Lesson 4: Why philosophy?

This blog is all about philosophy, but why? What can we learn from philosophy or even better, why should we even learn it? When I tell people I study philosophy they all respond in the same way: "Interesting, but what can you do with it?" To answer this question we shall see what other philosophers have to say about the subject.

"Philosophy, A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing."
- Ambrose Bierce


"Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know."
- Bertrand Russell


"If a man's good for nothing else, he can at least teach philosophy."
- William James

When we read these statements we would be even less interested in learning philosophy.
The last quote is a typical example of what people say in real life. "What can you do with philosophy?" But I think the question is wrong, we shouldn't ask 'what can you do with philosophy?' but 'why would you study philosophy?'.   A small nuance with great impact on the answer.
The reason why we should study philosophy is quite an interesting one.          A simple answer would be: to understand the cosmos. But almost any person will reject this simple answer.

The Thinker

First of all, what is understanding? When do you fully understand something? People search centuries for answers but never find the answers, 'why are we here', 'what is the meaning of life', 'what was first, the egg or the chicken'...

The second objection would be: what is the cosmos? Is everything connected and therefore one definition could maybe be given. Or is the cosmos part of billions and billions of elements of life, of molecules consist of atoms, which form protons and electrons? So our simple answer is simply not good enough.

Why should we study philosophy then? Socrates would have said: "As for me, all I know is that I know nothing".

You could think, ok so studying philosophy teaches you nothing. Yes this is true! But in this 'nothingness ' lies wisdom, how can that be? If you know nothing, then you look at things different. The sunset will be special, time will become an abstract and fascinating concept to really think about.

To return to our question, 'why philosophy?' Maybe I have given more questions than real answers, but hey, this is philosophy.

Philosophy is the only science where after studying, we know less than we started...