Debunking The 3 Most Common Myths About Philosophy
Hello folks! most of you might be familiar with the field of philosophy and its various contours, but there are scores of people who think otherwise about this field. It is falsely assumed that studying philosophy is too hard for the average person, has no practical use, and leads to atheism.
So, today I am going to debunk these misconceptions by putting forward my idea of philosophy.
As philosophy is the love of wisdom, and I do not think such love will ever render a person, as the people who propagate these misconceptions often described it. Wisdom makes man curious, restrained, and observant. So the student of philosophy just asks questions with an open yet curious mind to address the questions.
Following are the top most common myths about philosophy:
- Not everyone can understand the philosophy:
The biggest misconception about philosophy is that the average person cannot understand it. By average , it is argued and believed, the poor. Whereas, the truth is that philosophy is one’s ability to reason and to think rationally and logically. The more a person is curious, the more it is likely for one to have doubts about everything and to think the way philosophers think. One’s financial conditions do not determine if the person will be a philosopher or understands the philosophy. As there have been many renowned philosophers who have lived their lives in poverty. For instance, Diogenes the Cynic (412–323), Jean-Jacques Rousseau and many others have lived most of their lives in poverty. Thus, this myth doesn’t hold water when it is closely analyzed.
2- Philosophy has no role in Practical Life:
Another popular myth is that philosophy has no role in practical life. Indeed, this is absolutely wrong. It is rightly said that philosophy is the mother of all sciences. All the sciences that are widely known and studied today have evolved from Philosophy. Be it social sciences, basic sciences or even natural sciences. All of these types of science have roots in the philosophy indirectly if not directly. And, all of these types of sciences are central not only to humankind but also for the planet. For, it is these sciences that treat, feed, clothe, and even comfort humans. Ergo, this outdated myopic thinking of philosophy being far from practical is sheerly incorrect.
3- By reading philosophy, a person denies God and religion:
The third major misconception is that a person who studies philosophy becomes an atheist is also far from the truth. The student of philosophy doesn’t become atheist, one begins to clear one’s doubts by asking questions about religion, the universe, matter, existence and everything else. If a person finds the satisfactory answers to the doubts, one becomes a staunch believer of religion or whatever the doubt was about in the first place. Therefore, to infer from the nature of questions one asks and labelling the one as atheist or something else is not only morally incorrect but also the violation of freedom of one’s thought.
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Hence, based on the above discussion, the three myths can easily be busted.
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