On Philosophy Today and on Writing

On Philosophy Today and on Writing looks at how closely the two practices are intertwined.

2,300 years ago, Socrates asked himself a question that has had repercussions to this day: What is man and especially what can he become?

If until then philosophers such as Heraclitus or Pythagoras were exploring the outside world, with Socrates and the new current called sophistry, people began to turn their attention to the inner universe, to the human mind. And since then everything is history, and gradually in philosophy has become therapy for the soul, a practical tool that is supposed to help us understand and know ourselves, and thus to live in harmony, reconciled with our inner selves and our life.

Philosophy teaches us to look first at what is good for the mind, and the rest will follow. And if it doesn’t, then it wasn’t meant to be there in the first place and it won’t be missed.

Every individual is a cosmos (the lucky few) or a chaos of desires, emotions and ideas. If we learn to make them interact in harmony, we will then be able to live in balance with ourselves and at the same time to keep in balance our inner self and the world around us.

I think it is essential to remember that philosophers may have changed or influenced the way the next generation looks at life and understands it, but when they only just happened to be, to mature and churn ideas, they were very much novices, like us. None is born a teacher.

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice.

“Will” Durant was an American writer, historian, and philosopher

The philosopher of antiquity focused on the enlightenment of the human soul. And did so with lucidly, almost with a methodical aspiration towards a universal level.

The secret of inner peace is not to equate our achievements with desires, but to lower our desires to the level of achievements.

Pierre Hadot, French philosopher and historian of philosophy

And today?

Are we at a loss for not aspiring to what the philosopher of antiquity aimed for?

Philosophy is seldom a life purpose today. But also is far from being dead.

Today philosophy looks at and into feminism. It considers ethics and political science. Philosophy today helps us understand race and class issues, culture and inter-cultural born criticism, and theories such as post-colonialism that looks into work ethic and the subaltern concept.

Philosophy today is a great tool for writers, because much like a modern scribe deals with words, philosophy assesses how thoughts are connected with language, are seen through the prism of our upbringing and culture, and how different individuals will most probably perceive the same facet of a diamond in a different way. Much like a kaleidoscope. Something writers are very much used to.

I think that, apart from modern day philosophers, writers are philosophers too.

Because as Durant put it, “Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art.“