6 Reasons You Should Be A Student of Philosophy

A person who does not examine their beliefs is like a fish who does not know it is wet. Consequently, they will share the same outlook towards life as a fish. Fumbling around, trying not to get caught in a net or eaten by a shark, and ultimately aimless in a never ending quest for food and temperate waters. If you want to have more depth, you need to think about what you believe and why you believe it. Understanding basic philosophy is a big part of living a thoughtful life. Yes, you can always find something at your level––I’m not saying you need to pick up Aristotle’s Metaphysics if you want to be smarter than a fish. What I am saying, however, is that if you aren’t aware of basic logical fallacies, your own presuppositions, or how you fit into the history of thought, you are going to have a hard time making sense of life or yourself.

So here it is: a few reasons you should study philosophy.

1. Studying philosophy will give you perspective on your generation and culture

Every generation implicitly believes that their morals are superior and their ideas are more advanced than the previous generation. This seems reasonable enough––after all, hindsight is 20/20 and new thinkers can always critique and improve upon the ideas of the past. The truth is, however, by that logic, their very own views will become outdated, irrelevant and laughable in only a few years. It seems to me that this march of change proves that there is no safety in believing what everybody around you believes. Cultures have their blindspots and societies have corrupt axioms. And I’m not just talking about, say, racism or religious beliefs, I’m talking about definitions and expectations of adulthood, the nature of God, where human beings came from, and the proper use of sexuality to name a few subjects. If you want to be a thinking person, you have to be able to disassemble and reverse engineer the culture in which you live. If you can do that, you can make the critical distinction between something you actually believe, and something you just assume because you––and everyone around you––has always assumed it.

Thomas Nagel, a professor of philosophy and law at New York University, is a great example of a thinker who is willing to recognize that some of the non-negotiable, self-evident truths we hold now will be dismissed as laughable in 100 years. Speaking of Neo-Darwinian evolution as an explanation for all complex life, Nagel says, “I would be willing to bet that the present right-thinking consensus will come to seem laughable in a generation or two—though of course it may be replaced by a new consensus that is just as invalid. The human will to believe is inexhaustible” (Nagel, Mind and Cosmos, 128).

Recognizing how society influences your thinking is an essential component of being a true thinker, and studying philosophy is an excellent way to examine the presuppositions and inherent beliefs that your culture has in order to see if you actually agree with them or not. This will also be helpful in understanding what the current generation’s collective beliefs are, and how they compare to the grand scheme of world history. That way, you can interact with the ideas and determine if you wish to accept or reject them based on intellectual merit.

Failing to think critically about core questions for yourself will mean that you are ultimately a parrot for someone else.

2. Studying philosophy will challenge your reflexive opinions.

You may believe that your opinions are your own, but you would be very wrong. Unless you have carefully examined them, your opinions are the conglomeration of your individual influences, background, culture, upbringing, and even temperament. Like recessive and dominant genes, you have inherited views from external stimuli without even knowing it. Sometimes these ideas come from things you admire, like movies you have watched since childhood. Other times, your opinions are formed out of disgust, like the young adult who has the opposite opinion of their parents simply because they think poorly of their character, actions, or beliefs in a separate area.

Therefore, we need a way to examine our default beliefs and challenge them. Regardless of where our beliefs came from, we have to have good reason to believe something if we are going to be justified in believing it. Don’t you know that there are thousands of people who are better educated, have higher IQ’s, and have better reasons to believe your opinions, but still reject them wholeheartedly? Why, because of an accident of geography, genetics, and upbringing, would you assume that you have inherited infallible and obvious truth while everyone else is wrong? (And if you answer that you don’t believe you are “right,” but that everyone is “right in their own way,” then your subjectivistic attitude is still a reflection of your own culture, time period, and upbringing.)

Philosophy helps challenge our reflexive opinions by giving us a deeper well of experience. To be a thoughtful person, you need to recognize your own limitations, biases and predispositions. If you can see these things, you’ll be able to assess the point of view on both sides of any topic with clarity.

Unless you want to be a blind product of your environment and upbringing, you need to think through things for yourself. Studying philosophy is an effective way to gain enough perspective to even recognize what your “knee-jerk” beliefs are––the things you believe without even realizing you believe them––with the end goal of dismissing or verifying them.

