What Is Philosophy

Most definitions of philosophy have been fairly controversial partly because what has been called philosophy has changed drastically in the course of history. What used to be a part of the philosophical inquiries detached themselves from it. This is why most academic subject began as some aspect as philosophy and branched off into knowledge and became specialized. The word philosophy originated from Greek words philia (love) and sophia (wisdom) carrying the meaning love of wisdom. The essential part of being a good philosopher is the faculty of wonder.

Philosophy searches for the truth and questioning the unquestionable. Intrinsically it satisfies, or seeks to satisfy, the intellectual desire for comprehensive knowledge and understanding. Philosophers need to be open-minded and never closing door. They have to be accepting and be able to accept changes. A philosopher is curious, reflective and critical. Big philosophical questions like Who is god? , Where does the world come from? , What is life? has remained unanswered. Questions of this genre are asked in every culture, every religion and through every period of time.

The quest of philosophy is to answer these questions. Philosophy makes people doubt their beliefs. They make people query their cultural norms and what they have been putting faith into and brought up believing. People who are easily influence might think twice about their beliefs and those who hold true faith in what they already belief think philosophy is a load of rubbish and immature. They ignore the big questions and are too occupied searching for material things. They ignore the fact that these questions are yet to be answered but opt to remaine oblivious to it.

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By philosophizing, people reflect and criticize their most deeply held conceptions and beliefs. Essentially, the sole purpose of a normal life is to perpetuate and thrive to expand and fill the world galaxy with it. When we humans have gotten past a certain level or mark and into higher sentience. Then comes the aesthetic values, that we currently enjoy. however, the modern day society prevents most from doing so because the earth is overcrowded, and there’s the fight for resources. Philosophy attempts to search the evidence of all beliefs.

It takes a second look at cultural norms. They attempt to think through a variety of life problems. It leads the mind to a critical evaluation of things, but critical evaluations often differ from person to person for their personal expierences, cultural background may vary widely. In this changing universe, some people are responsive to it and some are not. Some cling on to old tradtions passed down decads ago and declare that they are final. Often those who are unresponsive to it are old, narrow minded, stubborn people. Philosophy tries to relate reality to belief.

It tries to find evidence and speculates the truth behind our daily assumptions. Due to this, some people think philosophy is dangerous. Socrates was accused for corrupting the mind of the youth in Athens. In this epoch, people think philosophy is nonsense and too corrupts the youth. It deters the youth from their original beliefs and confuses them even more that they already are. By philosophizing, people ask questions. They ask questions to get closer to the truth. But in fact, most of the time, they do not get closer to the truth but end up with even more unanswerable questions.

Babies and young kids have this faculty of wonder. They ask adults a lot of questions Why is the sky so high? and many adults cannot answer that question because they themselves can t answer those questions. Shallowness, incompleteness, poor reasoning, and assertions with flimsy foundations prevent a truly enlightened person. When a person comes up with a philosophy or theory of his own, he persuades other people and influences them. Orators sways minds and hearts and thereby wage wars, gain control and seduce an unsuspecting public.

To illustrate this point, lets say a nobody comes out and questions the government and influences the rest of the public to do so, with enough questioning citizens the government will be overpowered by the overwhelming demand of inquiries and thus cause chaos in a country… Those who advocate total control or even economists philosophy like Carl Marx and his views on social reform can change the whole values of society, which means every single unit of society (us) will be affected even if we resist the next generation will grow up already brainwashed and in their minds that this is good, that is bad.

This is why some people say philosophy is dangerous Philosophy can also change a way a person thinks. It can change peoples mind set especially those who are fickle and are not sure about their own true identities. These people change as they get influenced and cannot decide which is right and which is wrong. In our age of confusion and uncertainty, we need a sense of identity. Unaware of the complexities of an issue, unfamiliarity of certain issues, and unable to distinguish valid and invalid reasoning, these disoriented people might give in to authoritarian approaches to sacrifice their lives for certain values and ideas.

And if people start philosopizing about things that are dangerous, it might baffle a person of their till then perception of things. People then turn to religion for a sense of direction. But once they start questioning the veracity of the religion, they are then deterred away again from their search of identity. Leaving them profound and doubtful. Philosophy is dangerous because it threatens to change or lives. But then again, because philosophy precedes the faculty of wonder, many things that were assumed have been justified. The world is not all sleight of hand and deception.

A lot of old age enigmas have now been explained by science. What the dark side of the moon look likes was once shrouded in mystery but now we know exactly how it looks like. Philosophy leads to evolution. Because of that people improve. If it weren t because of the curiousness of scientists, we wouldn t have new inventions of machinery, of mathematical formulae, and wouldn t have the technology we now have in our lives. We would still be living in the dark, not knowing where to turn to. With this use, we cannot entirely say that philosophy is dangerous since it brings us so many advantages.

Humanity has acquired a great new power in science and technology. We obtain numerous techniques for gaining greater security and comforts have been developed. Philosophy, in conjunction with other disciplines, plays a central in guiding us toward new desires and aspirations. It guides us to a clearer more assuring road into life. Philosophizing leads us to seek more knowledge and thus making a person wiser. It guides us to make more knowledgeable and wiser choices in life. The exploration of the possible, reasonable solution clarifies the options open to thoughtful persons.

The usefulness of choosing from the reasoned, researched alternatives rather than from bigoted, impulsive, and unclear claims is apparent inn all dimension of our lives. Ideally, the study of philosophy nurtures our capacity for making informed choices. Ultimately, there isn t really a definite answer to the question whether philosophy is dangerous. This is due to the fact that philosophy brought humanity to evolve and improve yet making people feel anxious and insecure because they are uncertain about the meaning of life and which direction they should take life in.

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