The
term "philosophy" is an English word that comes to us from
the Greek. It's a compound word;
the first part is a Greek word for
"love": the word "phileo".
The second component is another Greek word, "sophe", which
means "wisdom". So the word
"philosophy" literally means the "love of wisdom".
Most people
know very little about the subject. Some think it impractical, others are intimidated, thinking the topic out of their intellectual
reach. The apparent daunting nature of the subject matter and the mistaken
perception of impracticality may seem reason enough for dismissing the
investigation of philosophy.
Philosophy,
however, is not a senseless parade of abstractions, but is the basic force that
shapes our character and actions in a way that affects our day-to-day
experience. Rather than exempting us from the consequences of ideas, failure to
be aware of them makes us their unsuspecting prey.
In a sense,
philosophy is more the development of a skill than an acquisition of a body of
knowledge, in that it evaluates arguments and assesses presuppositions and
truth claims. The components of
philosophy are the building blocks of our "world-view", our belief
system, our ultimate understanding of life and the world; and
that is called a "Weltanschauung", or a life and world view.
Here's
Webster's definition:
"a
comprehensive, especially personal, philosophy or conception of the universe
and of human life."
After all, we have no choice in whether to have a belief system or not;
the choice, rather, is
what to believe, and how cogent a system we are to have. The choice isn't whether
or not to have a philosophy, but only
which philosophy to have.
Examining the lives and ideas of the great (and not-so-great) philosophers
that have in many cases transformed our culture and contributed to our own worldviews,
perhaps without our conscious assent, is not only an intellectual
exercise, but more importantly a responsibility to ourselves.
Exactly what ideas make up the "lenses" through which you view the
world? And where did you get them?
These are the questions that are necessary to achieving a conscious
philosophy. The answering of them will take us a long way on the path to
"philosophical ataraxia", or peace of mind, and will serve to resolve
many of our most perplexing personal problems. The neglecting of the asking of
them only results in proving Socrates' famous pronouncement:
"The
unexamined life is not worth living."
James Allen's philosophical
self-help classic
