Today we enter day 5 of Wildflower May and discuss how philosophy opened my mind and intelligence. I chose this topic because I’ve discussed how my childhood was a bit different, and my own experiences of school and learning changed when I started to learn about World Religions and Philosophy. It’s simple in my mind to say that philosophy opened my mind and actuated my intelligence, this post aims to outline exactly how that happened.
Searching for Meaning
As a child, I was always wondering, daydreaming, and questioning the world around me.
Exclusion was a part of my childhood, by choice.
Every time I went to visit my aunt, my siblings and older cousin would spend their time playing Super Mario games. It was the time when there were only two controllers and sitting there watching others play was too boring to let myself do.
This aunt spent time breeding Wheaten Terrier puppies, she had a beautiful couple of adult terriers who would usually have a litter, and the puppies were always my favorite part of spending time at my aunts.
I remember one year, I spent the whole day, at my aunts, in the room with her puppies. I would let them run all over me, and smother me with love. I can still hear, smell, and feel their tiny paws and little cries in my memory.
I’ve always been the odd one out, and I relate to philosophy in such a different way than society dictates is normal. I was called weird, annoying, and clingy by many people in my life until I found something to submerse into. Something that hit my mind on the pleasure point of inquiry.
How philosophy opened my mind
Imagine feeling excluded, different, and outcasted your whole life, until one day, at a new school, with a new teacher, you’re praised for your interest in more than one topic. You’re encouraged to research and present on a topic relevant to you, as well as one that interests you in a more inquisitive way. Seeing yourself as a new person in a new setting, your identity is reforming, your mind is opening.
It’s not like I was under a rock until grade 11, though sometimes I do describe it that way. I grew up in Toronto, yet, travelling past Bloor and Yonge on the subway was not something I had done until this year. At 15, my mind began to open. I began to become my truest self and this is because my teacher saw my potential. If I had behaved the same way I did at my previous school, I wouldn’t have tried. Instead, I found myself enjoying the new ideas.
1. All Questions are Relevant
Philosophy opened my mind by allowing a space where all questions are relevant. It allowed me to understand that there is more to life than math, science, and writing in a specific style. There is more self-actualization than following the orders of society. There is potential for unlimited thinking, ability, understanding, and questions.
In grade 10, at my co-ed school, I had to write a speech. I remember this speech because I had to write it in the year Obama was elected and I was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and wrote about dreams. I wrote about the interpretation of dreams and the wonder within them. How a dream about your teeth falling out indicates anxiety in yourself. My English teacher at this school was also the Librarian and although my topic was insightful and relevant to me, my grade did not reflect that.
In grade 12 philosophy, as a class, we created a magazine and explored the topic of epistemology which is the theory of knowledge. Asking questions such as; how do we know if something is actually true, and how do myths, fairytales and stories indicate knowledge in the form of a story? Is there knowledge within anecdotes as well as in other subjects?
These critical questions resonated with me, feeling as though my wonder, inquiry, and ideas had found their home. Philosophy opened the door to the realm of all possibility for me.
2. There’s no right answer, just your answer
As I began to choose University programs, I chose cognitive science because of my interest in psychology, the brain, and behaviour. However, after graduating high school and working as a camp councillor. I realized that subject is limiting too much of what I want to study and learn at University.
I began asking my family for guidance as to what subject to study, with internal conflicting desires about my career, I wondered what subjects could prepare me for either Law school or Teacher’s College. I kept wondering which subject could allow me to think outside the box and learn about how we think. Philosophy became the answer. I combined it as a double major, with Law and felt this rush of desire for selecting classes in these topics.
In philosophy, there is no right answer. There is no determination of value based on ideas, there are some that are more common than others, but there is no correct answer. It’s more about how you choose to govern yourself.
This idea of self-governance or sovereignty is found in First Nations philosophy, and how to interact with the world as an independent, yet connected being. In law classes, I studied the social contract theory and began to understand the basis of Locke, Hobbes, and other legal philosophers who thought in depth about governance.
In my first year, I took a classics course, on Ancient Greek philosophy, and fell in love with Platonic philosophy. Plato’s philosophy contained something that others leave out; the mind. I admire the world of imagination, and found resonance with platonic ideas.
How Philosophy opened my Intelligence
I’ve given a bit of background as to how my mind opened when learning philosophy, and how the ideas allowed me to find a place to ask questions about life, learning, and knowledge, but how does this allow intelligence to be opened? How are questions of philosophy and life going to open a persons intelligence?
To answer this I have to continue discussing my University career. I went through a lot of difficulty while studying and never adopted a true identity until after graduating from my Masters in Education program. I spent the largest amount of my life in school, learning, questioning, and wondering if there is more to life than getting a job and working for someone else.
1. Applying different perspectives to common ideas
In graduate school, I studied liberalism, theories of inclusion, authenticity in the classroom, and curriculum policy. I enjoyed learning about these topics, I still enjoy learning about them.
One particular reason my intelligence was activated by studying philosophy is because of the foundation of inquisitive thinking, it became easier to understand and apply different perspectives to common ideas. Seeing different perspectives in a variety of classes became second nature to me.
In classes on critical disability studies, my favourite classes in graduate school; we were taught to bracket the idea and apply a perspective of accessibility and normalcy to it.
I enjoyed this exercise as it allowed me to see how one perspective, is just that, a perspective to be applied to a certain matter of culture.
2. Philosophical thinking is mental training
One of the key principles of philosophy is self-reflection. Because of the social situations I would find myself in as a teenager, I was constantly self-reflecting already. I was reflecting with the intention of understanding what was happening in my reality which lead me to already having this key principle built into my mentality.
This principle, along with what I was learning, thinking about, and studying while in University (2011-2017) a full six years of my life, philosophical thinking became a form of mental training for me.
If philosophical thinking is mental training, it follows that philosophical writing is creative training. So learning how to write a schema of an argument as a principle of philosophical thinking, as well as always considering the alternative point of views while writing papers, philosophy became my method of learning.
As a teacher, I use these ideas with my students. Working at a learning centre for a year the main method of learning applied is reflective learning; asking what have you learned so far? Can you tell me what the main idea, or inferred idea is within this writing? All of these questions of critical capacity are doing philosophy.
But philosophy doesn’t end in the classroom. My love for philosophy is so solid that I want to write about the philosophical point of view, and allow others to begin to understand how the truest view point is a philosophical one.
Remember…
My philosophy is philosophy because I want to see all points of view. In a new age spiritual view this is because my astrological houses are filled with Libra, which is known as the balance sign, and is indecisive in nature. In a rational point of view, philosophy allows me to see every point of view without bias and continues to allow me the space to ask questions about my world and self reflect on my actions.
Intelligence is brought out by philosophy because you’re constantly upgrading your mind when you’re thinking in a philosophical point of view. When you’re embodying the values of your truest, authentic self, there is more openness, and acceptance for other views.
Abraham Hicks says that you are alignment with unlimited possibilities and continued vibrational positivity is the essence of who you are.
Philosophy is the expression of a viewpoint, an understanding of how the world works, based on personal experience, understanding, or wisdom, and personal values. Without this there is no formation of identity.
I’m looking forward to continuing the daily posts this month! I hope you enjoyed reading about philosophical thinking and my personal experiences with philosophy.
With love and light,
~~ stay true, stay weird ~~
~~ Kristi