Why is philosophy important?
By: Justarius on Feb 15 2007Category: On Philosophy
Many people today would say that philosophy is useless in our scientific world, yet nothing can be further from the truth. If anything, we need philosophy now more than ever.
Science provides the instruments, but philosophy is the symphony. Because I cannot improve upon his words, here again is my good friend, Will Durant:
“Science tells us how to heal and how to kill; it reduces the death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale in war; but only wisdom…can tell us when to heal and when to kill…[B]ecause in these days our means and instruments have multiplied beyond our interpretation and synthesis of ideals and ends, our life is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.” The Story of Philosophy, p xxvii
Philosophy can also help people makes important decisions about the use of new technology such as bioengineering, stem cells, etc. Many people turn to religion seeking guidance, but there may come a time when religion can no longer provide adequate answers since religious texts were never meant to be tech guides. Philosophy may prove to be a more helpful guide since philosophy grows organically with new knowledge while religion tends to be more tied to the past.
Philosophy is also a strong foundation on which to build important personal things such as career, faith, and relationships.
See also:
About.com’s “Why is philosophy important?” - written for prospective and current atheists, but the basic logic is universal.
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3 Responses to “Why is philosophy important?”
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A good alternative and more friendly way to bring philosophical issues to the large audience is surely the literary genre called Philofiction, an inspirational literary genre taking as its starting point the recognition of difference and multiplicity of the world in which we live.
Philosophical literature encourages an identification of the boundaries that define us and asks us to relate across those boundaries. Philosophical novels are works of fiction in which a significant proportion of the novel is devoted to a discussion of the sort of questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy.
These might include the function and role of society, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in human lives, and the role of experience or reason in the development of knowledge.
Philofiction is able to involve the habits of mind in which we make our selves and shifts our consciousness to a large perspective through the genuine encounter of diverse worldviews.
Philosophical stories shows us that the single most powerful factor in moving towards a culture of peace and human flourishing comes from our maturation into dialogic, meditative, holistic and integrative patterns of self–making.
Philofiction reveals that humans are dialogical beings and is often based on fictionalized philosophical dialogues which encourage the exploration of different thought processes.
Plato was maybe the first one and the greatest Philofiction writer ever but many others after him wrote about Philosophy based on fictionalized literature. Authors like Sri Aurobindo, Ernest Miller Hemingway, Gabriel José García Márquez and many more.
But even today we find great Philofiction writers all around the world. Think about Tom Robbins, Haruki Murakami, Alex Mero, Jhumpa Lahiri or Bernard Werber.
James Cañón
I agree with you, James. Philofiction is a great way to share the lessons of philosophy without requiring people to wade through technical, philosophical tracts themselves. I am interest in any way to make philosophy more accessible and relevant.
My particular interest is philosophical science fiction, or “philoscifi” as I call it. It explores the same ideas as philofiction, but it has the added ability to speculate how future changes might affect these age-old concepts. For example, with philofiction, you might ask, “What is the meaning of life?” With philoscifi you can explore, “What is the meaning of life after X, Y, and Z happen?”
I admit that philoscifi can be less accessible than philofiction because X, Y, and Z tend to be science-based events, which can present a bar to entry for some people.
I would like to add this: Philofiction is, more than anything else, an attitude toward reality that can be expressed in popular or cultured forms, in elaborate or rustic styles in closed or open structures.
I think that Philosophy based on fictionalized literature has no logical or psychological explanation. A Philofiction writer confronts reality and tries to untangle it, to discover what is mysterious in things, in life, in human acts. So the principle thing is not the creation of imaginary beings or worlds but the discovery of the mysterious relationship between man and his circumstances.
We can say that an author of Philofiction does not try to copy the surrounding reality or to wound it but to seize the mystery that breathes behind things.