What is Philosophy for?

From a distance philosophy seems weird, irrelevant, boring - yet also intriguing.

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Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam:

[MisterAwestasia]

In an anxiety driven world, philosophy becomes our deepest love.

[TheThinkerBodyMindSpirit]

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, logic and language. It is the rational investigation of the truths and principles.

There are two main reasons people study philosophy. The first is simple curiosity, and the love of wisdom.
Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. Meaning, Philosophy comes from our consciousness, When the people started become curious about everything in this world . We started to questioning, like What, Who, and How. That is why religion, science, and beliefs exist because of our thoughts, or consciousness. If you think deeply, everything in this world like, innovation, technology, and inventions starts with a questions, questions that originated from our thoughts, questions that may answer a problem . Without our consciousness no one will exist, our society will not gonna move and grow .

Philosophy addresses problems and questions, that arise in all areas of human thought and experience, and in all disciplines. What does it mean? Meaning if someone invent and create, or initiate something, a new questions will arise, This is why I love Philosophy, because it is the balance of everything, and no one wins . I think, therefore something exist :)

[ZaidKalantar]

Unfortunately we live in a very very modern society where questioning something is considered as weird, dumb etc.

[petergrimstad]

I'm a philosopher. My mother thought I was insane until she heard a philosopher on the radio on the way home from work. Now she admires me.

[SeanTheDon]

"The World Will Not be Right until Kings become Philosophers, or Philosophers become Kings. ~Plato

[josephgranillo]

Philosophy is best used when not spoken about directly. Philosophy is the stuff of endless brilliant conversations, and quiet peaceful contemplations. Philosophy is the gift of what freedom is. The freedom to love wisdom, and to know your self inside and out...

[saylo]

One thing I've learn from philosophy is always question yourself. Even when you think you have all the answers.

[PlatinumPoint]

Philosophy is the subject that sobers one, and allows one to cultivate a sense of critical thinking. 

[TheCoffeeNut]

Know yourself. I found myself liking people who I thought I should loathe and despise people I thought I should love. I realized it was their ideas that determined whether or not I found the person appealing.

[JerryReyes]

I always get strange looks when I tell people that I am majoring in philosophy. If only people could understand what this video preaches.

[brownie]

If anyone wants a CHRONOLOGICAL ROADMAP into philosophy, Eastern and Western combined, here's my compilation. -

