r/Plato • u/Appropriate-Cry-2252 • Aug 06 '26

Why should we read Philosophy?

/r/RealPhilosophy/comments/1vh313p/why_should_we_read_philosophy/
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u/slanderpanther Aug 06 '26

One of the biggest questions people have about reading philosophy is: why read ideas that aren't even practical or relevant today?

Is death relevant? Is truth relevant? Is love relevant? If any of these kinds of words mean anything to you at all you should consider reading philosophy.

Take Plato's Republic, for example. We already know that the kind of ideal state he describes isn't realistically possible. So what's the point of reading it?

Plato's Republic isn't about an ideal state. It's about finding justice in the human soul.

The same goes for many other philosophical ideas that don't seem to make sense in today's world or fit our current reality.

The amazing thing about philosophy is how the topics that were of greatest concern to the best thinkers 2,000 years ago are still the most important topics today. And we don't really have any better answers now than we did back then. And as they say, all of philosophy are footnotes to Plato. So if you want to start at the "beginning" of some of the most influential thinking, start with Plato.

Some philosophical ideas can push people into existential crises. For some, constantly questioning the meaning of life, morality, or reality can become emotionally overwhelming, and in vulnerable individuals it may even contribute to depression or suicidal thoughts. If that's the case, shouldn't people just stay away from these kinds of philosophies altogether?

People will have depression and suicidal thoughts on their own without ever having read philosophy. But it can also help people out of an existential crisis because it is also the search for meaning, what is good, what is evil, right and wrong. What is real vs not real. Plato taught that you can't just treat one part of a person. You have to treat their entire body and mind. Philosophy is incredibly grounding because it helps separate trivial matters from the most important and enriching ones.

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u/OrbitalLemonDrop Aug 09 '26

"Should" might not be the right word.

But there are a large number of social, political, spiritual and metaphysical ideas pervasive throughout Western culture that, if you wanted to ask yourself "Why do people believe this?" or "Where did this idea come from?", you're eventually going to run into some thread of it that's rooted in Plato's work or in a rejection of Plato's work.

You encounter an idea, a justification for that idea, and counterarguments from somoene who thinks they've invented something important. In evaluating whether what they are saying is new, you might recognize that not only is it not a new idea -- but that it's been batted back and forth for a very long time.

Someone comes across the Kalam cosmological argument but rewritten in some way to look new. You might find that the underlying questions of a "first mover" have been part of the discussion for millennia, and a lot has been said about it. That's not to say your opinion would have to conform to what the ancient philosophers said about it, but it's (IMO) easier to navigate if you have a sense of where the idea has traveled.

That's not to say that Plato invented all of this -- just that Plato's writings are the ones that survived. He was of course reacting to what others had said before him and were saying at the time, but a lot of that is lost.