Consolations Of Philosophy By Alain De Botton Essay, Research Paper

While reading The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton I had mixed feelings whether philosophy is relevant in today’s society and if it had any affect on my life in particular. However after thinking about it I have come to the conclusion that philosophy is relevant and can be used to help people’s outlook on life. While some of the ideas the philosophers in this book had did not appeal to me, I thought it is good to have these ideas for the good of the society. Some of these ideas are created for, what seems to be the benefit of, the philosopher who creates the theory. However most of these ideas are beneficial for the society and are relevant to my life.

All of these Philosophers argue that their ideas could help the community and anyone who is willing to follow their ideas. Socrates believed that people should not jump to quick conclusions and think long and hard before making a judgement. I think that his opinions are very relevant to society and especially my life. Many people my age and I tend to do things quickly without too much thought because we are used to having our parents decide everything important for us. Many times I have taken some sort of a test and thinking I have done everything fine I do not bother to double check my answers. Doing this goes against Socrates’ views. Had I followed his philosophy I would have double checked my answers on all those tests and I probably would have noticed all those little mistakes I made due to the fact that I rushed. Socrates’ ideas are very helpful for everyone since almost everybody tends to rush something, whether it be their job, a test or a financial decision practicing the things Socrates’ taught would help those people protect themselves from committing great mistakes.

Another Philosopher, Seneca had ideas that would be very relevant not only to me but to many other people in the world. He believed that people should cherish the things they have and be ready for anything. This is very true in today’s world. Today people can lose their possessions very quickly especially with the stock market. Going along with Seneca’s ideas those people should enjoy what they have and be prepared for anything because they could lose that money at any time. Money comes and goes but people stay. Seneca’s view is quite relevant toward my life. I should cherish the opportunity I have at a good education and not waste this time partying and wasting time. I should concentrate more on my studying because at any time something could happen that would require me to be well educated, such as a pop quiz or a job interview. Seneca was very wise in saying those things and his views are very relevant to my life and the life of other people.

The idea that wealth does not equal happiness by Epicurus is correct. This however affects me and other people more on the psychological level rather than directly. That idea does more to help people who might feel depressed because they do not have money. It will help a person who is poor feel happy since he can still have happiness although he/she does not have a lot of money. His ideas are always repeated to make people feel better about having little or no money. This idea affects me because although right now I am not working for a big company or making lots of money does not mean I cannot be happy just going to school and being with my family and friends. This idea by Epicurus is convincing because I have seen many instances of rich people being unhappy while poor people seem to enjoy their lives much more. It seems that most people who are rich want more money and therefor are not happy with their lives or their financial status, while a poor person might be quite happy getting slightly above minimum wage but having a wife/husband or a child who loves him/her very much. Epicurus was quite right when he said wealth does not equal happiness.

One of the things that I thought were extremely relevant to my life and to the life of the people who resemble me were the views of Montaigne. His opinion that a person should be who he/she is rather than somebody else is a very good one. Some people have the tendency to change their actions depending on their environment and in the company of different people. I see this all the time. Sometimes I and other people act differently than normal if we are in the company of a person we just met. However following Montaigne’s idea it would be better if people were themselves instead of somebody else. Acting naturally not only makes one more comfortable it also prevents discomfort later. This idea is quite convincing because this sort of thing happens all the time. Men act differently in the company of women. Likewise women act differently in the company of men. What this does however is cause each person to have a different opinion of the other person. This in turn leads to rejection later on. This type of stuff can be seen all the time with bad marriages. People get married and then get a divorce because each thought that his/her husband/wife was a different person. Following Montaigne’s idea helps prevent future discomfort. It is better to be yourself and get rejected right away rather than live in discomfort and get rejected later.

There is a saying which states that a person creates mistakes so he/she can learn from them. This statement resembles the idea of Nietzsche which is to have people overcome their difficulties and start from the bottom again. Nietzsche’s idea is quite relevant to my life because it is very easy for a college student to lose hope after they get a bad grade on the test and just drop out of the course or continue to do poorly without checking what he/she did wrong. Nietzsche’s idea however states that that student should overcome those difficulties and continue to study and do everything he/she can do to bring up that grade. If it means starting over again and re-reading the chapter to ensure a better grade in the future that is fine. His theory is quite relevant in the past, present and in the future. People should not give up on life and make something out of nothing. If everyone follows his philosophy then there will be no more suicides and people will not have depression as much. Nietzsche created a very good idea which is helpful to everyone because it helps the production of self esteem and the reduction of doubt and depression.

The one philosopher I did not agree with was Schopenhauer. I think his idea of people only getting married and falling in love for the lone reason of having a perfect offspring is ridiculous. It has no relevance to my life since I am pretty sure when I fall in love it will not be because she is shorter than me so therefore we can have a medium sized child, it will be because I enjoy her company and want to be with her. I strongly believe that Schopenhauer created that idea just to boost his self-esteem. The guy was rejected by several women which he tried to approach. Therefore he made this theory so he would feel better about those rejections. His ideas in my opinion were false back then and especially today. Many couples choose not to have children and are still very much in love. They did not get married to have a child so that proves that Schopenhauer’s theory is false. In today’s society it is even easier than before not to have children with birth control at the stage that it is in now. I think Schopenhauer is quite wrong in his reasoning and he is the only philosopher in this book with which I disagreed.

After I finished reading this book I realized that a lot of the sayings that I hear today come from the ideas these great philosophers had come up with. I agreed with most of these people excluding Schopenhauer. Their ideas are quite relevant to my life. They make a person like me feel more at ease with life and their views show that life happens in different ways and one can not be quick to do something. These ideas by Nietzcshe, Socrates, Montaigne, Seneca and Epicurus help put life in a better perspective, while Schopenhauer’s ideas were in my opinion quite selfish. The relevence of the ideas of the other five philosophers is quite large. If a person follows the teachings of these people and listening to what they have to say, that person will have a good and prosperous life.