Oh, humanity!

Democracy is a beautiful idea: everyone's vote is equal regardless of their income or education. Yet, agreed among the Greek philosophers, democracy is still a touch unreasonable

Plato in 'The Republic' : 'it is impossible that every person's view can be equally astute. A democratic voice is like the captain of a ship having to consult every passenger about the best course to chart through an approaching storm.’

The problems:

- The Ancient Greek philosophers (whom we mistakenly believe all loved democracy) invented the word 'demagogue' to describe a political leader who, in a democracy, sweeps into power by collecting votes through appeals to the lower passions rather than to higher reason

The solution?

- according to Plato, there should be universal education to foster wisdom in everyone

- ancient greek word, normally translated as 'fulfilment'

- the Ancient Greeks resolutely did not believe that the purpose of life was to be happy; they proposed that it was to be fulfilled

difference between happiness & fulfilment:

- it is eminently possible to be fulfilled and, at the same time, under pressure, suffering physically/mentally, overburdened and in a tetchy mood

Reading notes & reflections from ‘Philosophy in 40 Ideas’ by The School of Life

'Socrates summed up the purpose of philosophy in one simple phrase: ‘know yourself’. In giving this motto such importance in his thought, Socrates was alluding to a big problem with being human: we normally don’t know ourselves very well, although, fatefully, we might feel as if we do.

We are governed by forces we rarely pay attention to: envy, disavowed anger, buried hurt, ideas from childhood that have come to frame our outlook but that we hardly realise we possess.

As an antidote, Socrates recommended systematically asking ourselves, ideally in the company of a patient & thoughtful friend, questions like: what are my priorities? What do I really fear? What do I truly want?'

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A messy personal reflection, inspired by R.C. Waldun’s video

Link to video: https://youtu.be/HBZIl2K7USQ

(Open to new perspectives always! :))

When I was younger, my relatives always reminded me of the benefits and ‘glory’ that came with studying the Sciences. I have nothing against the Sciences and actually enjoy doing a nice balance of both sciences & arts, but the stereotypes against Arts students (treating them as less capable than that of Science students) is not something I can agree with.

Going into tertiary education next year and having to choose subjects, I am pretty much certain that I am going to pursue the Humanities. However, this decision was not an easy one as I went back and forth on whether I should really dive into the Arts stream. (though I think my indecisive nature definitely played a significant role)

What puts people (myself included) off studying the Humanities?

‘A useless degree’ ? :

The jobs offered in the market can be limited and unsaturated in terms of allowing Humanities graduate to demonstrate and apply what they have learnt and practised in University. This may as a result, make Humanities students feel as if what they have learnt is not inherently useful and directly applicable to most of the jobs offered in society.

That being said, what continues to draw me back to the Humanities?

‘I don’t exactly claim to know the answers to everything. In fact, 20 year-olds shouldn’t really know the answers to anything. All I know is humanities students all started from a place of being rather dissatisfied with reality. ’

Because we see the flaws of everyday reality and need a way to organise and understand all those things, to realise that ‘hey you’re not the first one to experience all these things’. Reading the Humanities can lead to a lot of internal revelations and comfort, as we realise that we are not living alone.

‘To me the humanities is just simply working up the courage to uncover what it means to live; what it means to live without the danger of falling into dangerous ideologies’

‘When studying the humanities you’re constantly under the pressure of changing your opinions, perspectives & beliefs; and that could be a really scary (yet I think profoundly valuable) process’

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I think I can really resonate when R.C. Waldun shared that he feels equally confused about his own stance on Humanities, I guess my thoughts on this will develop along the way as well.