Philosophy is good for nothing... Or for Anything? · 8:45am Feb 12th, 2013
I study philosohpy as my majos in a university far far away from the world of Internet. So, lately I have been thinking, what good will it do fro me in the future, on the scary day I graduate? So far the question has concerned me not, for I study philosophy in the lack of other stuff to do with my time. I mean, writing blog posts and random fan fics is nice and all, but that's hardly going to bring bread and butter to my table, is it?
So the question lingers: What is philosophy good for?
Many people would claim it is useful for lots of stuff. "Make a few distinctions, clarify a few concepts", that sort of thing. But that just is the problem - because of its universality, philosophy is hardly very good for anything particular work, thereby making it quite useless in the focused capitalsitic world of ours. Why call a philosopher when all you need is a person knowing how design Internet sites?
But I got a plan.
I am going to make philosophy productive.
Somehow.
And part of that includes ponies.
More about that later.
Productive Philosophy in a Capitalist Materialistic world and Ponies huh. Sounds very interesting
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My goal is to make ponies out of philosophy and philosophy out of ponies.
This might get messy.
As far as I know (you having a Master's thesis in the subject probably know better) the original question of the Greek philosophers was "How to live a good life", pretty much everything everything else from explaining how the universe worked and trying to actually figure out how and if we could describe it came later / was secondary.
For myself, I can say that reading philosophers like Plato or Sun Tzi and doing a tad bit of thinking of my own has greatly helped me lead a life that I can be more satisfied with. I know a number of other people who grind themselves to pieces striving for whatever advertisments tell them they should structure their life around, and end up living not a happy life at all. I have this concept that it makes sense to think about death: one day we are all going to die, and I typically imagine myself being run over by a car (since that could happen any day), lying on the ground, bleeding out, feeling the darkness engulf me as my heart struggles for just another beat. What will happen then? Will I be thinking to myself: "Oh God! Please no! There still was so much that I wanted to do! There still are so many things I need to say to people! This conflict I got into really wasn't worth it! Why didn't this happen to someone else? Please! I can't die yet!" or will I be lying there, thinking: "Well. That wasn't how I had planned on going. My life wasn't quite what I had hoped it would be, I didn't quite manage to get everything done that I had hoped for, but overall, I think I can feel ok with it. I did what I really wanted and needed to do in the time that I had. Hello, Dark Brother. I'm ready to go."
If philosophy can lead to that kind of difference, then I would claim that it is quite valuable indeed.
A little quote from Mononoke-hime:
Moro, wolf-goddess: "Nago was afraid to die. Now, I too, carry within my breast a poisoned human bullet. Nago fled, and the darkness took him. I remain, and contemplate my death. (...) I have lived long enough. Soon the great Forest Spirit will let me rest forever."