Definition Essay: What Is Philosophy?

What is philosophy? By definition, philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. Most people think about philosophy in a vague way, which thinking about that way in anything in life, results in no knowledge being gained. People often search for answers in life by searching for them or asking other people, which means they are not searching inside themselves for the answer. Philosophy helps with this process. Philosophies such as stoicism, taoism, buddhism, ikigai, and nihilism teach you many great lessons that are needed for life. The reasons why I think learning philosophy broadens your perspective is because they teach you how to endure hardships, how to stop suffering, how to have balance, etc. All of the philosophies that are going to be explained in this essay are not religions, and the philosophers that wrote these philosophies used their own experience and turned it into wisdom for other people to learn from. In conclusion, philosophy as a whole is one huge source of wisdom that anyone can learn from. 

There are many examples of philosophical thoughts. Roy T. Bennet, although just a non-political writer that is not considered a philosopher, has stated things in his book “The Light in the Heart”, that can be considered as philosophical thoughts. One quote from his book states, “Do not fear failure, but rather fear not trying.” This quote is very relatable to many people, as people can often relate to being fearful of trying something new. For many, it’s like standing on the edge of a cliff and knowing you have to take a leap of faith onto the other side. You would obviously be fearful, and scared of taking on the challenge. Many people would just stand there and not do anything. A select few of others would take the opportunity and jump onto the other side, without looking back. You cannot be afraid of failure, because failure is a lesson for success. Without failure, you cannot succeed. Failure is evidence that you are trying, and that is why successful people fail a lot of times. They knew the effort and work they put into their craft was going to result in success eventually. Another quote that can be considered as philosophical thinking is an old African proverb, which says, “When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” This ties heavily into the mental aspect of life. If you let people influence what you do and how you live your own life, then you will simply be a sheep. In life, people don’t realize that it’s them against themselves, not them against other people. If you learn how to conquer yourself and negate negative thoughts, nobody else can mentally harm you. All in all, there are many philosophical thoughts that can help you gain more wisdom about life. 

Stoicism teaches you how to endure pain or hardships without having to display weakness. Stoicism, founded by Zeno of Citium, is a philosophy that teaches you how to endure hardships which are inevitable to come across in life. Famous stoic philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus experienced the same hardships that are common in everyday modern life in their time. What differentiates philosophers from other people is their way of dealing with those hardships. A quote from Marcus Aurelius states, “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but we care more about their opinion than our own.” This quote is very true. People nowadays care about what others think about them, about caring about what they think about themselves. This ties into what was stated in the previous paragraph, where people often live in fear of others' opinions which results in them following others like sheep. People should not care about what others think of them, because they know themselves better than anyone else. Another stoic philosopher, Seneca, said, “Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.” People often live in fear of the future, even though it hasn't happened yet, and remember past experiences, which have already happened and cannot be changed or altered. When people are in the present, they are not thinking about the past nor the future. They are being in the present moment, where your physical body is already, but your mental state isn’t. Being in the present induces peace, because you are living moment by moment. There is no anxiety or fear in the present moment. To sum it all up, stoicism is a very straightforward philosophy that helps you endure the hardships that life throws at you. 

Taoism teaches you how to have balance in life. What is the balance exactly? Well balance is a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions. Balance is being proportional and keeping your mental and physical balance so you don’t feel unstable. Yin and Yang, or inaction and action, is that balance. Without Yin, you cannot have yang, and without yang, you cannot have ying. For example, say you are working on a project, which is the yang aspect of it. The ying aspect of work is resting and not doing anything about the project. People might say that the Yin aspect of everything is bad and seen as lazy, but that is just not true. In the Tao Te Ching, which ascribed to Lao-tzu, the traditional founder of Taoism, it states, “Taoists more strongly advocate the soft, feminine, flexible, and liquid self than the hard self, which has strong, masculine, rigid, and solid features.” A way of describing this quote is water. Water is very fluid and flexible, and adapts to the intimate changes of life. Water can stay a liquid, turn into a gas, turn into a solid. Water interchanges with the matters of life often, while something like rock is always going to be hard and rigid. Being a rock is the yang aspect of life, because you don’t want to change and you always seek permanence. Being a water is the yin aspect of life, because you are open to change and you flow along with change in life. The water may be soft and flexible, but it can erode hard substances such as rock. Adapting to every situation that life throws at you and being open to change often results in a better, more fluid life. Another quote that explains the explanation of yin and yang from the Tao Te Ching in Chapter 43 states, “Gentleness overcomes strength, softness overcomes hardness.” To conclude, Taoism is a philosophy that promotes non action or not forcing. Forcing action results in stiffness and rigidity, like a rock, while not forcing action resulting in fluidity and flexibility, like water.