Philosophy is an inescapable fact of human life because humans, as John Milton said, spend the better part of their lives inside their own minds.
Humans, in other words, think to survive, and life, therefore, is not primarily physical. It’s psychological.
Philosophy is indispensable because the fundamentals of thought are entirely philosophical. Any attempt to deny the necessity of philosophy must use philosophy to deny its necessity.
Whether you’re an American thinker or a Greek thinker, whether you’re an Asian thinker, African, or Australian thinker — it doesn’t matter — there’s no getting around the necessity of thought.
Thinking is what unites us all.
It’s been noted that philosophy can be distinguished from all the other sciences and disciplines by this one thing:
To do philosophy, all that’s required is the human brain and the senses to feed that brain. That’s how you can tell philosophy from every other science.
In the words of one modern-day neo-Thomist: “Metaphysics does not depend upon any delicate instrumentation.”
Philosophy requires no telescopes, no microscopes, no computers, or computer models. It requires neither paintbrush, nor piano; neither hammer-and-chisel, nor brick-and-mortar.
Philosophy can’t establish scientific laws, neither does it deal with math, or experiments, or so-called systems.
Philosophy does, however, possess veto power over all these things and more, because philosophy forms the foundations upon which these things and all others are built.
Of human disciplines, therefore, philosophy is the lowest common denominator.
That is the way in which philosophy brings together every aspect of human life.
Philosophy matters.