If you study philosophy, people will ask you why you bother. Some people who are practical and who like the sciences just don’t see the point. Bertrand Russell, who was around plenty of such people at Cambridge, wrote an essay on “The Value of Philosophy.” It’s a defense for those of us with a peculiar cast of mind.
Russell noticed something about philosophy that escapes most people.
If you study the sciences you are going to stay focused on the material world. Studying the discipline will make a difference in you and your mind, but it will also allow you to do things to improve the lives of others who don’t have a clue what you’re doing. Most people will not study with you. Their minds will not be opened or trained or improved as yours will be. And so when you invent something wonderful, most people will just flip a switch and enjoy the benefits without understanding how the invention works.
You will know the answer to the research question that led to this improvement. But others won’t.
Philosophy is not like that. The change that a study of philosophy makes is limited to the mind of the student.
Philosophy, if you do it at all, is something you do for yourself.
• Russell’s essay is the last chapter in his book The Problems of Philosophy, a classic now in the public domain. Standard Ebooks has an edition at https://standardebooks.org.
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