The Greek philosopher Socrates (my hero!) said that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. Philosophy, like faith, is meant to be practised. All the knowledge in the world is useless unless it helps you in some way.

Philosophy is the ‘love of wisdom’ and is more about HOW you think than WHAT you think.

A study of the nature and limits of human knowledge (epistemology) is at the heart of philosophy. No-one can know everything. We learn from each other.

Some of the things philosophy tackles include:

How and what can we know?

Who am I?

Why do we exist?

Is there a point to the universe?

How should we live?

What is ultimately real?

Is value a quality, a relation or an attitude?

How are the opposing problems of knowledge / existence, body / mind, truth / error, good / evil, space / time , etc solved ?

Philosophy is relevant to current events and problems … and how we approach and solve the problems we face. It is therefore relevant to war, peace, politics, economics, employment, feminism, religion, gay and lesbian rights, education, health care, ecology, etc etc etc.

Most contemporary philosophy can be classed as either:

1. Analytical – clarifying all uses or reason and language, whether they constitute knowledge claims or values judgements.

2. Existential – analysing the components of human experience and situation.

Some will say …”Yes, well that is all very basic and over generalised.” … and it is! I’m trying to give a brief thumbnail.

If you are starting out in philosophy a good and easy to read beginning is Jostein Gaardner’s ‘Sophies World’ (translated by Paulette Moller; Phoenix House; London: 1995). From the blurb:

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Looking through he mailbox one morning, a fourteen-year-old Norwegian schoolgirl called Sophie Amundsen finds a surprising piece of paper. On it are written two questions: ‘Who are you?’ and ‘Where did you come from?’

The writer is an enigmatic philosopher called Albert Knox, and his two teasing questions are the beginning of an extraordinary tour through the history of Western philosophy from the pre-Socrates to Sartre. In a series of brilliantly entertaining letters, and then in person (with his dog, Hermes), Albert Knox opens Sophie’s enquiring mind to the fundamental questions that philosophers have been asking since the dawn of civilisation.

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