Picking a philosopher to have dinner with is assuming I know any philosophers and what they taught. Google gave me a handy list of the most famous philosophers to help me choose. They broke the list down into categories such as ancient and classical philosophy, Eastern philosophy, Rationalism and Empiricism, and ethics and the Enlightenment. There was a final category where I settled on a philosopher. The category was Existensialism. These categories went in chronological order, so I see that Existensialism is the last philosophy, with Jean-Paul Sartre being the last one listed. He died in 1980. Has philosophy ended? Are there no more philosophers?
So, back to Existensialism…
Google says Friedrich Nietzsche was an existential philospher. Look at what he taught, it sounds right up my alley:
“…taught that traditional morality and religion were failing society. He encouraged individuals to forge their own values and embrace life’s struggles with passion and a “will to power”.”
That sounds familiar. He lived from 1844-1900. Society has 126 years on him and yet, he knew back then that morality and religion weren’t working out so well for society. This has the potential to get political if I delved into why I think our country in particular is struggling in this area. I’d love to catch him up to speed over dinner and tell him how right he was and see what he thinks about what’s happening today.
But now look at that second part about encouraging people to forge their own values and embrace challenges with passion and basically, determination. I do that! I’m figuring out what I value in life. I have embraced my struggles and plowed ahead with vigor as I overcame them. I’d love to share that with him.
Philosophers are so smart. Or maybe enlightened is a better word for them. I tend to think deeply about my life and all the things that affect it, but I rarely am able to think of the bigger picture and life in general for all people. In the absence of being as smart as these guys were, I’ll instead bask in the ideas and lessons they shared. They were good ones!
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