Occupy your mind 101
The third Thursday of November is designated by UNESCO, a UN agency on education, as the annual World Philosophy Day. It is a day intended to reaffirm the vital role that philosophy plays in our private lives as well as in public affairs. Socrates (470 BC 399 BC), the founder of Western philosophy, its first martyr, and the first public intellectual, said that philosophy is a task of examining and investigating things, and to be critical about concepts that underlay everything. Philosophy is thus the substratum of all knowledge and a meditation that connects man to God. Because we ought to love knowledge and in turn God, instinctively they will both occupy our mind because they are important to us.
Significantly, the designation of today as World Philosophy Day is a recognition of Socrates’ idea that continuous conversations about ourselves and our world helps us all live more examined and thus fulfilled lives. In another sense, the designation of today as World Philosophy Day is the reasonable yet scary belief that societies fall to folly when, in their quest for knowledge about themselves, they draw distinct lines and roles between leaders and scholars. What this will ultimately lead to is a society’s thinking being done by dutiful followers and its enlightenment being done by fools. To counteract this, philosophy must be lived and practised by all of us. Inversely, philosophy should not be viewed as an esoteric activity or a rarefied pursuit only for intelligent people, or the elite or academics or even people who have nothing else to do but think.
As a primer, philosophy is divided into five major branches. They are, metaphysics, the study of the ultimate nature of reality; ethics, the study of morality and conduct; political philosophy, the study of government, justice and people; epistemology, the study of knowledge itself; and aesthetics, the study of beauty and its results, art, in all its various forms. The aim of philosophy is wisdom, which is both a deep theoretical understanding of the world and our place in it, as well as being able to live a good life. These two - knowledge and good life - are interconnected philosophically.
Every good and safe home must have a solid and trustworthy scaffolding. This book is the scaffolding for a good and reliable philosophy library every home must have and every parent must consult from time to time: The Great Conversation: a historical introduction to Philosophy by Norman Melchert and David R Morrow (9th edition, Oxford, 2022, Amazon: USD 92.00 -new; USD 62.00 - used).
The book summarizes the major ideas in philosophy without eviscerating their core by over simplifying or over explaining them. As it covers the time period before Socrates right up to the present, it is comprehensive.
Importantly, it shows how every philosophical idea has built on previous philosophical ideas. This book is about thinking as old as time itself and as worthy of your attention as everything you hold dear.
Have a thoughtful day today and forevermore.