The Importance of Reading Philosophy
with special reference to political philosophy
Philosophy is a strange thing. Those who come to perceive and understand it cannot experience life outside or without it. Those who do not tend to, or seek to, understand it find it to be, as Bertrand Russell wrote in his 1912 book The Problems of Philosophy, a task not worthy of pursuit of “practical men”, those concerned with more immediate or, in Will Durant’s words, “coarse” necessities of life such as earning. For many, philosophy is simply boring, complex, demanding, dry, even annoying. This gives a peculiar character to philosophy: a pursuit that is not necessary for survival but which, for its adorers and haters, is either an all-consuming love affair or an unbearable mess.
The term “philosophy” comes from the Greek word phílosophía meaning ‘the love of wisdom’. In essence, philosophy is an attempt to rationally understand and logically interpret the world around us. But in order to understand and interpret the world, we must first transcend it — go beyond the limitations of our immediate realities.
In this journey of transcendence, the first step is question. And, philosophy prepares you for mastering the art of questioning. This is where the real significance of philosophy lies. Asking questions is not as ordinary or simple a task as it seems. The right kind of questions can shape histories, give birth to ideologies, overthrow regimes, turn the world upside down. Interestingly, philosophy does not merely teach you how to question, it trains you in the art of seeking answers to those perplexing questions as well. Philosophy is, therefore, wound and cure at the same time.
As a body of knowledge, philosophy is the accumulated wisdom of those who have successfully transcended, understood, and logically interpreted the world around us. Philosophy is fundamentally concerned with “big questions” — from existence of God to how society should be ideally organized, from questions about human nature to questions concerning humanity. A reading of philosophy is an attempt at better understanding our existence, our reality, as individuals and as social beings.
Philosophy emancipates the minds of its students from strictures that normally entangle minds of most others; strictures that blind and convince laymen to take as self-evident everything that they encounter in their immediate surroundings or society, strictures that prevent them from bypassing the structures of society, strictures that Marx and his notable followers lamented as sources of proletarian complacency in capitalist societies. The art of inquiry, the use of reason, the study of diverse and fascinating accounts of seemingly ordinary questions, the hairsplitting debates on definitions, philosophy trains minds to see the world from galactic heights till microscopic depths. Given this ability to incisively reflect on the issues of society from a distinct and distant vantage point, a student of philosophy is able to see many of the subtle sources of misery that are often imperceptible to many. Through mastering the art of inquiry, a student of philosophy finds him/herself in a unique position to seek solutions. This gives the study of philosophy a particularly practical value.
As a subject, philosophy is further divided into various sub-fields. Will Durant in his celebrated book The Story of Philosophy has defined five branches of philosophy: logic, esthetics, ethics, metaphysics, and politics — the last being our area of concern for this note. Politics is the study of ideal social organization. Political philosophy, on the other hand, can be defined as philosophical reflection on how best to arrange our collective life — our political institutions and our social practices, such as our economic system and our pattern of family life.1
A study of political philosophy - if undertaken with a bit of earnestness and desire - allows one to transcend, understand, and interpret various systems, institutions, cultures, narratives, actors, in short, society and its ways of working on human beings. More importantly, it helps us understand how these constituent elements of our society relate to us and shape our personalities, values, perceptions, beliefs, biases and prejudices. Thus, pursuit of political philosophy, or philosophy for that matter, is a pursuit of freedom - essentially from the structures of society in order to analyze it, or attempt to analyze it, from the lens of rationality and neutrality.
Political philosophy does not only shape how we interpret the problems of our societies but also the solutions that we prescribe for them. This makes the study of political philosophy particularly crucial and influential and imminently more powerful. History is testament to how solutions prescribed by pupils of various schools of political philosophy have shaped the world, for better or worse, for the rest of humanity. Take a pause and reflect: what would the world have been like if Karl Marx had not studied Friedrich Hegel, Lenin and Mao had not studied Karl Marx, and millions who laid down their lives in Russia, China and elsewhere had not read or heard Lenin and Mao? What if Hitler had not studied Nietzsche? What if Henry Kissinger had not studied Kant and Spinoza? Or, on the flip side, what if John Locke had not written Two Treatise of Government? What if Machiavelli had not written The Prince?
There is only one answer to all these questions: the world would not have been as we know of it today. This is the primary utility of reading political philosophy: it shapes history.
Political philosophy, therefore, had its greatest impact on humankind through its practitioners, through statesmen. From Marcus Aurelius to Thomas Jefferson to Otto von Bismarck to Woodrow Wilson, many statesmen have aspired to become Plato’s philosopher-kings. And in doing that they have defined eras, nations, states, and courses of history.
A study of political philosophy is a review of the knowledge that has shaped our world since the advent of time. It is an attempt to delve deeper onto question that we take as “settled”. Nothing in the world of philosophy is settled. For if it is settled, it is no more philosophy but fact. Philosophy does not deal with facts, science does — hence the distinction between political science and political philosophy. In the world of philosophy, everything is in perpetual chaos. Philosophy deals with the unknown or inexactly known. As Will Durant notes, philosophy “accepts the hard and hazardous task of dealing” with those questions “not yet open to the methods of science.” Human societies are not based on facts, they are based on philosophies — no matter how much you wish that to be otherwise. “Science gives us knowledge,” says Will Durant, “but only philosophy can give us wisdom.”
There is no journey filled with more surprises than the one undertaken in search of answers to the questions that shape our lives. There is nothing more powerful than knowing the answers and counter-answers to the questions that shape our societies. There is no moment more surreal than the moment of discovering the answer and joining another dot in the long trail to truth. Once you experience the inexplicable satisfaction of certainty - to whatever degree it is possible - that philosophical inquiry can bring you, your mind is perpetually changed to seek it so much so that not seeking it might become a source of anxiety or a state of lack of fulfillment in life.
For its lovers, therefore, one life is too short a chance to undertake a study of philosophy. In reality, however, not even eternity would satiate their desire of reading it.
