Philosophy is Imagination without the Unicorns

For over a year I had been troubled…

You see I never studied philosophy as a regular program but for some reason this field of study was my conciliation whenever I didnt know what to do and whom to ask. The abstractions and ideas of things that are and arent can seem to tell you whether or not to buy that lipstick when your at a store.

So when a Boy called philosophy as ‘gas, concocted by noble academicians’ I found myself dumbstruck for a reasonable retort. You see there is some truth in that most philosophers walked around taking about abstractions and most often didnt do very much in real life other than talk about their ideas to a large audience. The people who changed the world were really others who may have interpreted some philosophical ideas.

Recently when a Dear one gifted a copy of Will Durant’s The Story of Philosophy, I realized that I had found an answer. When you look for answers you find that answers come to you. I havent read the book entirely. But the prologue has already begun sizzling my neurons.

Yes perhaps philosophy comes across as a grandiloquent field. Often the language is so tedious that I must resort to graphic versions of the philosopher’s works to actually grab the essence. Also much more time has to be spent trying to understand the world they lived in and how they came about to a certain idea.

But let me get to the point. The thing is philosophy is not very different from imagination as Durant suggests. Its a manner in which one imagines what the world could be like if not an ideal one. It is this imagination that a philosopher plans to dictate. Before dictating the ideas, the philosopher rationalizes the flying dragons and silvered unicorns. You see if the stuff didnt bother to appear scientific then it would be hard to advise world changers on the matter. By providing the idea in abstract form, the world changers can tune it to their own mode of action.

So I do find myself less troubled to think of philosophers as imaginators who question identity, society and religion when they close their eyes and dream. And thats why they dont walk around the world too much. You have to open your eyes for that. And when you do, its much harder to think of utopia.

Calling Boy right now…