Quest about life and existence are as old as man...

Quests about life and existence are as old as man. Who am I? What life means? How can I be happy? How should I act? Etc... With life, comes umpteen inquiries into how, why, where and when? What and who of existence. The endeavors of philosophers remain unabated to capture the essence of reality or (un)reality of existence. To uncover the ultimate meaning of existence is the central purpose of philosophy. There are no absolute answers, but the search persists. Etymologically, the word ‘philosophy’ is derived from Greek philosophia meaning philien = to love + Sophia = wisdom. But it is not merely ‘love of wisdom’ but more about real ‘use’ of it. Philosophy can’t exclude action and thrives on a critical analysis of experience as a whole. Every human gives vent to a theory of his relation to the world which consequently decides his attitude towards life. Rightly, therefore, philosophy is often used to mean any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation in life. Through our senses, we are in a constant process of accumulating information, observation and experiencing which are mostly based on ideas, perception, prejudices, years and doubts. However, we need to direct these thoughts to avoid dilemmas. Philosophy integrates our thoughts thereby enhancing our understanding of ourselves, our world and our place in it by thinking, enquiring, analyzing and conceptualizing. This enables us to deal with real life problems. We can thus become efficient understanding the systematic approach to life through impartial evaluation, deep contemplation which then leads to proper translation into action.

How to Philosophize?

At some point or another, you have been in deep thought and have philosophized. How exactly did you philosophize? Why did it happen?


“Philosophy is the search for meaning.” This is how philosophers define Philosophy. Scholars also say that all man philosophizes.

There is indeed one focus in philosophy called the Philosophy of Man - dealing with the nature of Man as "born philosophers" (meant to philosophize), basically because we - are "rational beings" - we think and feel and are capable.

At some point or another, you have been in deep thought and have philosophized. How exactly did you philosophize? Why did it happen? - Because of 1) experience, 2) emotion, and 3) insight.

Experiences, like being love-struck, feeling immense pain, or witnessing violence or disaster drives us into extreme emotions - catches our attention, and compels us to think deeper. Even if you're not a "deep-thinker" by personality, you have been at one time been that close to philosophizing.

When we were young kids, we asked, “Where do babies come from?” When someone died, “Where did he go?” “Where is heaven?” This is on the verge of philosophizing.

When we reached high-school, we learned how to write poetry. We fell in love for the first time. We each wrote our own versions of “My love is like a red, red rose…” We philosophized. We began our search for our "special someone."

We all philosophized, yet we all thought differently. Love could mean different things for each of us. It could mean family, soul-mate, even "God." This is because we all have our distinct "insights."
By "insight," we see “more than what meets the eye” - we think about one thing more than we would, more than what others would or more differently than others. Some people think about money too much, and some just don't. They have different insights.

Yet not everyone who has just had an insight has truly philosophized. Philosophizing means - acting on an insight, so that it attains its true meaning. Someone who holds a great value for money works and works, and saves and invests, and strives to become a millionaire. A photographer who has fallen out of love soon takes more images of despair, shows different angles of pain. And a writer, who has found out about "some news," writes about it. A non-philosopher doesn't do any of these - doesn't do anything.

Someone who is insensitive, and dense, to his own emotions doesn't know how to philosophize… all because, you're doing something "special" when you philosophize.

What philosophizing truly takes are some exceptional experience, heightened emotion, extra thought, and a great deal of effort - action.
So the next time you thought about something great, why not do something good about it? Philosophize.