Philosophy Hinders Me
When discussing, writing, and thinking, philosophy has helped me develop and learn so many new ideas. I genuinely believe that philosophy is the backbone of almost everything in the world. Then how has it been hindering me in some discussions?
Some philosophical ideas cut the flow
Since philosophy often deals with dense and complex ideas, explaining them takes a long time. Sometimes, people in my group find it challenging to keep up and may take a long time to understand the relevance of the ideas. This also applies to me; when someone brings a dense philosophical idea and explains it in a few minutes, I get very lost. Of course, in deep and long discussions, this phenomenon is not a problem; people would have more time to explain and tie the reason why it relates to the topic being discussed. However, in short, fast-paced conversations, introducing philosophical ideas may be counter-productive as it takes up too much time and may be difficult to quickly get back to the main topic.
I can’t accept my instinctual thoughts
Since philosophy often tries to find deep meaning in the world, which usually takes a long time to fathom, I got into the habit of not saying what my intuition tells me. Instead of trusting my immediate thoughts on a topic, I always wait and think over it again and again. This practice can be a skeptically beneficial thing, but I often find the others talking about a completely different topic once I’m done thinking about what I want to say.
I think that complexity = better
Instead of being satisfied with simple ideas, I try to build on them more and more. This, again, is a good practice for philosophy. Nevertheless, in a discussion, introducing simple ideas and merging them together with other ideas to eventually reach complexion can be better; trying to only talk about polished, perfect ideas can only hinder us from actually letting our opinions out.
Conclusion
Instead of always trying to bring new philosophical ideas, the lesson that I take away is that I should first talk about what my intuition tells me. Of course, if there are good philosophical ideas that are applicable to what is being talked about, I will introduce and explain them. I still love philosophy and will continue bringing them up in conversation, but prioritizing my own voice seems to be more efficient and beneficial.
