In February I receive my undergraduate degree in Philosophy. I therefore felt it a better time than ever to briefly express what philosophy has meant to me over the years, and why I’ve always felt attracted to it.

In 2011 I travelled to Turkey. At the hotel in Istanbul my friend and I entered into conversation with two male employees of the hotel who were also university students; the one studied business and the other psychology. After hearing that I studied philosophy one of them replied, “You will have a rich life, and I don’t mean money.” I was floored by his comment. I was floored, not simply because it had been uttered by a young kid, but because such a statement would hardly ever be uttered in America, a place where the use of the word ‘rich’ to denote anything apart from material wealth would be seen as ridiculous or bizarre. Yet other countries value philosophy and acknowledge its worth in ways that are largely alien to American culture as a whole. In other countries it still seems largely understood that material possessions cannot replace the wisdom and satisfaction gained from trying to understand what life is ultimately about, to find lasting satisfaction and not just material comfort, to make life meaningful as opposed to simply making a living.

Philosophy for me has always been about wisdom and not knowledge. This is not to say that philosophy does not inform knowledge, or that knowledge is not important. For me, however, my drive to acquire knowledge has played a secondary role compared to my drive to acquire wisdom, where wisdom is associated with an understanding that gives life lasting meaning.

When we say a person is ‘wise,’ we do not necessarily mean that such a person is smart, though being knowledgeable and being wise are not antithetical. Generally, for a person to be wise means he or she has an understanding of things that encompasses, not just the world of facts, observations, etc. but the world of the living human, human life, or the existential life. A wise person is someone who has an understanding of how to maximize life. Sometimes it is shortened to an understanding of the “real world,” but that too misses the mark for the “real world” is usually in reference to the world of having to make a living, a world that is important, but nonetheless fails to take into account the full human experience.

By a “wise person” one means someone who has the ability to differentiate between what holds a temporary significance and what has lasting value, what can bring temporary satisfaction and what can bring lasting happiness, what one temporarily holds true and what one will come to see of lasting importance. By this it does not simply mean knowing how to make a living but knowing how to make living meaningful; one can make a living and still be left with the question, “What was the point of it all? Was it worth it?” For me, philosophy is about understanding who one is in respect to everything else, the rest of the world, how to find meaning in it. This “meaning” is the aim of wisdom.

Unfortunately, the distinction between knowledge and wisdom is one that is given little attention, even in academic philosophy, though the term ‘philosophy’ itself means ‘love of wisdom.’ Knowledge lays out a set of observations, principles, and facts. Wisdom is what allows a person to apply the later successfully. It is one thing to collect a set of data and draw concluding principles from it, it is quite another to reflect on the ramifications of said principles and successfully apply them to how one decides to live; more importantly, how one decides to give life meaning or purpose; how do the facts inform questions that sit at the core of being human. These are questions that humans end up having to ask about their personal lives; what is the meaning of my existence? What can give it lasting happiness? What do the facts mean to me? How do they inform my actions? Do they make me happy? Such questions are often pushed aside for the sake of more “practical” issues, but with the cost of isolating a person from an acquired understanding of life that can have perennial value.

Philosophy for me also has more of a practical side as well. Though I value it most as a way to understand wisdom, philosophizing nonetheless provides one with a set of skills that I have found applicable to almost every aspect of life. The most frustrating question I, or any philosophy major can be asked, is, “What can you do with a philosophy degree?” It’s frustrating because the answer is so obvious to me – anything one wants. Of course there is no job or profession called ‘philosopher’ like there is for other fields; for instance, one who studies engineering gets a job as an engineer, accounting, an accountant, law, a lawyer. But this quality is philosophy’s strong suit. Whereas other studies are largely defined by what one will become professionally, the study of philosophy is defined by how one chooses to apply the skills learned from it. As such, it is more a way of life. The skills of analysis, critical and imaginative thinking, and assessment are skills that can be applied to anything. There are arguably no fields where the ability to think, assess, analyze, imagine, and critique are not important.

Philosophy has been important for me because it embraces that part of myself which is not simply content with the practical matters of making a living, or obtaining knowledge, but with the part of myself that wants to give lasting meaning to my life, and to understand it deeply when every aspect of it is taken into account.