Saturday, October 3, 2015

What is Philosophy in the 21st Century?

Philosophy is the foundation upon which science has been built.

Philosophy is the history of ideas and an ongoing inquiry into the nature of things based on abstract reasoning rather than empirical methods. Has philosophy not always been about the pursuit of truth, reality and wisdom? Philosophers have asked the questions which are still current and meaningful..."Who am I? Where have I come from? What am I to do with this short experience on earth and where am I going to?" Philosophy involves examining basic concepts such as truth, existence, reality, causality, and freedom. Philosophy comprises logic, aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology. And yet by creating a framework for schools of thought, scientific frameworks, are we boxing ourselves in? We say to think outside the box, while are we building the box as well? What is philosophy in the 21st century anyway?


Cross-disciplinary research is needed to answer many fundamental human questions: Psychology, biology, sociology have not answered all our questions, today perhaps we see more of a sharing between disciplines of neuroscience, physics, psychology and spiritual practices in trying to answer these questions. In terms of our need for philosophy in this era, we need it more than ever because philosophy is the compass of human civilization and there are more people on this planet than ever, we need more people pursuing truth, reality, and wisdom. However, we are living in an economics system that was created a few centuries ago and is based on the exploitation of knowledge and effort using the capital as the foundation. Consciousness studies draw on a multi-disciplinary approach to finding such answers. Perhaps more than ever we see the limitations of thought in answering these questions. We are encouraged to look for an experience of truth, the unfolding of wisdom by those who have gone beyond traditional thinking and conventional wisdom, and the philosophy in the 21st century is the multidisciplinary pursuit.


Despite the difficulties or hardship, we are capable of choosing how to live, if only in our own heads and hearts. The reality is a choice. We can choose what reality we prescribe to. Isolation vs. togetherness, stagnation vs. growth, convention vs.innovation. The relevance of philosophy is as it has always been which is not all that relevant. The average person now has no more patience or stamina for the rigor of thought required to access philosophical ideas today any more than in the ancient Greek period. Many people give lip service to this philosophy or that but spend no time learning the rules of logic, proof, and the mathematics required to judge a valid argument from an invalid one. Without the ability to reason well, philosophy is no more insightful or useful than marketing copy.


Philosophy is a Greek portmanteau of the love of wisdom. Philosophy is the mother of all sciences even presently philosophy seems to be the completely different discipline from science. Philosophy is a Greek portmanteau of the love of wisdom. There are lots of intelligent people do understand the concepts of philosophy and these are the people would present a present philosophical quandary. Science is the methodical process of identifying scientific reasons, methods, processes, concrete, provable outcomes; philosophy is also methodical and has deliberate processes for identifying questions, reasoning, identifying faulty reasoning, and thinking outside the box. Consider, what would the answer be, if you were to ask a person from each of these disciplines- “What is the reality? Who are we? Where did we come from? And as human beings; our nature is fully engaged with emotion and imagination; we can not exempt from this portions.


Philosophy predates science and they were once basically the same. Philosophy is the foundation upon which science has been built and continues to put forth the questions which help move science onward and upward. Philosophy, the seeking after truth and reality and thus ultimately only science could resolve a philosophical dilemma. They are not only compatible but in many ways, they need one another to continue to advance.




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