True philosophy is a guide for life
True philosophy is less about theoretical knowledge and more about Effectiveness. It is explicit knowledge applied to live and appropriate life.
Obs.: this is a refined thought from my personal notes, and was originally published here — https://www.timelesscraft.org/true-philosophy-guide-for-life
Philosophy means true love for wisdom. And I can’t think of a single wise person that doesn’t live properly. Wise people are those whose life serves as role models for us. They aren’t necessarily the smartest or formally lettered — they just know what to do when no one else does. And we rather go to them when we need orientation than to a lecturer in a university.
I could picture myself asking for advice for my grand-grandma, who never learned how to read. But I would never go to the head of a philosophy department for having guidance.
Thus, true philosophy is less about theoretical knowledge and more about Effectiveness. Real wisdom isn’t made of formal education, but of Explicit knowledge applied to life. Specially, explicit knowledge that helps us to have and appropriate life.
Living appropriately means acting properly. Our lives are the sum of our actions, and not of our thoughts. Life doesn’t care about what we think of it. It only cares about how our thoughts are materialized into the world.
Then, we should never act purposelessly or contrary to what benefits us, or our lives would be a disservice to ourselves. And we can only be benefited from that which follows our nature of social and rational beings, because humans can’t live isolated, nor can we live without meaning.
Reasoning and socializing are mandatory for a healthy and good life. So, instead of Arguing against reality, we should use reason to properly understand the reality we live in — and to Craft meaning out of life. Instead of making decisions and actions that depart us from our kin, we should aim for being more integrated, more surrounded and better related with people we care — people that can help us grow.
Unfortunately, while we can know that, we can’t act contrary to our opinions. What we believe will be impressed in our attitudes, despite the knowledge we have. Opinions and beliefs are the true drivers of actions. You can totally know one thing but live contrary to that. If our opinions aren’t aligned to a social and rational life, our lives will be miserably antisocial and irrational.
Actions are what shape our lives, and our actions are guided by our opinions. Concepts and theories are but crutches to help us assess the world. But they are useless if mere this. Having good opinions is the only way to have a good life, and here is exactly where philosophy came in hand.
Philosophizing is the act of inspecting one’s own beliefs. It is fact-checking so what we think isn’t contrary to our nature — or to reality. Philosophy is a double way road. In one side goes the formulating of ideas, the refining of thoughts and the development of leading principles. In the other, comes the application of these principles to our lives.
The true philosopher (i.e. wisdom lover) is the one who never left one single belief without inspection. Who is constantly coming and going to never get stuck into false-consensus. And, this way, true philosophy is both the lens and the mold. True philosophy is a guide for a better life.
