What Use Are Philosophy and Philosophizing in Life?

The prevailing conception of our time regarding “philosophy” is, for the most part, that of an academic discipline which can serve as a “possible choice” for individuals who intend to acquire a body of knowledge, or, as the saying goes, to pursue higher education. But, in truth, is philosophy an academic option and fundamentally a “possibility”? Can it not be said that philosophy, beyond being a “possible choice” confined merely to certain elites, is a serious and vital “necessity” for everyone? Should it not be said that although not everyone needs to be a doctor, engineer, photographer, carpenter, or baker, everyone ought to be a philosopher and philosophize, just as, for instance, everyone ought to exercise and have good nutrition?

What Use Are Philosophy and Philosophizing in Life?

(On the Utility and Necessity of “Philosophizing in Life”)

The prevailing conception of our time regarding “philosophy” is, for the most part, that of an academic discipline which can serve as a “possible choice” for individuals who intend to acquire a body of knowledge, or, as the saying goes, to pursue higher education. But, in truth, is philosophy an academic option and fundamentally a “possibility”? Can it not be said that philosophy, beyond being a “possible choice” confined merely to certain elites, is a serious and vital “necessity” for everyone? Should it not be said that although not everyone needs to be a doctor, engineer, photographer, carpenter, or baker, everyone ought to be a philosopher and philosophize, just as, for instance, everyone ought to exercise and have good nutrition?

We rightly do not expect everyone to be a physician, that is, a professional health expert, yet, at the same time, we expect each and every one of them not to be indifferent to their physical health and to adopt a suitable lifestyle for having a healthy, strong, and vibrant body. By the same logic, can it not be said that although one cannot and should not expect everyone to be a professional philosopher, or a so-called “professor” of philosophy, one can and should expect everyone to philosophize and be a philosopher?

Clearly, this question can have a resoundingly positive answer only when philosophy possesses a utility and necessity of the same kind as, say, the utility and necessity of exercise and a dietary regimen for physical health. If we temporarily set aside the common perception of philosophy as a theoretical and academic activity and look to its historical origins and cultural status in the ancient period, we will see that philosophy had precisely a utility and necessity similar to exercise and a dietary regimen, though not in relation to the “body,” but in relation to the human “psyche.”

As Montaigne says, “Our soul wrinkles sooner than our body,” but because the wrinkles of the soul are not as easily seen as those of the body, we neglect them. Do people today devote even one-hundredth of the time and effort they spend merely thinking about and striving for the beauty of their skin to thinking about and striving for the strength, vitality, beauty, and youthfulness of their soul? And is there fundamentally any similar idea or will observable among them that indicates a serious concern for the beauty of their soul? Truly, why is it that while it is self-evident to everyone that if the body goes without food, with little food, or with bad food for a long time, or succumbs to lethargy and weakness, it will collapse, this truth is not self-evident to them that the soul also has similar needs and, if faced with starvation, malnutrition, poor nourishment, inactivity, and lack of dynamism, will wither, become depressed, and wear out?

The Greeks considered philosophy a kind of beneficial and necessary “dietary regimen” for “mental health”; they also called it the “gymnastics of the soul.” For them, philosophy was not a set of ready-made “doctrines,” nor merely a “way of knowing,” nor a theoretical activity reserved for elites, but a necessary “way of living” for a “flourishing life.” One of the serious cultural crises of the modern age is the “crisis of philosophy”; a philosophy whose historical mission seems to have been cultural “crisis-resolution” has itself become “crisis-ridden”; it has strayed from its authentic historical origins and lofty cultural status; it has lost its illuminating and therapeutic power; and it suffers from being reduced to a “theoretical activity,” or an “academic discipline,” or a “display of intellectualism.” “Today we have professors of philosophy, but we do not have philosophers!”*

Therefore, philosophy is the “art of living well” and the “art of dying well,” and its aim is nothing less than human “happiness.” In other words, “philosophy” is nothing but “the essential rational activity of the human being for their own happiness.” From this perspective, the history of philosophy can be seen as the history of intellectual and theoretical efforts to defend “life” and its practical improvement, and ultimately to contribute to human “happiness”; just as every philosopher can also be called a “cultural physician” who, in their own way and in their own time, strives to bring “happiness” to their age. Indeed, “happiness,” in one sense, is nothing other than this very “philosophizing,” that is, “friendly dialogue and rational inquiry about happiness.”

I have said enough, where is union, where is success? This “where, where” has carried me away into your alley. Rumi

* “Today we have professors of philosophy, but we do not have philosophers!” is a thought-provoking statement that Pierre Hadot, the twentieth-century French philosopher, frequently reminded his readers and students of, quoting David Thoreau, the nineteenth-century American mystic-philosopher, in his books and classes.