What Is Philosophy?

In ancient time, philosophy focuses on dealing with the problems of daily life, provides therapeutic consolation and guidance on how we should live. Socrates believes everyone has the innate ability to philosophize. They just need to be properly guided. With that said, philosophy concerns with everyone. However, there is a distinction between a philosopher and a non-philosopher. A philosopher is a person who wonder.

My other post After All, Philosophy Has Freed Myself from Doing Philosophy discusses this difference. It can be summarised into three points:

1. Philosophy is for those who wonder and value true knowledge the highest.

2. Philosophy is a way of thinking, an activity as a result of the desire to know about ourselves, the world we live in, and our relationships to the world.

3. Like Mathematics, philosophy is not for everyone. Knowing some philosophy is different from doing philosophy, just like using math equation is different from developing your own equation.

Philosophy is the love of wisdom. This post Religion, Violence, and Wisdom discusses philosophical wisdom and religious wisdom: Wisdom resides in the continual seeking of wisdom. An example of a wise man is Socrates who constantly say he knows nothing, and never stop questioning.

Philosophy can also become really tricky sometimes, and that's when philosophy becomes specialized for philosophers. You can think of it as life where you have lighter topics and serious topics. Philosophy is not much different. Of course, it is still understandable for many, as long as you put in enough time and energy. In my case, I started to doubt everything since the beginning of my consciousness; my questions were always there. I didn't choose to seek truth; it was the questions that lead me to seek truth.

If you are interested, you can read an academical imaginary dialogue between René Descartes, Caterus, and me, in which the existence of God is discussed here.

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