Ancient Indian philosophy -
1. Vedic philosophy (2000 BCE)
2. Samkhya sutras of Kapila (~1500 BCE) atheistic school of dualism.
3. The Principal Upanishads (bw 1000 to 600 BCE)
4. Charvaka philosophy of Brihaspati (pre-1000BCE) - world's oldest atheistic and materialistic philosphy. The original Brihaspati Sutras didn't survive.
5. The Nyaya Sutras of Aksapada Goutama (7th century BCE - World's oldest complete book on logic and epistemology)
6. Bhagvad Gita (~500 BCE)
7. Mimansa Philosophy - the principal text woukd be Mimamsa sutra of Jamini (4th-century BCE)
8. Vaisheshika sutra of Kanada ( 7th century BCE - among others these sutras hypothesised the breakdown of matter into atoms and subatoms - Anu and Paramanu)
9. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (bw 500BCE - 400 CE)
10. Samkhyakarika of Ishvar Krishna (~350 CE)
11. Jain philosophy - outlined in the Tattvārthasūtra of Umaswati (possibly between 2nd-century and 5th-century CE)
12. Buddhist philosophy - important texts include those of the Mahayana sect - Mahaprajnaparamita sutra, Maha Ratnakuta sutra, Sandhinimochana sutra, Amitabha sutra, Vimalakriti sutra, Lankavatara Sutra, Shurngama Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, Mahaparinirvana sutra, and Saddharma pundarika sutra.
13. Sociopolitical philosophy - Arthashastra of Chanakya (4th century BCE)
14. Ajivika philosophy - the original scriptures are lost.
Hellinistic -
1. Thales of Miletus (624/623-548/545 BCE) - the father of ancient Greek philosophy.
2. Pythagoras (570 BCE)
3. On Nature by Parmenides (560 BCE – 510 BCE )
4. Anaxagoras (500 BC–428 BCE) - the first to establish a philosophy in its entirety in Athens.
5. Zeno (490 BC–430 BC)
6. Empedocles (490 BC–430 BC)
7. Socrates (470 - 399 BCE - all of him. This man's THE man )
8. Democritus (460 – 370 BCE - famous for his atomifc theory among others)
9. Plato, (born 428/427 - 348/347 BCE)
10. Aristotle (384–322 BCE )
Classical Chinese philosophy -
1. Daodejing of Lao Tzu (5th century)
2. Analects of Confucius (475-220 BCE)
3. Zhuangzi (476–221 BCE)
4. Mencius (3rd century BCE)
5. Xun Kuang (314-235 BCE)
Classical Roman philosophy -
1. Lucretius (88- 55 BCE)
2. Cicero (106 - 43 BCE)
3. Seneca the Younger (BCE 4- 65 AD)
4. Pliny The Elder (23-79)
5. The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (121-180)
6. Porphyry of Tyre ( 233- 305)
7. Augustine (354–430)
8. Hypatia (370-415)
9. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (470/75-524)
Islamic philosophy -
1. Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (854 CE – 925 CE) Famed doctor, chemist, and philosopher. First person to describe smallpox and measles as separate diseases and author of the first book on pediatrics.
2. ArA ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila (The Views of the People of The Virtuous City) by Al-Farabi (872-951 AD)
3. Saadia Gaon (882 CE – 942 CE)
4. Yahya ibn Adi (893 CE – 974 CE) Logic theorist and doctor
5. Avicenna (980 CE – 1037 CE) Persian Polymath that is often regarded as the single greatest thinker of the Islamic Golden age.
6. Ihya Ulum al-Din - The Revival of Religious Sciences by Al-Ghazzali (1058-1111 AD)
7. Ibn Rushd (1126-1198 AD) - aka Averroes.
8. Sohrevardi (1154 CE – 1191 CE) Founder of the Islamic school of Illuminationism.
9. Tafsir Al-Kabeer of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149 CE – 1209 CE)
10. Ibn Arabi (1165-1240 AD) the first Islamic postmodern and feminist thinker.
Medieval European and Renaissance era philosophy -
1. Augustine (354–430)
2. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (470/75-524)
3. Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) - the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God
4. Scholasticism - 13th and 14th century - Some of the main figures of scholasticism include Anselm of Canterbury (“the father of scholasticism"), Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas's masterwork Summa Theologica (1265–1274) is considered to be the pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy;
5. Humanism - important works include those by Coluccio Salutati (16 February 1331 – 4 May 1406), Petrarch (1304 – 1374), Michael de Montaigne (1533 – 1592), Lorenzo Valla (1406–1457), Rudolph Agricola (1443–1485), Mario Nizolio (1488–1567), Juan Luis Vives (1493–1540), and Petrus Ramus (1515–1572).
6. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) - the most important Renaissance Platonist.
Modern Philosophy -
1. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
2. Rationalists - Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Baruch Spinoza (1632-77), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
3. Empiricist - George Berkley (1685-1753), John Locke (1732-1704), David Hume (1711-1776)
4. Political philosophy - Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Jean Rousseau (1712-1778), Voltaire(1694-1778), Giambattista Vico (1668 – 1744), Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), Giuseppe Mazzini (22 June 1805 – 10 March 1872), Karl Marx (1818-1883), Fredrich Engels (1820-1895).
5. Adam Smith (1723-90).
6. The German idealists - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), G W F Hegel (1770-1831), F W J Schelling (1775-1854),
7. Existential philosophers - Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), Simone de Beauvoir, Karl Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Albert Camus (1913-60)
8. Analytic philosophers - Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970), Gottlob Frege (1848-1925), George Edward Moore, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), Moritz Schlick, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
9. Neoconfucianism - Xiong Shili
10. Neo-Vedanta - Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan
11. Kyoto school of thought - founded by Kitaro Nishida
Contemporary philosophy
1. Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947)
2. Cornel West (b. 1952) - pioneered the school of “neopragmatism”
3. Slavoj Žižek (b. 1949)
4. Gayatri Spivak (b. 1942)
5. Gu Su (b. 1955)
6. Postmodernist philosophers - Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, and Jacques Derrida
7. - Michel Foucault, Jaques Derrida
I may have missed many but this is all too much to finish anyway. 😂 Good luck everyone! 🙂

