04/03/2021
Wikipedia tells us that "in a modern sense, a philosopher is an intellectual who contributes to one or more branches of philosophy, such as aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, logic, metaphysics, social theory, philosophy of religion, and political philosophy."
In contrast, "in the classical sense," philosophers are mainly concerned with "existential questions about the human condition."
What I've observed regarding the general sentiment toward the field of philosophy is that most people associate philosophers - or so-called "philosophically-minded individuals" or even "unnecessarily hyper-intellectual individuals" - with the tendency to waste away minutes and hours of their day concerning themselves with questions like "does God actually exist" or "why are we born to suffer" and other things of that nature. In other words, philosophy is most commonly - and most unfortunately - associated with the "classical sense," as given by Wikipedia, and thereby given a bad reputation amongst the masses.
The list of branches of philosophy given above includes metaphysics and philosophy of religion, both of which may be included among the areas of philosophy generally looked down upon as unnecessary when one considers the practicality of such questions pertaining to these specific branches. They are unfairly deemed as lacking utility for necessary social - or, in a more generalized sense, humanitarian - "progress" in a world whose intellectually superior species of inhabitants are supposedly evolving in their capacity for reasoning and logic.
The truth of the matter is: Philosophy in its entirety has played the most central role in the evolution of our consciousness and touches virtually every area of the human experience. It gave us the tools to decipher what exactly constitutes a meaningful life, what exact moral guidelines are or at least ought to be considered universal, what actions to take for the benefit of our most cherished companions, how we might approach scaling such actions in a broader sense to benefit society as a whole, etc. And the important thing to note here is: All of these things are encompassed in BOTH the "classical" and "modern" definitions of philosophy.
What I hope I'm conveying effectively is: Philosophy has literally EVERYTHING to do with what we presume ourselves to know about life, IN EVERY REGARD you can imagine.
It may very well be the case that I'm simply venting my honest frustrations with the way we as people tend to forget our roots, or perhaps take them for granted. It may very well be the case that, as a self-proclaimed hyper-intellectual, I suddenly felt an urge to make it known to someone other than myself that I've had this fervor within myself to explore more about who I am, for about the 2 decades that I've existed. I have no clue if this post will even resonate with anybody who might read this, but I hope I can at the very least make my passion for philosophy resoundingly clear and unwavering. This next bit of optimism might be relatively far-fetched but I also hope to inspire people to reflect on what they believe to know and continue digging further, especially with regards to themselves.
I really do believe that we can find utility in revisiting the sources of our knowledge and begin to engage with the certain laws that seem to transcend space and time. I really do believe that we can discover ways to be kinder to each other amidst the chaos of being thrown into an increasingly evolving reality, whether that reality be subjective or objective.
I will end this note with the phrase from my personal favorite philosopher, who I currently believe has had the most significant impact on modern society, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900):
"The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."
