This speech by Ayn Rand, titled Philosophy: Who needs it? addressed to the graduating students of West point military academy in NYC (and complete collection essay's here ), is the best place to jump start our philosophical part of the brain:
"You might claim--as most people do--that you have never been influenced by philosophy. I will ask you to check that claim. Have you ever thought or said the following? "Don't be so sure--nobody can be certain of anything." You got that notion from David Hume (and many, many others), even though you might never have heard of him. Or: "This may be good in theory, but it doesn't work in practice. You got that from Plato. Or: "That was a rotten thing to do, but it's only human, nobody is perfect in this world." You got that from Augustine. Or: "It may be true for you, but it's not true for me." You got it from William James. Or: "I couldn't help it! Nobody can help anything he does." You got it from Hegel. Or: "I can't prove it, but I feel that it's true." You got it from Kant. Or: "It's logical, but logic has nothing to do with reality." You got it from Kant. Or: "It's evil, because it's selfish." You got it from Kant. Have you heard the modern activists say: "Act first, think afterward"? They got it from John Dewey.
Some people might answer: "Sure, I've said those things at different times, but I don't have to believe that stuff all of the time. It may have been true yesterday, but it's not true today." They got it from Hegel. They might say: "Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." They got it from a very little mind, Emerson."
Irrespective of your stance on Objectivism (Ayn Rand's philosophy), your "political" affiliation or love/hate relationship with Atlas Shrugged, this speech mostly gives a general outlook and a great place to begin contemplating the importance of philosophy in life. (For the record, my favorite Ayn Rand book is Fountainhead )
We all don't have to be philosophers (albeit, a lot of them think they are!!) but the sheer size of the spectrum philosophy covers makes it one of the important things under the sun.
The idea of democracy to the idea of Capitalism; cultural differences to social sciences; astronomy to science; all of their roots are some way or other influenced by philosophy.
Studying any philosopher is a great place to start but don't pick a favorite philosopher or philosophy earlier or at any time until you have a rudimentary understanding of the western and eastern philosophy and philosophers. It's difficult not to pick the favorites early with the way our brain works (achoring and adjustment even without number, I guess) but it will lead to biases without understanding the others.
Ayn Rand hates Immanuel Kant who in-turn hates Aristotle. It's not worth being polarized without having a full sense of what we are being polarized about. Every philosopher is worth reading, we can learn little something from everyone and it will eventually feed into your own unique philosophy.
What Ronald Bailey wrote (in Liberation Biology) "Ignorance is not freedom. Knowledge is freedom; Igonrance is stagnation." says it all.
I am still a student and will be till the end. I fell in love with western philosophy after coming to this country. I grew under the influence of eastern philosophy, in retrospect it's a unique blessing having to be influenced by both these diverse philosophies. So far it's been one heck of a ride. Until the last few years I wasn't reading much into philosophy but of-course everything changed since that four legged stress busting powerhouse checked-in.
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