The Question of Philosophy

The question is Philosophy. Why is it important? What makes it important? To answer theses questions you first have to know what philosophy is. Philosophy is defined as: the pursuit of wisdom; a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means. This is the written definition of philosophy, but I think philosophy can't be defined to just words. It's more then words.

Philosophy to me is an attempt to understand the world. To understand philosophy one must not look for a solid definition. It is easier to understand it if one is actually doing it. Why don't you try it out now, take the ever so popular phrase "to be or not to be." One thing can't, be and not be at the same time. If something is there, that can be touched, seen, held, or even look at, you can consider it to be, to exist. One can't say that it does not exist because the object in reality is there. It can't be there and not be there at the same time.

Another way to try to understand philosophy is to find out where it came from and what the word means when it is broken down. The term philosophy comes from the Greek for "love of wisdom," giving us two important starting points: love (or passion) and wisdom (knowledge, understanding)

First we'll start off with love or passion. One must understand that philosophy shouldn't be pursed without love or passion. You must not think of philosophy as work. It must not be force upon you. You have to want to do philosophy. If your love or passion in philosophy isn't there, then you truly aren't seeking wisdom. One must have a passion for what they are philosophizing to actually gain the wisdom in which they are seeking.

Next would be wisdom. Wisdom is forever sought out by us as we grow and we mature. One normally doesn't consider the seeking of wisdom philosophy, but that is where they are wrong. This search for wisdom brings us back to the prior topic of passion or love. When we look at things, most of us look for answers to how they work. For instance, snow; when you were smaller you probably had no idea what snow was. You probably didn't know what is was made up of and where it came from. As a growing child trying to understand the world, one would probably seek out to understand how it worked. Thus, you probably asked your parents. This asking or seeking of knowledge was brought out by an individual's passion to understand; philosophy.

Now that you know the book definition and the word origin of philosophy, let's try to understand why it is important to philosophize. Without philosophizing, without philosophy where would we be today? Some might say that we would be exactly where we are now because questions raised back then, in the early parts of philosophy, are still raised today. Although this is true, try to think where we would be today if none of us ever sought out wisdom; if no one ever question anything that they were told. If everyone just took each others word for everything and never tried to understand how anything worked. Where would we be? Certainly, not were we are today.

So why is philosophy important? As a human it is important understand our world, to understand our values, and to understand ourselves. And the answer to the why philosophy important is because the soul propose of philosophy is to help us understand. Without our constant seeking for understanding we never would have developed philosophy in the first place. Philosophy when used, could answer questions to things we wish to understand; such as snow. If no one ever sought out for answers, today we probably wouldn't know where and how snow worked. So, philosophy is important because one's understanding is important.

It is also important to understand ourselves. This is another reason philosophy is important. If no one ever understood what or who they were then no one ever would have done anything. An example: A shoemaker makes shoes; shoes are for your feet to protect them from the hazard of the outside world. Now, if the shoemaker