126. Is Your Interest in Philosophy Just a Symptom of Your Privilege?

When I was younger, I used to be a big proponent of equality. I believed all human beings deserved an equal standing in society. Everyone’s needs were just equally important, and I had no right to emphasise my own needs over someone else.

(There is a dichotomy here, because when I was younger, I was very prone to throwing tantrums when things did not go my way, like children everywhere.)

When I grew older, I realised that my equalitarian view was not how the world ran. The world runs on capitalism. In a capitalistic society, my standard of living is a function of my assets, which I can build myself. Fortunately, I was afforded the opportunities to study in good schools & colleges, which played a big role in me being able to earn a living.

Because I was fortunate enough to attend good schools, I developed hobbies in the realms of personal development & philosophy. For the past 9 years, my articles on this website are a manifestation of these hobbies.

For anyone not in the know, philosophy is the study of general & fundamental related to life, the mind and society, among other topics.

Because philosophy looks to answer fundamental questions, there is one I have been trying to answer recently.

“Why did I develop an interest in philosophy?”

“Happiness seems to depend on leisure, because we work to have leisure, and wage war to live in peace”.

– Aristotle

As it appears, my wife has been vying for an answer to this question also. I have a tendency to ask an unusual number of questions. I dispute the validity of arguments which don’t relate to my understanding of the basic nature of human dynamics. And I write long sentences because I prefer to add qualifiers to my arguments.

Very few people around me have similar questions to mine, and hence I have a small set of friends I like to maintain. Most people have pretty different concerns than mine. I know all of us are different, and that is what makes this question more interesting to answer.

These phenomenon made me question my interest in philosophy a lot more. I lead a pretty decent life. I provide for my family to a satisfactory level, and I also have some time & energy at hand to pursue my hoobies.

This begged the question: are the privileges of extra time and energy responsible for my ability to pursue philosophy?

After a fair amount of introspection, I came to a hypothesis.

Philosophy and privilege are directly proportional.

As it turns out, Shahrukh Khan, one of the biggest superstars in the Indian Film Industry, agrees with me. Listen for yourself.

I have had the privilege to attempt to answer these weird questions based on my own thinking & research because I am privileged.

I don’t think people who are deciphering where their next meal will come from have the mental bandwidth to engage in this questions and answer exercise. They have problems which, to them, are much bigger than these questions.

Even in ancient times, philosophy was not considered a “real job”. There were five ways a philosopher would earn their living.

1. They were rich before they started philosophising.
2. They tought, not just philosophy, but other subjects like Mathematics.
3. They found a wealthy patron, who paid them because the patron admired them.
4. They had full time jobs, and philosophised on the side.
5. They begged.

An empty stomach or ailing body do not leave a lot of room for abstract problems in our lives.

Am I saying the subjects I write about are not important? Not at all. I feel the modern world has remedied a huge chunk of our problems through instruments like technology and science. That being said, for us to be able to think clearly about fundamental subjects, it is paramount we spend enough time fixing our fundamentals.

We must first quiet the ‘tantrums’ of our basic needs like hunger, safety, and stability, before we can earn the right to sit in the quiet room of philosophy and ask the questions that truly matter.