How Philosophy can help us in our everyday life?

The literal meaning of philosophy is “love of wisdom” but to be more exact it would be “love of wisdom with friends”. The word philosophy was first used by Socrates who invented Dialectic method and developed the idea of moral virtue. Socrates called himself a philosopher to distinguish himself from sophists (wise men). He didn’t say he was wise, instead he said he loved wisdom. Sophists were like today’s politicians and lawyers who would use argumentative questioning to deceive people and win an argument at any cost where as philosopher wishes to be honest. Nowadays, people commonly use the word philosophy to refer to the way of thinking or an attitude, but philosophy is more than that.

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind and language. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument and systematic presentation. To be a philosopher is to have a questioning mind, taking everything with a grain of salt and accepting the most reasonable opinion possible. To refuse to be philosophical is to love one’s own opinion rather than accepting the most reasonable opinion possible. This makes us dogmatic and increases the odds of being fanatical. To be philosophical one must develop two virtues :1) Appropriate Skepticism 2) Appropriate open mindedness

Appropriate Skepticism : It requires finding a balance between being gullible and being skeptic. We should not only be skeptical of beliefs of others but also of our own beliefs.

Appropriate open mindedness: Open mindedness is the tendency to believe or to take other’s ideas seriously. An open-minded person will be willing to consider what others have to say but completely open-minded person will be gullible and would believe anything whatever he is told. People who are gullible don’t need good arguments to believe something and people who are close minded don’t have a reason to listen to other people because they already know not to trust anyone’s opinion. Without these two above mentioned virtues people would have no use of philosophy.

Philosophers are the ones who have revolutionised the world for example : 1) Aristotle gave the idea of golden mean (Moral behaviour is the mean between two extremes- at one end is excess and at the other is deficiency. Find a moderate position between these two extremes and you will be acting morally) ,logic and developed empirical science . 2) Plato’s allegory of cave and the theory of tripartite soul. 3) John Stewart Mill’s theory of utilitarianism explains why certain actions are good and bad . The best decisions have good consequences for the largest number of people i.e. the greatest happiness for the greatest number. 4) Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative – As human beings we have certain moral rights and duties. We should treat all people as free and equal to ourselves and our actions are morally right only if we can apply them universally. 5) Voltaire proposed the idea of the separation of church from the state because according to him number of problems in the present society is because of church / religious denominations. 6) John Locke’s idea of life, liberty and property etc. Thus, we can say that philosophers have played significant role in shaping our present life. 7) Friedrich Nietzsche most famous quotes:

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow.”

helped in solving the existential crisis by advocating the philosophy of will to power (overcoming your inner dark side) that is still the problem with majority. There were many important philosophers who were also mathematicians, scientists, doctors and astronomers in the past who helped humanity to take giant leaps towards progress.

By studying philosophy, you can find out what philosophers have already thought of and it can help you think of ideas that have never been thought of before. In philosophy we mainly study the nature of reality (metaphysics), logic (argumentative structure), ethics (morality) and epistemology (knowledge). Philosophy doesn’t guarantee that we will attain absolute truth, infallible certainty or a complete understanding of reality. Instead, it merely helps us to be more reasonable, creative and ethical because it helps us attain justified beliefs and justified beliefs are more likely to be accurate than unjustified ones. It is not “people making stuff up” in a haphazard way. It requires justifications and proper reasoning. Philosophy tells us how we should argue and how we can be free to think for ourselves to improve our own lives, relationships and the world. By learning about the answers people have thought of to life’s greatest questions (Is there a best way to live? why do we exist? etc) opens possibilities for new outlook and a better understanding of our problems which helps us being more creative, reasonable and ethical.

In a nutshell, Philosophy helps us be more :1) Reasonable and learning to be reasonable is of utmost importance because we all have to make choices and accomplish goals. Being reasonable enables us to make better choices, accomplish our goals, live a better life and become a better person. 2) Ethical – it is important because our decisions and actions can have a powerful impact on ourselves and others. We want fewer criminals, more people to help the poor, fewer corrupt politicians and cops and judges who accept bribes etc to make the world a better place.