Philosophy
Philosophy, as a discipline, is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.
When one talks about a philosophy, they usually are refering to a particular system of thought; theory, belief, or attitude; they or an organization has that they use as a guiding principle for their behaviors or actions.
Let's look at an example of such behavior or action based on a thought, theory, belief, attitude, or philosophy.
Donkey Fable & Philosophy
An old man takes a small boy on a trip.
The man hoists the boy onto a donkey
while he leads the animal on foot.
Soon they come upon a man,
who chides the boy for showing no respect to his elders,
so the boy dismounts the donkey and the old man climbs aboard.
Later they come upon a young women,
who chides the old man for riding while the child walks,
so the old man hoists the boy up along side him.
Next they come upon a women
who derides them both for placing such a burden upon a poor animal,
so they both get off and walk alongside the donkey.
Still later they come upon a philosopher,
who shakes his head in dismay
that anyone could be so stupid to walk
when they had a donkey to ride.
Summary:
- Everyone has a philosophy. It determines your whole life, whether you realize it or not.
- Everyone is a philosopher, he or she creates their own conception (thought, theory, belief, attitude, or philosophy) of the world.
- The alternative to a philosophy is not no philosophy, but a bad philosophy or an unconscious philosophy, which mostly means making bad decisions or gut reactions.
- What is your philosophy?
- Know what it is, and use it.
- Make better decisions.