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Rating: "Philosophy is such a drag!" - "Philosophy is so cool!"
How many times have we heard or said one of these two phrases! Philosophy has always been a controversial subject: is it the search for truth, as Socrates claimed, or merely an exercise in rhetoric? Is it the path to complete knowledge of the world, or is it misleading and harmful?
No answer to these questions is to be considered universally correct, just as none of the theories of philosophers, whether ancient, modern, or contemporary, is universally correct.
But those who denigrate this discipline do so because they have not understood its purpose, which is not to answer, but to ask questions. Although Thales (considered the first philosopher) began to philosophize to find answers about the workings of the world, it soon became evident that the important thing was the question. In short, it's about getting the wheels of the brain turning. This is what the contemporary philosopher Thomas Nagel (1937) does with this book. In my introduction, I mentioned some ancient thinkers; well, the author does not mention any, from any era. No Hegel, no Bacon, no Heraclitus. No one!
The book is intended for those who know nothing about philosophy, or for those who want to learn more through a different approach. To be clear, Nagel does not claim that knowing the thoughts of men from the past isn't important; on the contrary, it's fundamental. But often stuffing an essay with quotations from St. Augustine or Nietzsche is not only useless but also counterproductive. Here, the author simply discusses nine of the most important philosophical dilemmas, with a clear and straightforward language, offering us prompts for personal reflection. Although he sometimes expresses his opinion, it is not Nagel's intention to convince us of what he believes, but rather to provide us with material to think about.
In a system that increasingly prefers an accommodating monkey to a man with a brain, we need to develop our nature as thinking and therefore free beings even more and even better.
Let's open our minds.
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