so we come to philosophy… what exactly does philosophy need
to become relevant again?
some might say, it needs a revolution in thought, some say, it needs to
be reevaluated, some say it needs another Socrates or Nietzsche…
I say this, philosophy will become relevant again when it engages in
what makes philosophy so powerful… which is engaging in philosophy
as a way of life… not as something we study and then leave in the
classroom but at every moment of the day…
philosophy is meant to be a way of life, it isn’t something that we spend our
time studying and then getting a degree in and then maybe, or not teaching it,
but when we engage with philosophy as a way of life… which means we
don’t just study it, we practice it… every day is another challenge to
practice what we hold to be true… so if we are Kantians, then
we don’t just study the rule of Kant, act as if you treat everyone as
you want to be treated… so take that as gospel… treat people as
you wish to be treated…that is what it means to take
philosophy as a way of life… to take principles of philosophy
and engage in them as a way of life…
if we are to be “pro-life” that is fine but be pro-life in ALL aspects,
not just to protect the fetus, but to protect all life, at all times…
so you are against capital punishment as its goal is to end life,
and you are against the police violence against civilians as it
has caused the death of over a 1000 people every year
and be against the torture of other people as it causes
the deaths of people… if you are pro-life, you must be pro-life
in all instances, not just some convenient ones, but in ALL instances…
we cannot treat philosophy as some causal matter that we can apply
when it is easy and convenient, but we must apply our philosophy
at every moment of existence, even if and especially if it isn’t
easy and convenient… we must become our values and philosophy
if we are to live lives that matter…
we must mean what we say and to say what we mean, at all times…
our words and our actions must be one and the same…
and that is philosophy lived, as a way of life…
not just some subject we study like math or physics… and we forget
once outside of the classroom… either we treat philosophy as
an total engagement with existence, or we simple don’t bother with
it anymore…
philosophy to become something that is relevant again, must become
an vital and important aspect of our lives… we engage with
life with philosophy being the guiding principle of our existence…
we select values and then we live those values to the best of
our abilities…if we choose love as our guiding principle, then
we use love to guide all our actions, if we choose peace as our
guiding principle, then we use peace as our guiding principle
in all our actions…
and we use philosophy as a means of knowing what values are our values
and why we need to use those values in all cases of our understanding
of what it means to be human… I am human by the values I
hold to and practice at all times…
our engagement with being human requires us to engage with
life with philosophy as being the means and ways of understanding
the values through which we live by… what values are important?
we use philosophy to discover that…we use philosophy to discover
what values we use as a means of practice… in other words, we
must use philosophy as a way of life, so what values should we
use as a way of life?
when we take philosophy and use it as a way of life, instead of a
forgettable field of study to impress people, I study philosophy
as a ways of proving your wisdom or intelligence…
use philosophy as a way of life…
take philosophy seriously… that is the path to making
philosophy relevant again… by taking it serious…
Kropotkin