Can You Be a Philosopher?

Can you be a philosopher? Perhaps the real question should be who is a philosopher, an easier answer — everyone! I suppose a philosopher is one who seeks to understand life, its meaning, its orientation, its end and the processes that we engage in our attempt to navigate our way through life. The philosopher seeks to understand where we have come from, how we got here, where we will end up. The great philosophers: Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant etc., searched in their own way to explain what makes us 'tick' as humans, whether it was in the sphere of thought, the moral sphere, the human sphere. All of them offered their insights and perceptions into these great human issues. Ultimately, some philosophers search after meaning, and how to make that meaning applicable, others would say there is no meaning, others would say we cannot know anything, others would say it is possible for us to know everything. A philosopher is anyone who seeks to reflect on life and its meaning and the consequences of that meaning for the individual, the corporate body, society, the world. We all contemplate some, or all, of these questions during our lifetime.