Even the liberal arts students sometimes find it difficult to hide a yawn in a class of philosophy. From Aristotle to Heraclitus to Gandhi, all philosophers teach something interesting, made into something prosaic by the modern educational system.
In fact, what the philosophers said then remains relevant even today. Remember how the boos asks rhetorical questions in a review meeting? Well that is Socratic method to ask questions, not for answers, but to make you think.
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Remember how some Facebook memes ask you to live in the moment. That is what Heraclitus said when he said that you don’t cross the same river twice. What he meant was that neither you nor the river remains the same, everything changes every moment.
The United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) celebrates World Philosophy Day every year on 16th November. It is a reminder of the importance of philosophical reflection, and to encourage people all over the world to share their philosophical heritage with each other. For UNESCO, philosophy provides the conceptual bases of principles and values on which world peace depends: democracy, human rights, justice, and equality.
So, why should one study philosophy?
Critical Thinking
A reading of philosophy helps in critical thinking, which is a necessary skill in all spheres of life and all career choices. The history of philosophy is a record of people’s attempts to combine these skills and questions in hopes of obtaining some answers. Far from being an abstract and useless field, philosophy is among the most practical courses of study.
Interesting insight to current happenings
All the present events have some basic principle or crux that can be traced to an underlying philosophy. Most political games will make clear sense if you have read Machiavelli’s The Prince or Kautilya’s Arthashashtra.
To take a successful instance Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr studied Philosophy. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal studied philosophy at Stanford University.
So, you will embark on an interesting journey if you take on the ride of philosophy.
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