Philosophy Essay

What is the use of Philosophy?

         There isn’t an obvious response to the question: “What is the use of philosophy” because it is yet to be discovered. There are a lot of definitions but no one is the right as no one is false. Someone once tried to explain what is philosophy and how are the philosophers seen by “normal and regular people”. As normal and regular people I’m talking about humans who don’t use philosophy. In this essay I’ll give an example that will be the basis of my assay. I’ll talk about how philosophy is seen by the society so you can really understand it, using the given example. I’ll also talk about the use of philosophy through the time. Then, finally, I’ll answer myself at the given question “What is the use of philosophy?”
First of all I’ll give the example I’ve been given when I first started to study philosophy: “Imagine there were people who lived all they life in a cave. They saw nothing, just the reflection of the sun and they also saw what they thought were people. But it wasn't people, it was the shadow. So one day two of them were released and went to see the real world. Then they understood they didn't know what real world was and got amazed. They had to go back to the cave and when they got there, they told what they've seen to the rest of people that was still imprisoned of the cave. They didn’t believe and punched and injured the ones that went outside the cave. They couldn't believe that all they thought was right their entire life was a lie, a big lie. “. Here in the example I gave the philosophers are the ones that got the chance to see the real world, understood that life isn’t always what we think and that we can be wrong, and the ones that didn't believe they could be wrong and the “normal and regular people”, the ones that injure the philosophers and make funny of them.
With this example we could have a little notion of how is philosophy seen. They make funny of them, put them aside and tell they are crazy by worrying with things that is common sense. I could talk about Socrates. He was killed “by philosophy”, or at least because of his obsession to make philosophy questions. With “they” in the previous sentence I refer to society in general. So what is the real use of philosophy? Obviously is not made with the purpose of being shoved aside (I guess it isn’t). Philosophy is to see the world with real eyes, understanding how it really is. It’s to question things that everyone accepts, is to don’t believe in what common sense says, look for answers of every unanswered question. It’s to question questions whose answer is not well justified. It’s to do a lot of questions that everyone tries to answer but always with a different type of answer. If we see philosophy through time questions are always being made, sometimes with no answer and sometimes with a same initial point two philosophers answer two completely different things. Common sense doesn’t always the right thing and philosophy is “made” to put common sense in doubt, don’t believe in what is normal, ask questions, alerting people by the fact they are accepting things that aren’t properly justified. Socrates got killed because he was like a “fly”, always nagging students of Atenas about what is life, and what is beauty. Was he right to be always with philosophy questions? Maybe not but at least he didn’t believe in everything religion (or the people) said.
In the old days philosophy couldn’t really be distinguished of science since both looked for the causes of natural things, like the sun raising every day and the sea and earthquake... They tried to explain things that yet couldn’t be explained by science. Then religion came. Philosophers tried to dismiss people to believe in religion with closed eyes, to be blind by what priest said. Numerous philosophers tried to explain the idea of God ( Descartes) and others said that the idea of God existed but not the perception of God as we never saw them (David Hume). Today philosophy is taught in school, it’s normal to see people to philosophy but there is still a stigma, a “prejudice” about philosophers but not as much as used to exist.
After this “lesson” of philosophy can we really answer to “What is the use of philosophy?”? Some people would say it’s a waste of time. We don’t go anywhere philosophizing. Others, the philosophers, would say it’s through philosophy that we learn to see life, we understand how precious and how we don’t have answers. There would be still someone who said it’s used in school and that sometimes people start acting like philosophers when they try to answer complicated answer or think about things that science already explained but they have a different theory. They’d add that the people who thought they were philosophers would also talk about the existence of God and death and liberty.
For me I guess Philosophy, more than a subject is a way of life and like every way of life it rules our life. It’s used to answer questions that we, human, don’t have the answer for. A few centuries ago people talked about Earth, if it was round or plane, if exist life in other planets. Today we don’t talk about the geometric form of Earth, we know how it is through science but we talk about freedom, about love, friendship, about subjects that matter to us, that need to exist. We need to have love in our life. We also need to have friendship and freedom. But the thing is we don’t know how to make a definition for it. And we need it so that we can know when are we “feeling love” about someone. It’s my opinion. Philosophy is a way to answer questions we normally couldn’t, a way of saying nonsense we believe in. For me is a way of life, trying to answer things that were left unanswered for centuries and centuries. Am I right? Or am I wrong? Who knows? But this is just my opinion. – I guess other philosopher would start by saying the exact things I said and then end in a completely different conclusion.