Best of Week: What Major Role Does Philosophy Play?

Best of Week: What Major Role Does Philosophy Play?

When I didn't read the book "The Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder", only knowledge and fact I had about the word "philosophy" was just basic and plain thought that was wondering in my head for a long time.  To tell you the truth,  I didn't actually have a chance to learn it nor invested my time in observing the true meaning of what it truly meant.  This week in our humanities class, we, as a class, came across the book and by just reading the title, I didn't have any clue of figuring out the story behind the curtain.  However, it proved to have much deeper story hiding behind this dark curtain.

When I started reading the book, i was confused by the structure of the beginning of the story.  This specific book started with the character in the book questioning the other character and the readers at the same time.  In the previous books that I've read, I've never encounted this type of structure.  I believe that the specific structure that this book offers got me interested even before I started.  To be more specific, it asked a question asking "Where does the world come from?".

As I was reading the novel, I learned much more interesting information that I've never questioned myself before.  When I started the journey of reading, this fact caught my attention instantly.  It stated that mankind's philosophic questioning started by the sense of wonder and that philosophy has been widely accepted in answering questions that could not have been answered in the early ancient times.  The reason I found this statement interesting was the fact that this one line poses multiple points that can lead to the 21st century world.  In my opinion, the mankind could not have advanced this far without the sense of wonder and questioning that we have as a given talent.  If the humans did not have this ability, we would not have questioned how we came to exist and would not have any advancement due to the fact that they are satisfied by their own surrounding.  I believe that philosophy had a significant role in bringing advancements and technologies that we take for granted in the current world of information.