The True North Group: You have a compass for life and know which direction is the correct way. When asked about your philosophy of life, you could explain it immediately and concisely.
The Dusty Compass Group: You have a compass for directing your life, but you don't always know how to use it. You may have a loosely organized philosophy but may not use it to filter and direct your experience.
The Inbox Group: You may not have a compass. Life may be about something, but you don't know. Your approach is to deal with life the way you manage email: You are just directing your attention to whatever lands in your inbox.
Philosophy can help us live more meaningful lives and build better societies. We just need a framework of philosophy that fits our modern-day problems.
When most people think of philosophy, they believe philosophers simply argue about arguing. Philosophy is viewed as impractical and irrelevant to current issues.
Philosophy is examining our understanding of reality and knowledge. Philosophy consists of three major branches:
Metaphysics - What is true about existence.
Epistemology - How we can know that it is true. Epistemology has given us science, logic/reason, economics, psychology, and other theories of knowledge.
Ethics - What actions we should take as a result of this knowledge. Ethics contains concepts such as democracy, human rights, the treatment of animals, and the environment.
When you order your thoughts into a coherent belief system, you are engaging in philosophy. To criticize philosophy, you must rely on philosophy.
Noticing the time on a text message (3:04 a.m.) that came in from a Millennial one morning, I asked if he had been working that late. "No, I went out to meet someone at a coffee shop about midnight. Just thought I'd answer your earlier text as I walked home."
For your reading pleasure, here are ten schools of philosophy you should know about. Some of them are commonly misunderstood, and we correct that problem here. The leading philosophy among angsty teens who misunderstand Nietzsche.
Stoicism was popular in ancient Greece and Rome and is practiced by many in high-stress environments.
Stoicism focuses on how to live in a world where things don't go as planned. The idea is to accept all the things beyond your control and to focus on what you can control.