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Vol.5 How
we should think. |
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<Philosophy isc>
It was 46
years ago when I enrolled in
college. After the enrollment
ceremony and the student
orientation, I attended my
first lecture in philosophy. My
professor, an old man as thin
as a crane and obviously a
philosopher type, gave his
first lecture:
gYou
will marry some day. When you
marry, you have quarrels. When
you are young, you can make up
with your spouse by simply
sharing a bed overnight. But
when you are my age, it is not
as easy. For the next one year,
I will be teaching you
philosophy. To think of ways to
avoid marital quarrels is also
philosophy. In any event,
thinking is very important.h
I was stunned by his
speech.
<A diamond is
just another stone>
I
thought about many things over
the next four years in college.
One of the things I realized is
that ga diamond is just another
stone.h Diamonds were valueless
stones in the primitive age but
they are now the king of all
gems.
The value of
diamonds has risen as a result
of people spending the largest
amount of energy acquiring them
out of all gems. One must note
that values of things do not
exist at first.
In
fact, I had just written an
essay on this theme for the
Autumn Frost. However, one of
the firmfs staff pointed out
that there is a similar essay
on a website on diamonds in
Belgium. In my opinion, this is
my theory which I came up with
41 years ago, even before I
graduated from college and this
Belgian website came after me.
However, I gave up on putting
this essay in the Autumn Frost
in the end and threw my
manuscript into a waste basket.
<Question everything>
Diamonds, of course, have
excellent qualities as gems and
people have therefore raised
the status of diamonds to the
king of gems. However, there is
a large difference between
accepting their king status
from the start and pondering
why they have become the king.
The difference will become even
larger when we think about
their qualities. We cannot see
into essence of things by
merely accepting things in the
world as they are. Furthermore,
we will not be able to acquire
an ability to question
information coming out of
newspapers, magazines, TV,
radio or Internet either.
Philosophers like to use
difficult technical terms but
the gist of philosophy is to
ask gwhyh to everything around
us.
gWhy does he talk
behind my back?h gWhy did my
boss get mad at me?h Before
getting offended or
over-reacting, ask gwhy?h It
will definitely add depth and
richness to your life.
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