How to Be a Philosopher

When one begins life at the university, it is inevitable that major decisions must be made. Will I study English, or Physics, or Political Science, or History? There seems to be an endless variety of choices for the entering undergraduate, and it can be overwhelming to the non-initiated. However, one major that strikes fear into the hearts of many freshmen is Philosophy. They say to themselves, "I am going to study about why I don't exist," or "I don't want to argue for 500 pages about what love is." I used to be one of those people. I initially obtained by Bachelor's degree in Political Science, and when I first began my undergraduate journey, my idea of Philosophy was something along the lines of "they say crazy things about the world that can be simply dismissed prima facie. However, I had begun to question my faith, and I signed up for a Philosophy of religion course so I could hopefully get my thinking together.

Philosophy of religion opened my eyes to the joy of Philosophy. I had a professor who was extremely excited about the subject, and than in turn made me excited also. I learned that big questions, such as God, which Philosophy of religion deals with, are not necessarily easy to answer, and one can spend an entire lifetime studying them and debating them. After the Philosophy of religion course, I knew I needed to take more of these courses!

I was still finishing up my Political Science degree, so my schedule was a mix of that and Philosophy. The next course I took was Ancient Philosophy, where I was first introduced to the wonderful, poetic Plato. Reading Plato made me realize I actually really enjoyed Philosophy outside of the God issue. It was exciting to think about the world in a whole new way, and to enjoy thinking about deep life questions.

I eventually finished my journey, and i have a much different perspective on life from before I became a Philosophy major. I would not trade the experience for anything, and I encourage everyone, even if not a major, to take a few Philosophy courses on topics they find interesting so they can hopefully experience the paradigm shifts I did.

So how does one become a Philosopher? I'm simply an amateur one at the moment, but there are certain traits I have noticed that all good Philosophers possess. They are a questioning nature, an open mind, and an honest search for the truth.

Philosophy is often translated as love of wisdom. This is a good summary of what the attitude of a Philosopher should be when approaching difficult questions about reality. A questioning mind is important because questions are where all knowledge begins, and most of the time why questions. Why are we here? Why is one action more moral than another? What is truth? Relentless questioning can not be over-valued, for it was the method made famous by the great Socrates for forcing people to question assumptions and realize they did not know as much as they claimed to know.

Why have an open mind? We've all heard the saying "don't have a mind so open all your brains fall out." It's usually said by an individual who lacks one. An open mind is required because answers are not always easy to come by and may ultimately surprise us, and also because answers sometimes force us to re-evaluate major aspects of our lives, which we may be hesitant to do. For example, imagine if a person was a serious Christian, and then discovered that slavery was actually in the Bible (this is what happened to me). Furthermore, the person begins to question the existence of a God at all. Adopting a belief that God did not exist, or that human beings could not answer the question, would require one to stop praying, going to church and interacting with the community there, and deal with relatives who may still believe. It would be much easier to go with the flow or close the mind off from certain possibilities, but the truth is what it is, and whether we like it or not, it should be confronted and accepted, even if painful and devastating to our view of life.

An honest search for the truth is related to having an open mind, because one cannot be had without the other. However, it is more than just having an open mind. It means being intellectually honest with yourself and others. Not taking positions on major philosophical or social issues that cannot be supported by logic or empirical evidence, even if very outside the mainstream and not due to a closed mind. For example, there is a famous Philosopher by the name of A.J. Ayer who popularized a concept known as "the verification theory of meaning" which posits that any statements that cannot be verified by observation in some way are completely meaningless. A theist (believer in God) could simply reject it by arguing that God is not observable and real. And an atheist could accept it because they want an easy way to get rid of belief in God. However, neither of these approaches is an honest search for the truth. An honest search would consist of asking whether or not the whole of reality can be reduced to observation, and use more everyday examples and experiences to determine that, rather than taking the position of theism and then rejecting it based on that ground, or being an overly enthusiastic atheist happy to rid oneself of the God question.

In summation, a good philosopher has a questioning nature, an open mind, and is an honest seeker of truth. All of these qualities, if seriously adopted and practiced, can make any individual much more philosophical than he/she currently is, and also help them become a much deeper thinker. There is nothing less than the discovery of the truth on the line.