3. Studying philosophy helps you construct a coherent and consistent view of life and reality.

Under what conditions is violence justified? This is an important question which all people must answer, and answer every day. Not everybody is consistent with their answer, of course, but they have a belief in any case. Your beliefs about violence have ramifications for your diet, as well as your opinion on the latest war in the Middle East. It will touch your ideas about what it means to be human, and the grounds for what constitutes right and wrong. For those of us that wish to believe true things and live wisely, we want to answer questions like this in a way that does not contradict our beliefs in other areas. For example, it doesn’t make any sense to believe that violence is never justified, and also believe in the necessity of government, which essentially relies on the threat of violence in order to enforce its laws and regulations.

One short trip to “you’re-definitely-wrong-ville” is always around the corner if you can find inconsistencies in yourself or others. For example, there’s a common out-dated view which is still prominent among laypeople (and, surprisingly, many intellectuals) that the only real knowledge of which you can be certain of is scientific knowledge. After all, everything else is just opinion, right? If you can’t see it, measure it, test it, or repeat it, then it’s up for debate, and who is to say there are correct answers to non-scientific questions? This view is called Logical Positivism. Truth, as a category, must be reserved for scientifically verifiable statements and definitionally true statements (like all bachelors are unmarried, or 7 + 5 = 12).

There is, however, a fatal flaw with this view, which is why it faced a major decline in the mid-20th century. The flaw, of course, is that the the view itself cannot be scientifically verified, nor is it definitionally true. How can you know that Logical Positivism is true if it cannot be tested by science, nor assumed by language? There must be other ways we know truth besides science––otherwise you couldn’t know that scientific knowledge is true.

The lesson here is that studying philosophy helps us cross examine our ideas to make sure that we believe things that are true. Consistency is a necessary requirement for truth, and developing your own ideas without allowing others to point out where you’re inconsistent is just choosing to live in the dark.

4. Studying philosophy will help you interpret and understand history and the present day.

Why did the Japanese resist westernization so fiercely in the 19th century, and why did their minds changed to then become one of the most powerful, advanced and wealthy countries in the 20th and 21st centuries? Why do Americans traditionally believe in limited government and individual liberty? How did Aristotle’s juxtaposition to Plato’s views give the foundation for modern science? What did the Judeo-Christian view of mankind contribute to the West? Should Christian ideas of human dignity, value, worth, and capability be duplicated and applied towards human-like robots and computers?

You may not believe that these things are relevant, but you would be very wrong. Understanding why Rome fell might lend critical insight for how to maintain a civilization today. Seeing why Socrates decided it was better to drink hemlock rather than live a life in exile might make you consider if there are higher values than life itself (an idea which is very counter to Darwinism, by the way). Your ideas about what it means to be human will influence your opinion on what it means to be a machine, or an animal.

Any and all of these questions are far more relevant than who is going to the Super Bowl, or which candidate said what during an election cycle. The questions of ethics (what is right and wrong?), epistemology (how do we know what we know?), metaphysics (what is reality beyond the physical world like?), cosmology (where did the universe come from?), and every other branch of philosophy is an examination of questions which have endured throughout time, and will continue to fall even after the Kardashians are out of the news. If you have a philosophical foundation for those central questions, you have thought about your worldview enough to at least have a respectable view of the world.

Philosophy is a part of life––like economics, religion, and culture. If you want to understand history, politics or even the difference between your ethics and a co-worker’s ethics, you need to be a student of philosophy.

5. Studying philosophy will help you understand where you came from, where you stand, and where you are going.

I had a humorous exchange with a coworker once who asked me if I had any hobbies. After whipping out Can Man Live Without God? by Ravi Zacharias, I mentioned that I enjoy philosophy and literature. His exact words were, “Oh, are you one of those guys who take philosophy really seriously and base your life on it and stuff?”

I answered, “What are you talking about? Everyone bases their life on some philosophy or another.”

He said, “That, right there” and waved his hand as if gesturing to my words, “is what I’m talking about.”

I remember that exchange because it made both of us laugh, and I had a moment of reflection as to how different I must look to other people when carrying ordinary conversations. But perhaps that is self-conceit. In any case, I do stand behind my statement: everyone bases their life on some philosophy or another. The only relevant question is whether you know what your beliefs are. As Zacharias argues, every human being must answer these four questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here? How should I live? Where am I going? (I would also add, “what do I make of suffering?”). You live out your answers to these questions every day. Your career path could be influenced by your worldview. It impacts who (or if) you marry. It impacts whether you cheat on your taxes, or whether you cheat on your spouse. It will impact how you grieve at the grave site of your parents, or perhaps your children. Your worldview will interpret just about everything meaningful about you. Are you even consciously aware of how you answer these crucial questions? Are you self-deceived––believing you know how you answer them, but actually acting out a different belief entirely?

