Philosophizing

I would not consider myself a philosopher. Philosophy simply means "love of wisdom," and this semester I am taking this class. I have learned about a lot about different philosophers, but what sticks out to me is that all of them are known for one of their sayings. They all have some thought-provoking idea that puts them on the map. So I started to think...I am almost done with one semester of philosophy. I need my saying. I need a thought-provoking idea. I need something that will boost me to the top of 21st century philosophy.

But first I just want to share with you the most famous philosophers and their popular sayings.

Socrates is famous for, "Know thyself" and "The Unexamined life is not worth living!" Both of these are pretty good. Straight forward and true. Oh and by the way, Socrates often when around in the nude speaking. He was just so carried away in this thoughts that he would forget to dress himself.

Rene Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." I guess this is pretty insightful because almost 400 years later, it is still being studied. But this comes from a guy who would habitually sleep-in until noon everyday. Then he would just lounge around and be lazy. When he finally had to start waking up in the morning (he started tutoring the Queen of Sweden), he got sick and died. Descartes was a pretty lazy dude. The way he came up with his famous line was by sitting in a Sauna! The guy just liked to think.

Another philosopher is Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He really isn't known for any popular proverb, but I just want to point out the ridiculous-ness of him. He is known for writing a book on child development titled Emile. However, this man never married, but he had tons and tons of illegitimate children. It was actually not uncommon when a baby was dropped off on the steps of the orphanage for the workers to say, "Looks like Rousseau is at it again." I just thinks its interesting that some much scholarship is given to a man who writes on raising children, but never wants to raise one himself.

Leibniz is a German philosophy who said that you need to have, "the best of all possible worlds." Sounds pleasant.

John Locke is known for his Tabula Rasa, "blank slate." Basically, a child is born with a completely blank slate in his or brain, and they learn through experiences imprinting on their minds.

The final philosopher is George Berkeley who said, "To be is to be perceived." This man is a Bishop of a church, but without meaning to he begins the notion of placing empiricism over rationalism. This leads to the view that the only knowledge possible is the knowledge of ourselves and our perceptions. There is no way of getting outside this. So here is a man, a Christian, who accidentally opens the door for criticism in the way the Bible is to be understood...not good.


All of these men are smart intelligent men. Some of them are lazy. Some of them prance around philosophizing in the nude. And still others innocently tear down the very thing they are trying to build up. So what can I provide to the world? Its really nothing on the scale of the men i mentioned above. I actually thought of this when I was in high school.

When you want to succeed, all you have succeeded to do is want.

Basically, if you want to succeed at something, go do it! Don't just want and yearn. You will never accomplish anything if you just think about it. If that is the case, you have actually only succeeded in thinking about doing something. You have to go out and do it!