the trajectory of our lives, making major course corrections by reason and reflection. A Greek philosopher by the name of Socrates says, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” He was right, here are so many aspects of life that if not examined will not be understood. In order to fully understand the fundamentals of life, the aspect of life that you should begin understanding should be the background and history of the person who began it all, Socrates. Other features of life that needs to be examined are; How to think philosophically, God and his role in philosophy and Ethics and morality. If these aspects of life are not understood, your life will be limited and unfulfilled. Leaving many things in your life unexamined.
The Greek philosopher Socrates is one of Western civilization’s greatest intellectual heroes. He was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher, credited as on of the founders of western philosophy. For two and a half millennia, Socrates has been inspiring generations by his devotion to philosophical inquiry, his relentless search for wisdom, and his determination to live according to his own high standards. He spent much of his time roaming the streets of Athens, speaking with anyone who would listen. His habit was to ask people seemingly questi...
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...amine it, you will never truly understand it. You have to take the time out to study things such as the Greek philosopher Socrates and what he did for philosophy. Also, take the time to examine the correct way of thinking philosophically and reading philosophy. No matter what your beliefs, understanding God and religion’s role in philosophy can take you far, as well as studying the meaning behind ethics and morality. Philosophy is the most powerful instrument that we have for evaluating the worth of our fundamental beliefs and for changing them for the better. Through philosophy we exert control over the trajectory of our lives, making major course corrections by reason and reflection. If these aspects of life are examine and understood, you will be much less limited and fulfilled. Everyone should life and examined life. An unexamined life is just not worth living.
Besides the reasons why human advancement is almost impossible to stop, there are reasons that we philosophize, not because we need to, but because we want to. Philosophizing is an interesting way to invest your time and it happens on a daily basis. So, why study philosophy? Many of my peers are bewildered by what I've chosen to study, seeing it as something archaic and utterly useless in the real world. They believe the subject is intriguing, but will get me nowhere fast.
There are thousands of credible philosophers for people to study today, therefore the choice of who to study becomes a burdening task. Each single one has amazing knowledge and insight that we could all learn something from. There are people who don’t call themselves philosophers but bring philosophical thought to us, and then there are those who dedicate their lives to the love of wisdom. Philosophers have existed for thousands of years, and as long as the sun comes up, there will be philosophers in the future. The human mind is made for philosophizing. So as we young, blossoming philosophers try and make sense of the world in general and the philosophical world specifically, we must find people to enlighten us and share with us their knowledge and theories. These people can range from ancient Chinese philosophers such as Confucius, to early Greek philosophers such as Plato, to more modern philosophers such as Descartes or Locke. Each philosopher brings a different aspect to our learning in their differences in time, culture, knowledge and personality. Many philosophers have a great and withstanding reputation attached to their name, therefore gaining worldwide respect and inquiry. Two of those philosophers are Plato and Confucius. They are perhaps two of the most recognized names in philosophy, and rightly so because of their contributions to the world. All the knowledge that is spoon-fed to us today was not available to these early philosophers, so it makes their ideas even more commendable. Both of these men dedicated their lives to philosophy, and because of that, they have everlasting places in the philosophical world. They are widely followed even today because of their breakthrough theories. Plato an...
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.
Everything that we do in life, is all based around our goal that we want ourselves to attain. Every path you take and every choice you make all results in you trying to get closer to your goal. The goal of which will bring you to having a good life. Additionally, having a philosophy makes it easier to make decisions regarding yourself. You already know what goal you have in mind to achieve.
Philosophy is a study of beliefs and knowledge by a group or an individual; the study of philosophy according to Socrates was supposed to lead man with knowledge that equaled virtue that eventually led to happiness. Philosophy was a way of living back in Greek culture. There were philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Arcamedies, and Aristotle that were constantly question why things happened and went against what was Greek religion. These men taught the Greek people to study philosophy and knowledge so it would free their souls. Socrates felt that mans soul was rational factuality but the soul was filled with irrational choices. Man needed to focus on what they could do to become truly pure and rational that would led them to there rational soul.
''The best way of approaching philosophy is to ask a few philosophical questions: How was the world created? Is there any will or meaning behind what happens? Is there a life after death? How can we answer these questions? And most important, how ought we to live?'' (Gaarder, Jostein 15)
This course has sparked in me a fresh curiosity for the intellectual life. It has brought me to ponder great questions that have been part of human history and the human condition. Examples of such questions include, “Does the human soul exist beyond our bodies,” “Does God exist,” “What is knowledge,” “What kind of world do we live in?” But the question from this course that I take to be the most important, as it dictates how we approach questions such as those, and is supremely relevant to everyday life, is “How should one live their life?” This question is possibly the most essential to the human race, since how we answer this question determines our mindset when answering the commonly asked question, about how philosophy applies to everyday
Pettinger, T. (2012, September 4). Socrates Biography. Biography Online. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/socrates.html
Philosophy in itself is an unidentifiable subject matter because of the lack of specificity in the fields it touches upon. It is “defined” as a way for humans to strive for ourselves in this reality in which we live in. No one person has the answers as to who we are and why we are living. The value of philosophy changes in character as history changes, thus the meaning of philosophy is what we as individuals perceive it to be. Though subjective, there are core ideals that unite the beliefs of all philosophy, such as the idea of the self.
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.
When Socrates was brought to trial for the corruption of the city’s youth he knew he had done nothing wrong. He had lived his life as it should be lead, and did what he ne...
Philosophy is a well-known term that has different meanings to those who use the word. Frequently, those who are not associated with the study of philosophy use their opinions and beliefs as a basis for an argument and believe that this is a sufficient philosophical discussion. For those who have made a study of philosophy, this meaning is not correct and misses the point of a true philosophical argument. Their approach is one of discipline and logical progression rather than relying on feelings or making arguments based on opinions (“Philosophy Begins with Critical Thinking). Therefore, philosophy can be said to have the dual meaning of a person’s attitude, or thoughts about a particular subject and the opposing view of logical thinking
“The unexamined life is not worth living”-Socrates. This quote is the most accurate explanation I can find to describe the age-old question, “What is Philosophy?” It was when I first heard this quote that philosophy became a subject of interest for me to explore. It intrigued me, and I began to ponder this question internally. When I first read Socrates’ statement it seemed very simplistic but when I actually looked deeper into the meaning of it I began to understand it was actually much more complex. To go through your whole life without looking back, and just taking a moment to reflect on where you were and where you are now, seems pointless to do; since doing this enables your personal growth to solidify within yourself. The same goes for examining the world around you without questioning the way in which it works and why does it work that way. In order for us to truly understand philosophy we must also understand how the world around us works and why, since misunderstanding the world makes us in turn misunderstand life. A more common definition of Philosophy is the pursuit of knowledge or love of knowledge, which I also agree with. As a firm believer in the idea that we should never stop learning, and always continue to accumulate facts and data from our everyday lives even if it seems pointless in the moment, I believe it to be impossible to shape ourselves into knowledgeable people without constant reflection. The love of knowledge is an age-old romance between man and the unknown; a dance that takes place all around the world without ever showing any signs of stopping. Socrates wants us not be a passive existence but to be active and look at the world around us in awe because this world has so much to teach us about life, n...
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.
Philosophy encompasses almost all different studies regarding different issues in the world. It is one of the broadest body of knowledge that speaks about everything that is connected with life. Like what it gives us, Philosophy has also its own life that evolves and becomes better throughout the time, giving us better ideas in dealing with life.