what do you think are the reasons why people philosophizing
Answers
Answer:
Because we’re human. Because we’re curious. Because we want to know about how the world works and knowing this means asking some philosophical questions.
For Socrates the answer might have been to make life worth living as he once said “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Philosophy is the method for engaging in that examination.
Our search for meaning, as documented by Viktor Frankl is one which requires us to philosophize as well. According to Frankl meaning can be found even in the worst of conditions but to find it requires reflection and that reflection will be philosophical.
We also philosophize because it is fun. We should not overlook this important motivator for all our investigations. As Richard Feynman put it we learn for the “pleasure of finding things out.”
Andrew Pessin put it like this:
Lots of things never end. Space. Time. Numbers. The questions little kids ask.
And philosophy.
You try to convince somebody of something- even yourself- by offering reasons to believe the thing. But then your belief is only as valid as your reasons are, so you offer reasons to accept your reasons. But then those reasons need further reasons and you’re off. As a result it often seems that there aren’t any answers to philosophical questions: there are just more arguments, more objections, more replies. And so it may easily seem that it’s not worth even getting started. Why bother? You’ll never finish. You may as well try to count all the numbers
Explanation:
But there is another way of thinking about it.
I went snorkeling for the first time a few years ago. It was an amazing experience. There wa a whole world under that water to which I’d been oblivious my entire life. This would was populated with countless amazing creatures with all sorts of complex relationships to each other in that tangled ecosystemic way. Indeed every single thing was connected to every other thing: this one is food for that one, which excretes chemicals used by another one, which excretes waste products used by others, and so on. Stunning, fascinating, and absolutely, deeply, beautiful. It had been there all along, just waiting for me to dive in.
If you were now to tell me that that ocean goes on forever filled with even more amazing creatures in more amazing relationships- I wouldn’t say, “Well, then why bother entering?” Rather, I’d say, “Where can a guy get a wetsuit around here?”
But that is philosophy. It’s filled with countless amazing ideas, concepts, beings, which exist in all sorts of complex logical relationships with each other. And unlike the actual ocean this one is infinitely deep: Wherever you enter you can keep going and going and going. What you should be thinking, then, is not: “Why enter?” It is, rather this: thank you- very much.
But of course, that world is just is this world, the world that you’re in. This great ocean you may be looking for, you’re already in it. You just have to start thinking about it. The very first drop in that bucket is a splash into the infinte.
This is the beginning