Popular opinions edge us towards the wrong values, careers and relationships
Plato’s answer is – to know yourself
Beautiful objects help us educate our soul
Those are simple values, philosophy doesn’t need to be pretentious or grandiose. It isn’t scary. For me philosophy is important to everyday life, maybe not so much that you need to think about it constantly, but in so that it affects us all. And to me, it is fulfilling to know more about society in whole and how to cope with it. It is also a way of explaining how things work and are. Take the quote above from Plato regarding art as an example, that is an easy answer to why we like art and why it is important. Because it educates our mind (sure you might argue that soul is not a good metaphor for mind, but whatever).
To then listen to thinkers who came before us (but also to contemporary ones) gives me perspective on everyday life. Because they struggled just as much as we do! They did what we did, maybe then we can find values and ideas that we can use today? Not everything today is perfect, very little is in fact. So we have nothing to lose from grabbing good ideas from the past and applying them today.
Over and out
o7
See you later ~~