Does life have any higher purpose or meaning? Is life just a bad joke, told by chaos and ended by chance, with cruelty as the start and death as the punchline? Or is life a bigger picture, a cohesive whole, an orchestrated symphony to an even greater end? The difference between these two perspectives often makes the difference between genuine happiness or suicide––life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, or state-sponsored genocide.

6. Studying philosophy will teach you reading comprehension, critical thinking, argument analysis, logical fallacies, and much more.

Being able to articulate a viewpoint, analyze the strengths and weaknesses, and identify catastrophic logical fallacies is an essential quality of an educated person. Simply put, studying philosophy builds discernment. Reading great minds strengthens you, and enables you to identify weak minds when you see them. Understanding profound arguments helps you recognize weak arguments. The experience of reading over the same page again and again in order to grasp an abstract concept is one which will improve your ability to learn any abstract concept. Learning is a skill that you should enter life ready to acquire and practice. If you want to increase your reading comprehension and your ability to understand challenging subjects, look no further than a primary or secondary source of a great philosophical mind.

Here is a brutal newsflash if you are a very naive person: there are billions of people who disagree with you on fundamental questions. Like, for example, which people have a right to live? You may answer, “everyone,” someone else may answer, “everyone––with exception to convicted murderers.” That doesn’t seem radically different, does it? Well, some people believe that those who disagree with them on religious or political matters are candidates for immediate death, and others might say those who have not exited the birth canal are candidates for immediate death. What you believe matters, because it influences people around you. Do you want to have more influence? Make better arguments. Do you want to make better arguments? Read more philosophy.

Of course, this is not to say that philosophy is a means to an end, namely, to convince those around you that you are correct. The end result of studying philosophy is, as Matt Dillahunty says, “to believe as many true things and reject as many false things as possible.” Perhaps you will find that there are more effective ways of obtaining truth rather than picking up Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, but clear thinking is undoubtedly a necessary component to discovering truth in the universe.

Tips for getting started

Okay, I’ve convinced you. But now what? Should you scroll down Amazon’s book section and buy anything with a “philosophy” tag? Not necessarily, although perhaps that could be quite the adventure! I suggest finding an approachable secondary source which has been written to serve as an introduction to the field of philosophy. For my undergrad, I read The Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas and From Socrates to Sartre by T. Z. Lavine. The former was very thorough, albeit dense, and the latter was enjoyable and digestible, albeit more cursory. If you’re a Christian and you want an author with your background in mind, Good Ideas from Questionable Christians and Outright Pagans by Steve Wilkens was a very educational and surprisingly engaging tome.

After these overviews, find an area of philosophy you enjoy, or perhaps a particular mind you would like to explore, and read another secondary source. Or, do a little preliminary research, and jump right into a primary source! After all, my first real exposure to philosophy was reading selections from The Portable Enlightenment Reader, which is a collection of primary sources assembled and edited by Isaac Kramnick. There is certainly a case to be made for finding something you enjoy and diving head first.

If you’re still not convinced, or are afraid reading a book would be too stressful, unfruitful or simply too boring, I want to encourage you to not dismiss the proposition all together. Listen to the podcast, or other podcasts that feature engaging ideas. There are lectures by Jordan B. Peterson, or “Ted Talks” on issues which will surely interest you and intersect with philosophy. Maybe you’re not ready to become a student of the discipline, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stand outside the lecture halls or overhear an interesting conversation. Perhaps that will be enough for you.

Conclusion

In conclusion, reading philosophy helps you to avoid intellectual blindness. Most people swim with the current. They don’t care that future generations will criticize their ideas, and they don’t care that past generations have thought of things differently and perhaps better. Don’t be a part of the masses, who will simply believe whatever is culturally acceptable. Those who believe in everything really just believe in nothing. They have the worldview of a fish. Easily caught by politicians, swayed by advertisements and eaten by those who wish to take advantage of their ignorance. Perhaps worst of all, those who are ignorant of the deeper questions risk living a life without purpose, meaning, joy, or conviction. Be a man or woman of conviction. Know what you believe, know why you believe it, and be a better person for it.