Читать книгу Philosophy For Dummies - Tom Morris - Страница 17

Philosophy can be a little like a version of the wilderness adventure trekking of Outward Bound for the mind: intellectual spelunking, mental rock climbing, cognitive rappelling, rafting, and reconnoitering. Sometimes, it can even seem like a conceptual version of Extreme Sports.

On those occasions when we push philosophical inquiry to the very limits of our world-views, we find ourselves temporarily letting go of our customary assumptions, intellectually free-falling and hoping the chute will open when we need it. Anytime we do this, the point is to experience the outer boundaries and foundations of our ordinary beliefs, to come to understand the status of our most important presuppositions, those background convictions that support the perspectives and decisions governing our day-to-day actions, and that we normally just take for granted.

We question things as deeply as we can in order to understand as deeply as we can. The ultimate goal is a firmer grip on who we are and what our place in the world really is.

But in another light, philosophy can be thought of as a package of existential survival skills, along with the determined application of those skills in a sort of search-and-rescue mission for the soul. Philosophy is not just a game. It’s not simply a mental sport. It is the most vital use of our minds for getting our bearings in life. It may even act as a path for living well.