Does philosophical reflection still have value in this modern, technological world whose contours are being shaped by scientific, robotic Intelligence? Is philosophic seeking, the ‘love of wisdom’, only a search for a deeper meaning to the apparent meaninglessness of life, or do philosophical questions that arise in the mind have a connect with everyday living and issues?
When asked why we still need philosophy, Jules Evans, philosopher and director at the Centre of the History of Emotions, contended that our ability to do philosophy is one of the things that distinguishes us from other animals – in some ways, it is that which makes us sapiens, ‘wise monkeys’. He posits that this capacity for higher order questioning, asking why are we doing a particular action…and to what end, creates a philosophical construct for everything in life.
The ability to think for oneself gives rise to questions, which come up quite spontaneously in the mind, such as: what is real, is the material and tangible world real, or is reality to be found some where else, in the mind and beyond it? How can we know, what is truth, is science true, or do we turn to the great religious traditions of faith? One may not know that one is asking metaphysical or epistemological questions, but these questions are arising in every mind.
Hegel believed that philosophy could go to the roots of a culture, to the truth of the Absolute that it embodies. The reflections of philosophy make it feasible for society to understand itself. What does it mean to be moral and ethical, and how does one judge whether a human action is right or wrong are questions which the philosopher articulates. Is existence meaningless, since one sees so much suffering and grief and misery all around, or is there a purpose and pattern to our lives we do not know of, and are trying to seek, in different ideas and propositions?
Philosophic wisdom may come late, but these questions, Prof TZ Lavine contends, loom large at the back of every mind, in the everyday challenge of life. They come to the forefront in moments of deep personal crisis or in the face of an external sudden event, like war, when one despairs and one’s faith in a particular belief-system is shaken. One may not find the right answers immediately, but these questions will themselves show the way forward out of that moment of crisis, for the seeking of truth is not mere seeking of knowledge, it is the essential condition for seeking just action. As Hegel often said, “Once the world of ideas is revolutionised, reality cannot resist.”
It is in this spirit of philosophy being seen as an everyday practice and not just an academic scholastic discipline, that the World Philosophy Day seeks to redefine philosophy as a stimulation of the mind to the exercise of thinking. It is in asking these fundamental questions – what is real and valuable, what is true and just – that philosophy unravels new ideas of reality that may shape the ‘mind of the coming age’. Upanishadic thought itself posits this critical thinking as the elan vital of understanding both the manifest world and the Self.
November 16 is World Philosophy Day.
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