Why does it matter that we study philosophy? Why should we make the effort to understand philosophical ideas?

In my view, philosophy in its simple and practical sense is the search for wisdom in order to understand life and its meaning more deeply in practice.

Regardless of who we are, where we were born, what work we do or what education we have received, the simple truth of life for all of us is that at every moment we are compelled to choose. If we do not understand deeply why and how we make our choices, there will always be others ready to choose for us: political leaders, ideologies, the dominant traditions of the society into which we were born, mass media, and even other people's ordinary beliefs and opinions.

We will reach the end of our lives having made choices that were never our own clear and considered choices, and holding thoughts that were never truly our own thought-out ideas. In the end, instead of becoming more like ourselves, we will gradually become more like others, as though we had never possessed a distinctive thought or individuality of our own.

We will become homogeneous, interchangeable cogs in a vast machine that simply perpetuates what we already see around us.

All of us have allowed a particular way of living to govern our values, beliefs and choices. Whether we are conscious of it or not, this way of living is our personal philosophy of life. We all therefore have a philosophy, often a vague picture formed from things we have absorbed without reflection.

To be a philosopher is to think consciously about the way of living we have chosen.

The ultimate aim of learning philosophy is not to accumulate philosophical knowledge or become someone who “knows philosophy,” but to create an independent and conscious form of thought through which we may realise our higher self.

https://youtu.be/FQ58kYnpujs