But the amendment of this fault, and of all our other vices and offences, is to be sought for in philosophy: and as my own inclination and desire led me, from my earliest youth upward, to seek her protection, so, under my present misfortunes,
I have had recourse to the same port from whence I set out, after having been tossed by a violent tempest. O Philosophy, thou guide of life! Thou discoverer of virtue and expeller of vices! What had not only I myself, but the whole life of man, been without you?
To you it is that we owe the origin of cities; you it was who called together the dispersed race of men into social life; you united them together, first, by placing them near one another, then by marriages, and lastly, by the communication of speech and languages.
You have been the inventress of laws; you have been our instructress in morals and discipline; to you we fly for refuge; from you we implore assistance; and as I formerly submitted to you in a great degree, so now I surrender up myself entirely to you. For one day spent well, and agreeably to your precepts, is preferable to an eternity of error.
Whose assistance, then, can be of more service to me than yours, when you have bestowed on us tranquility of life, and removed the fear of death? But Philosophy is so far from being praised as much as she has deserved by mankind, that she is wholly neglected by most men, and actually evil spoken of by many.
Can any person speak ill of the parent of life, and dare to pollute himself thus with parricide, and be so impiously ungrateful as to accuse her whom he ought to reverence, even were he less able to appreciate the advantages which he might derive from her?
But this error, I imagine, and this darkness has spread itself over the minds of ignorant men, from their not being able to look so far back, and from their not imagining that those men by whom human life was first improved were philosophers; for though we see philosophy to have been of long standing, yet the name must be acknowledged to be but modern.
I have had recourse to the same port from whence I set out, after having been tossed by a violent tempest. O Philosophy, thou guide of life! Thou discoverer of virtue and expeller of vices! What had not only I myself, but the whole life of man, been without you?
To you it is that we owe the origin of cities; you it was who called together the dispersed race of men into social life; you united them together, first, by placing them near one another, then by marriages, and lastly, by the communication of speech and languages.
You have been the inventress of laws; you have been our instructress in morals and discipline; to you we fly for refuge; from you we implore assistance; and as I formerly submitted to you in a great degree, so now I surrender up myself entirely to you. For one day spent well, and agreeably to your precepts, is preferable to an eternity of error.
Whose assistance, then, can be of more service to me than yours, when you have bestowed on us tranquility of life, and removed the fear of death? But Philosophy is so far from being praised as much as she has deserved by mankind, that she is wholly neglected by most men, and actually evil spoken of by many.
Can any person speak ill of the parent of life, and dare to pollute himself thus with parricide, and be so impiously ungrateful as to accuse her whom he ought to reverence, even were he less able to appreciate the advantages which he might derive from her?
But this error, I imagine, and this darkness has spread itself over the minds of ignorant men, from their not being able to look so far back, and from their not imagining that those men by whom human life was first improved were philosophers; for though we see philosophy to have been of long standing, yet the name must be acknowledged to be but modern.
—from Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.2
I have grown so weary of constantly defending the dignity of philosophy, that a part of me simply wishes to cry out, “Yeah, what he just said!”
But I know my frustration is a sign that I am letting the naysayers get to me, that I am taking the ridicule and the eye-rolling far too personally. I don’t like to be blamed when I simply don’t understand, and so I should be patient enough in extending that same courtesy to others. I think of how often I get angry because of my ignorance, or I hurl out insults because of my insecurities. Once again, the error is in my estimation.
If I say that a loyalty to philosophy is my greatest mission, you might assume it is because I sometimes get paid to be a teacher. Yes, that is where I find myself professionally, for better or for worse, but the most precious moments in my life were not in a classroom, and certainly not at any conference. Philosophy, for me, is a way of life, where the possibility of helping someone else in bearing his burden is what actually makes that very life worth living.
We are here to carry one another, and understanding is the key. Don’t tell me it’s just love that matters, since there can be no love without first nurturing the understanding. It is in this sense, and not in some academic manner, that philosophy is the means for every one of us, from the peasant to the king, to become whole. Philosophy is the ultimate motivator, the impetus for action, and the composure for when not to act. It is the reason to live with joy, and the reason to die in peace. It is the source of every law that was just, and the bane of every law that was unjust.
