Essays

PHIL 103

Faras Al Balushi (fja5092)

The value of philosophy

Everyone in life has encountered a time when they are asked too many questions by children. How does this work? Why is it that way? How did we know that? Some people might find these questions annoying or even think that these questions are silly. Most people answer these questions with: they are the way people before us taught us. Children find the joy in asking these questions and they keep themselves interested by asking a lot of questions that do not have certain answers. This is what philosophy is about, asking a lot of questions that do not have definite answers.

Philosophy has a wide range of definitions and might be interpreted differently by different people. This is not because it is uncertain but rather because it depends on what your beliefs and prejudices are and whether or not you freed your mind from these ideas and prejudices that have been delivered to you. Having these beliefs while seeking to explore a knowledge would act as a setback holding us from diving into the universe acquiring the knowledge that we thrived for and therefore would do us no good in finding answers for critical questions that we need answers for.

Understanding the value of philosophy is an important step in order to appreciate it and allow ourselves to explore and look for knowledge without being distracted by pre-existing ideas and habits. It is crucial to not separate anything from the universe and treat it all as one as it will help us in getting rid of our narrow way of thinking. This will also cultivate us to think more and not just take every piece of information as it is, but to think about how is this true and what is the best way to think about it.

The main goal of philosophy is to gain knowledge and improve our conception of what things really are. It is true that following philosophical path is challenging and might be sometimes difficult. However, once one starts to examine ideas, hypothesis, and beliefs, they will keep challenging themselves and achieve higher levels of understanding the things without any fear. The usefulness of philosophy comes when gaining any kind of knowledge since learning anything new could potentially be advantageous and would do us no harm. Moreover, philosophy defend us in case of dubious ideology that is not supported, baseless beliefs that their origin is not known, and questionable cultural values.

Philosophy includes investigating questions that do not have exact and definitive answers, rather It leads to asking more questions that indeed broaden our horizons and lead us to think wider. In fact, sciences have definite answers for certain questions, while philosophy does not. Thinking about a subject and asking more questions is what keeps us intrigued in finding the answers to these questions. This in turn will help us understand what is happening and what is in reality going on, which leads us to potentially find some answers to important questions that we are seeking answers for.

Even though philosophy includes uncertainties, it is a major tool that helps us to better understand any idea we are after whatsoever. This happens when one person takes another person’s idea and try to come up with different answer to that same question by looking at it from a different point of view. Another person might then take these answers and interpret and think differently and come up with a completely different answer. This practice will improve ourselves and the way we look at things without ourselves realizing that we are improving our way of thinking.

Also, philosophy gives each person a value. Since each answer in philosophy is uncertain whether it is true or not, we cannot doubt the ideas of other people even though their ideas might not be reasonable to us sometimes. This forces us to not be biased and to respect others’ way of thinking. The impact might come later when we reconsider the answer to the same question and try to cover the areas that we missed when we first thought about that question.

In conclusion, following a philosopher’s way of thinking helps us shaping who we are and not allowing ourselves to be shaped based on others’ beliefs or habits. It creates a value and gives an identity for each individual. It helps us to show the world that we are thinkers, not just takers. Furthermore, it allows us to get rid of the obstacles and prisons that we have created for ourselves and unbound ourselves to explore the universe and acquire the knowledge that will make us better people.