Why we need philosophy to live

Lately we tend to believe that healthy minds are the most efficient. Those who think faster, those who self-regulate better, those who know how to detect problems and plan strategies to solve them, those who are able to adapt well to difficult situations without succumbing to moods related to unhappiness.

These are functions that seem more like useful traits to find a job or to adapt well to the productive gear and that, although they are positive, offer a somewhat limited conception of what thehuman brain. It could almost be said that they are capacities that could be measured on a scale from 0 to 10 according to our ability. in each of these areas, and that give us a very flat portrait of what we understand as "skills cognitive".

But there is a discipline that reminds us that the ability to break mental schemes and frameworks is always there. And no, it is not about advertising or marketing: it is the philosophy.

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Philosophy to transgress

Both philosophy and art have been gaining powerful enemies due to the relative difficulty with which they can be "tame", tied up in bundles and sold in packages. It is natural, considering that both are based on the possibility of subverting laws and going beyond pre-established thought schemes.

However, while art can be appreciated for its more or less striking aesthetic aspect, philosophy does not seem to have that capacity to materialize with such spectacular results. It seems that it does not have the favorable treatment of the spectacle society and of viral videos on the Internet, and it is even more and more frequent that it is moved in institutes and universities.

Of course, that is by no means to say that philosophy does not matter. behold seven reasons why philosophy enriches our way of thinking not only in our moments of reflection, but also in our day to day.

Philosophy works...

1. To ask ourselves what is important in life

Many people usually associates the word "philosophy" with old books and abstract theorizing that may only interest a few. It has also been said many times that philosophy, like art, is useless. This critique is, at the same time, evidence of why we need them both: to question the criteria of what is useful and what is not. A concept of utility that, if it is not questioned, will be the one held by those people who only live to produce in series.

2. To know what is known

One of the first philosophers, Socrates, made famous the phrase "I only know that I know nothing". This is not just a paradox: one of the immediate effects of philosophy is that it makes it easier for us to recognize where the line lies between what we know and what we don't know, and at the same time allows combining areas of knowledge with others of ignorance. In this way we can recognize in advance aspects of reality that we do not understand and we do not "overstep" our assumptions.

3. To have a consistent thought

Philosophy helps to get to the root of problems and concepts. Thus, allows detecting the strengths and weaknesses of a philosophical position, be coherent in our lines of thought and avoid theoretical contradictions. This has very tangible implications both in our way of communicating and in our way of acting, whether we are individuals or organizations.

4. To be "indies" of thought

Much of our mentality and our typical way of imagining things comes to us "by default" through the cultural context in which we are immersed. It is comfortable to let oneself be carried away by these currents of ideology predominant in our country, but it is also something that makes us more manipulable. Through philosophy (and possibly combining it with the habit of traveling) we will be able to see to what extent many of those things that we considered a dogma are relative, and we gain autonomy to build our own vision of the world. An example of this is Schopenhauer, who in the middle of 19th century Europe developed a philosophical system influenced by the buddhism.

5. To better understand the story

History cannot be understood without having also understood the predominant philosophical foundations at each moment. Each era is strongly marked by the superstructure, that is, by the prevailing ideas and values ​​at that time.. From the point of view of those of us who live in the 21st century, many historical stages and events may be inconceivable to us. One of the causes of this strangeness towards the past may be the ignorance of the cultural and thought schemes of a certain historical context.

6. To better understand other companies

In the same way, if we do not know the philosophical assumptions on which other cultures are based, we will be judging them, erroneously from our own. The result It would be like imagining an unflattering caricature of what we are trying to understand..

7. To have a clearer portrait of how we think

The fact of reflecting on our way of understanding life makes us have a clearer self-imageto, we get to know each other better and we know how to easily recognize which people are more similar to our way of thinking.