My Philosophy
Welcome back to Some Guy on The Internet Uploads his Thoughts on Random Topics to the Internet! Today’s topic? I am so glad you asked! This time we explore: PHILOSOPHY
What is Philosophy?
Philosophy, on a very basic level, is the study of knowledge and its acquisition. Fun fact: the root words that make up the word “philosophy”, φίλος (philos) and σοφία (sophia), mean “loving” and “wisdom” respectively1. So philosophy literally means the loving of wisdom! Isn’t etymology fun?
But, I hear you ask, what does it truly mean? Well, my astute & perpetually online friend, that is a fantastic question worthy of the greatest philosophical thinkers this world has ever known. Philosophy is frequently the butt of many a joke about asking silly questions that make no sense or seem pointless, like “what makes me me?”, or “how do I know anything truly exists?”, or even “if I replace every plank on this ship over the course of 100 years, is the resulting ship entirely new or does it retain it’s original identity?”2. Truly, some questions we ask ourselves and our peers do sound quite funny. These questions lead us down thought rabbit holes that lead us to thinking about life in new ways. Thinking about the process of exploring these questions though? What does it mean to even think about all this, study these questions about life and existence? Well lucky for us, such a concept exists! It is called metaphilosophy, and is quite the complex matter that I, frankly, am not all too familiar with. Hopefully this will change soon, but that doesn’t change what we’re here for today! Today, we dive into my thoughts on philosophy on the whole, what I enjoy in this immense field of study, and why I believe it is important to keep thinking and being curious.
My Philosophy on Philosophy
Philosophy, in my opinion, is one of the most important fields of study and thought an individual could participate in. In fact, I believe everyone should explore philosophical concepts from time to time, if only to garner a better understanding of how thinking about life and existence has evolved over the centuries. But I digress; I’m not here to try to convince anyone of anything. I’m just a standup philosopher, after all. As Comicus (played by the lovely Mel Brooks in History of the World: Part I3) so thoughtfully put: “… I coalesce the vapors of human existence into a viable and meaningful comprehension”. The act of philosophizing, of pondering the meaning of life, love, and the way things are, is a beautiful endeavor in exploring how the human mind has operated throughout history and across the world.
The way I approach philosophy is both irregular and non-academic; simply put, ever since exiting the school system I have not really approached philosophical study from a research-oriented, thesis-paper-writing perspective. Instead, I just think. I sit or wander or stand and think. Similar to my earlier thoughts on writing4, my philosophical process works much like a word vomit, in that I allow my mind to jump from thought to thought and just wander. Thoughts and ideas that pique my interest in a “what could this mean?” kind of way and curiosities that make me go “huh…” become portals to my mind palace, where I can explore the inner workings of my mind and contemplate the meaning of existence, life, love, insert other wacky ideas here (I do also read philosophically interesting books, mind you. I’ll share a favorite books list below5).
Where Was I Going With This?
Well, this post has taken me the better part of a month to write (on & off), and unfortunately I’m not 100% certain where I was going with this one. So here we are, moving rightly on! Philosophy has been an important aspect of my life, not just due to my academic study of it for over 5 years, but for allowing me to better understand myself and the human condition. Nowadays I merely become contemplative and thinky about seemingly random topics, word vomiting my thoughts throughout my mind palace (and occasionally out loud), until I either feel satisfied or too tired to think. At one point I wished to impart my wisdom to future students but my career moved off in another direction, so I now do so with my friends and family. I am able to make sense of a variety of things related to being human and form - at least what I hope to be - bits of wisdom that can help those around me better understand life. Discussing the complex nature of existence and love, and any number of other concepts, leads to thinking about everything around oneself in a different light.
All that to say: I wish people explored weird and interesting questions more often, and descended into the madness of their own minds even more. I know I will be as I (attempt to, at least) delve back into my writing projects and explore not only my mind palace, but some fantastical story ideas I’ve been tossing around for a while.
Well, hope this read wasn’t too repetitive or confusing, though I’m sure it absolutely was! Future post coming soon (TM): WORLD BUILDING.
See ya later!
Books I recommend (Note: This is my Bookshop page! Orders placed through it help me out! Many thanks!) ↩︎