[mionysus]

Philosophy isn't a career or label or something you wear above a name tag, it's an obsession....and if you are infected by this obsession to know and question and fight to understand the truth, the order of things, the great mystery that will never be completely solved, well, you may very well be a philosopher in every way except being called one. Humans seek meaning above all else; philosophers are the champions and victims of our need and curse for meaning. This is also why in our modern age the term "philosopher" has been besmirched; we are largely an age with no real meaning in our lives/world besides money, war, consumption, and trivial entertainment.
(notice how the people who are champions of money, war, entertainment are the most praised today?)

[bolivar]

Perspective:
1-Calm
2-Long term thinking
3-Strenght of mind
 This really is a great insight one should write down on a paper and stick on his mirror (which I'm gonna do:-). Thank you!
May we all become long term thinkers one day. Or better to say " day by day" !

[ceejaeare]

philosophy to me is about the clarification and separation of thought between the abstract and what's real. what's truth and what's a lie .our place in this ever changing yet never altering slice of the universe.reason, logic, and self control are all for me gained from philosophy

[TruthSausage]

Philosophy, put simply, is the love of wisdom.

[sylvesterful]

Philosophy is for the examination of life,   for knowing whether mankind is heading for self-destruction or greater happiness.  The latter is not automatically guaranteed  since man is responsible for his choices.  His choices determine his fate.  The philosopher is like the adult in the room.

[shnig]

sadly we live in a world where if something doesn't pay the taxes it's considered to be useless and something of extra and not a necessity
in the other hand tho, we get to keep Art atleast

[codyflores]

Firstly, i learned that like a philosopher, I must not fear to ask big questions. Though I will attain uncertain answers, this will challenge what I know to be true, however it may give me a sense of enlightenment for opening myself up to what I don’t know, and being humble enough to accept this. Next, in relation to challenging “what I know to be true”, I recognized my tendency to be shackled by what is “common sense” or accepted truths that one usually does not dare to question, making it a habitual judgement. I learned that philosophy aims to bring out my ability to think critically. Thirdly, I learned that it is essential to take time in contemplating my own thoughts, and thought process; what it’s influenced by, how and why it is influenced. Philosophy teaches us that perhaps, knowing myself is enough. Furthermore, the way that the video shines light on materialistic and falsely perceived happiness reminds me to never underestimate the happiness brought about by what was not constructed for me. Lastly, with what is recorded on texts and history about philosophers, we must make do of, meanwhile, looking forward to a world where we rid of the prejudices, and the stigma towards philosophers; a world where we pay attention to the questions instead of giving such value to the answers we perceived to be obvious. I do believe that like philosophers, we must also be on the pursuit for wisdom, yearning to live well and to die well.

[michaelharrisvideo]

I love this. I'm a philosophy major with teaching aspirations, and this is such an accessible and practical approach. I've honestly never heard the "point" of philosophy so simply explained in a way I can share with my friends/family. They're all wondering what on earth I'm going to do with my degree. I can now show them this and say, "only the most fundamental of things, you know, like learning how to live, " in the least pretentious way possible... so thank-you! Haha. 

Question about implementation: How can we be more intentional about creating the kind of world the end of this video advocates? Unfortunately, institutions like The School of Life are pretty rare, in my experience. Plus, I live in the U.S. and I know of nothing comparable anywhere near me. When I was studying to be a pastor, the shared (cloned, really) values of our belief system made the whole process so simple. How can secularists do this with so little institutional support? (I read RFA, and it was eye-opening, but I'm having trouble getting others on board in a communal way.) Any practical tips for those of us who aren't near a SOL? 

[karianahurtado]

Also I do consider my self to be philosophical but the thing is, I'm not that smart when it comes to reading or intelligence with school work. I've never been a strait A student and it confuses me because I would love to do good at school and I find the things that my school teaches me interesting but I can never actually do good. I wish I could forget about everything and focus on the things I'm good at rather than being told I'm stupid because I'm not smart in the way society wants me to be.