Philosophy is the examination of ultimate questions. Each generation and even each day, these questions appear with more aspects, more twinkle.
Who am I? What am I? What is the nature of the world? How should we act ethically toward others? How can we act together in political cooperation? What is friendship? What is empathy? What is the good life? What is the meaning of life?
Questioning keeps us young, and articulating answers keeps us in the practice of reason.
The human brain consumes more oxygen and calories than the rest of the body combined. Verbal expression, in itself, burns more calories than almost any other activity.
At its bluntest, thinking is thinning.
I have long enjoyed the wry remark of the Twentieth Century U. S. philosopher Mortimer Alder, who, at 80, was still the editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica, that his only exercise was mental.
Thinking also keeps us young.
Roughly 2500 years ago, at the age of 70, Socrates was outwitting his opponents and stating philosophy in ways that are considered among the best to this day.
Past the age of 90, John Dewey and Bertrand Russell, two Twentieth Century philosophers, were still writing books of philosophy.
Whatever age we are, thinking expands our horizons.
Some questions attract us individually more than others; some seem easier than others.
Just because a question is difficult does not mean that it should be ignored: Just because an answer is difficult to phrase does not mean effort should not be made.
The study of past attempts to describe ultimate questions, and their answers, helps to scratch the itch of intellect and lifts our species beyond others.
Even if our reach were always to exceed our grasp, the attempt is ennobling.
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