You ever been caught up in life or whatever activity you’re in, and you just stop and look at your hands (or some people do this in the mirror) and think, “I really exist. I’m here. I’m built like this. I look like this. I have 5 fingers. Why do I have 5 fingers? Why is there a 5?”.
From the moment the first human realized this, philosophy was born. We all have a desire to understand. For those who claim you don’t, you do. You either don’t want to do the work to go about gaining it, and/or you’re scared of what’ll happen once you got it because it’ll change your perception of reality, which usually leads to unhappiness.
So this is our dilemma with human thought. We want to know, but we want to be happy.
Philosophy… attempts… to marry these 2 desires to make us feel whole as a person. Everybody’s lifestyle is their way of trying to achieve at least one of these 2.
I’m greedy. I want both.
So like I said I want to ultimately understand the universe and humanity. The hard and soft sciences.
I know there is no one answer. Even if there is, what am I gonna do with it? I still want to learn.
So first I wanna get this out the way: when it comes to your health, your safety, your family, finances, or your physical well-being, all that philosophy shit goes out the window. When it comes to your survival, you are not obligated to sit back and rummage your brain about the ‘greater good’. I ain’t saying that’s a pass to do evil, but you don’t have time for philosophizing when you’re basic needs aren’t even met. This is a first-world subject. I am extremely privileged I live in a place and time where I’m able to speak about this freely.
And for the subject as a whole, you should not MAJOR in philosophy. There’s too much out here in the world to look into. That’s like people who spend all day in the gym. It’s cool to do it but to make it your life is a betrayal to actual experiences. Make sure you go outside and actually use this, don’t spend all day thinking. Now let’s get to it.
My main source for this was the book Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottleib. I’m glad I read it because it saved me time from bouncing around on different philosophers trying to figure out what they mean. It gives you a bird’s-eye-view of the subject.
I first noticed the book only goes through Western philosophy. Compared to Eastern philosophy, it seems more about building yourself. You have to do the work to become good. Eastern seems to take more of a ‘just let it be’ approach, which I don’t see as much different from religion. Not saying it is all about that, that’s just my current impression of it.
The book did focus a little too much on history instead of the actual branches, but it was still a good primer for all this.
I see why people don’t like the subject cause most philosophers just sit around all day mentally jerking off without actually doing anything. I want to see how I can put this into practice.
And as I go through these, understand there is no the answer to all this. I’m just laying out how we’ve gone about trying to find them. It’s still up to you on what you choose to believe.
So let’s get to it.
Grant Abraham 