How can this be, if I cannot buy it at the market, or record it on a spreadsheet? Philosophy stands behind absolutely everything else we do, whether we are immediately conscious of it or not. It provides the measure for all of our choices, such that the contrast between a sound and an unsound philosophy, a set of lazy assumptions or a critical awareness, hangs upon a willingness to follow principles instead of preferences.
You say that you don’t need to think clearly, only to feel vigorously? That is itself a judgment and a hasty one at that. You say that you are content to have no greater purpose? That you are still breathing right now, and have not ended yourself out of despair, is a sign that you do indeed have aspirations. As a creature of reason and will, avoiding philosophy is like avoiding oxygen.
Though I regularly get myself in trouble when I dabble in theology, such that the supposed experts warn me about being a heretic, I think it fitting to speak of Wisdom as a woman. God has no limitations of gender, of course, but I can see why the seed of existence is, by analogy, masculine, and the act of nurturing that existence is, by analogy, feminine.
Philosophy is like a mother to me, and no decent man will have the spite to abandon his mother. The father and the mother go together, and they are there to offer themselves for the child.
The fancy name of “philosopher” didn’t come until much later, and yet I can assure you that the very first person to walk this Earth, whoever it might have been, was innately philosophical from the beginning, from the instant a new mind was awakened.
I have grown so weary of constantly defending the dignity of philosophy, that a part of me simply wishes to cry out, “Yeah, what he just said!”
But I know my frustration is a sign that I am letting the naysayers get to me, that I am taking the ridicule and the eye-rolling far too personally. I don’t like to be blamed when I simply don’t understand, and so I should be patient enough in extending that same courtesy to others. I think of how often I get angry because of my ignorance, or I hurl out insults because of my insecurities. Once again, the error is in my estimation.
If I say that a loyalty to philosophy is my greatest mission, you might assume it is because I sometimes get paid to be a teacher. Yes, that is where I find myself professionally, for better or for worse, but the most precious moments in my life were not in a classroom, and certainly not at any conference. Philosophy, for me, is a way of life, where the possibility of helping someone else in bearing his burden is what actually makes that very life worth living.
We are here to carry one another, and understanding is the key. Don’t tell me it’s just love that matters, since there can be no love without first nurturing the understanding. It is in this sense, and not in some academic manner, that philosophy is the means for every one of us, from the peasant to the king, to become whole. Philosophy is the ultimate motivator, the impetus for action, and the composure for when not to act. It is the reason to live with joy, and the reason to die in peace. It is the source of every law that was just, and the bane of every law that was unjust.
How can this be, if I cannot buy it at the market, or record it on a spreadsheet? Philosophy stands behind absolutely everything else we do, whether we are immediately conscious of it or not. It provides the measure for all of our choices, such that the contrast between a sound and an unsound philosophy, a set of lazy assumptions or a critical awareness, hangs upon a willingness to follow principles instead of preferences.
You say that you don’t need to think clearly, only to feel vigorously? That is itself a judgment and a hasty one at that. You say that you are content to have no greater purpose? That you are still breathing right now, and have not ended yourself out of despair, is a sign that you do indeed have aspirations. As a creature of reason and will, avoiding philosophy is like avoiding oxygen.
Though I regularly get myself in trouble when I dabble in theology, such that the supposed experts warn me about being a heretic, I think it fitting to speak of Wisdom as a woman. God has no limitations of gender, of course, but I can see why the seed of existence is, by analogy, masculine, and the act of nurturing that existence is, by analogy, feminine.
Philosophy is like a mother to me, and no decent man will have the spite to abandon his mother. The father and the mother go together, and they are there to offer themselves for the child.
The fancy name of “philosopher” didn’t come until much later, and yet I can assure you that the very first person to walk this Earth, whoever it might have been, was innately philosophical from the beginning, from the instant a new mind was awakened.
—Reflection written in 2/1999
IMAGE: Anonymous Swiss, Allegory of Wisdom (c. 1600)
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