Who is a philosopher?

If one wants to become a nurse, he must enrol himself in nursing course. If one wants to be a teacher, he must take up the course of education. This procedure is the same with other courses one desires. And in becoming a philosopher, taking up that discipline or not may not be necessary.

Philosophy course is a professional course. But when one has the chance to look into the history of philosophy, numerous philosophers were not graduates in such course, and their followers have made their names great. What makes them as such?

Philosophers of old did not aspire to make their names great. It was their disciples and students adhere to their ideas. They have discovered that their ideas provide satisfactions to their personal and social queries. We have such examples like Plato who make his teacher Socrates known by making him one of the characters in his writings or Immanuel Kant’s admiration to seek more metaphysical principle by the thoughts of David Hume.

Two things, as I see it, common from these thinkers. First, it is their quest for answers to the very fundamental questions that every ordinary human being encounters. These questions have kept on appearing in their minds. And each has their own styles in approaching those questions. Thus no two thinkers have the same answers. And the second thing is their sense of awe and wonder on why things around them seem to be acting in particular and strange ways. In short, they try to explain the phenomena by using their thinking skills.

Each person is gifted with rationality. And from this inherent gift, he can impregnate unique ideas. There are as many ideas as there are many thinkers trying to answer those questions. But sad to say, no amount of brilliant ideas or simple as it may, has ever met with satisfaction. We are tantamount to say that the fundamental and philosophical questions are enveloped with the sense of mystery. And satisfaction comes only when thinkers are able to unveil that sense of mystery that surrounds them, and point to thoughts beyond appearance and sense impression. And, I believe, this is the secret on becoming a philosopher.

‘Reason ought to be slave of the Passion’ – David Hume

The month of February is known to many as the month of the hearts. During these times, people who are full of love and who are loveless are meditating on how they are going to celebrate love. Love, as we know it, is not only intended between two lovers. Love is for everyone, between family members, classmates and schoolmates, girl or boy, rich or poor, elder and younger people. The effect of love is to spread and to share it to all. As they say, love comes from the heart. But love is now being manipulated by reasons. It is not that bad at all so long as it does not go against the nature of love.

As expected by many, the fruit of love is good. This good comes from favourable actions done by anyone to anybody. And since everyone is good, this goodness would naturally come out from everyone. When the result is bad, then, that is not the manifestation of love, but rather a manifestation that reason or the manipulator is using love for other purposes, and their intention is artificial – flowing unnaturally. And they would remark proudly that ‘we are doing it in the name of love.’ But the right thing to say is ‘we are doing it with the use of love.’

David Hume, a British empiricist, asserts that reason ought to be slave of the passion. Here one may think of him that he is the promoter of pleasure. The connotation of the term passion is related to it. But following his thought in one of his writings Enquiry on Human Understanding, he has that good intention of saying it. And what is it? He says that No amount of reasoning can persuade evil people (those with evil desires) to any course of action except that which already attracts them. Two points can we get out if this statement. First is that many people are manipulating the objective meaning of love and their true calling to love others. These people have evil desires, for the result of their action is not good. And the second point is that, being intelligent and possessing intelligence is not a guarantee that he is formed to be loving person.

The resolution to this scene is right for Hume. A person with evil intention could not produce good results. It is because that person thwarts the real nature of love. It is only when that person, having the right intention of loving, could produce hundreds of positive relationships. A piece of advice to intelligent people is: follow your passion to love, and not waste your intelligence on your unreasonable reasons of being unloving.