The Philosophical Attitude is a concept that means, above all, breaking with common sense and looking with amazement at what is most trivial in our daily lives. The problematization of reality is the central point and engine of philosophy.
Remembering that philosophy was born in ancient Greece around the end of the 7th century BC. Ç. as a challenge to traditional knowledge based on myths and belief.
Greek common sense assumed a mythic awareness and took explanations based on the narratives of myths as evident.
The Amazement
Philosophy is born out of awe. The philosopher's attitude is to regard everything and everything as unprecedented. If he takes a distance, he loses the habit, the habit. Perceives itself as ignorant, being necessary to investigate to know.
According to Aristotle:
Indeed, men began to philosophize, now as at the origin out of admiration, as they were initially perplexed by the simplest difficulties.
The amazement, this admiration and perplexity referred to by Aristotle, is what takes the individual out of inertia and launches him in the search for knowledge.
At the Cave myth, metaphor proposed by Plato, the philosopher also affirms the importance of a critical look at reality and the need to search for new knowledge.
the questioning
The Philosophical Attitude has as its starting point the denial of the common and the questioning. Saying no to habits and customs, only after passing through the scrutiny of reason, affirming or agreeing with something.
deny the certainties of common sense it is the first moment of the method proposed by philosophy. To deny is to question, is to foresee another possibility.
Socrates, Greek philosopher, known as the "father of philosophy" had in questioning the basis for the search for true knowledge.
According to his disciples, among them Plato, the philosopher did not make statements, because he believed that nothing can be taught to anyone. The person himself must reflect and find for himself the answers to the different problems.
A life without reflection is not worth living.
the critical spirit
The critical spirit is the foundation of the Philosophical Attitude. The constant uncertainty that accompanies one who treads the path of knowledge, being called a philosopher.
Finally, a philosopher is anyone who awakens in himself the need for change. Restlessness and love of knowledge lead individuals to philosophize, question their certainties and propose a more accurate knowledge of reality.
Interested? Toda Matéria has other texts that can help you:- What is philosophy for?
- The Origin of Philosophy
- Myth and Philosophy
- Pre-Socratic Philosophers: The First Philosophers
