Philosophy is defined by Oxford languages as, ‘’The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline’’. What does this mean in everyday talk? It means that philosophy is key to learning and understanding new things that you will see in real life. There is a misconception that philosophy is only an old-school thing, a thing your English teachers used to teach about in highschool. But rather, philosophy is how you think, how you determine, how you understand. Philosophy is how an individual mind can entertain ideas and come up with conclusions. There is so much value in being a critical thinker, someone who can hear a new idea, think about it, weigh its value and importance, determine its applicability, then come to a conclusion. Even in the littlest of things, philosophy can be a very beneficial thing, like going grocery shopping. Asking the questions of should I get this kind of cereal? How healthy is this? Do I really need to buy more frozen pizzas? All those types of questions are real life examples of how philosophy is used on the daily, and by understanding and growing your use of philosophy, you can drastically improve your ability to make well-informed decisions. 

Everything you do requires thought. It may be subconscious to you now, but at one point, you were focused on that. Ideas and thoughts will always fill your head. New experiences and knowledge will present themselves to you. Emotions and feelings will overtake reason. How will you be able to handle it all? Philosophy is truly the swiss army knife of handling problems. It allows you to step back, place your mind in a plethora of places, weigh all possibilities, give engaging lines of reasoning, and yet, some people don't do it. People will jump to conclusions on ‘’gut’’ feelings; or ‘’instincts’’. Those people are subjectively not making the most educated decisions they could, because they aren’t thinking. It still might sound patronizing to ask to apply philosophy to things like buying groceries, but it's truly a representative idea of how applicable philosophy is to all parts of life. 

Where is the most common place I use philosophy? Surprisingly, business. What might seem like totally polar topics, philosophy and business work hand and hand. When I have to present a business plan to my supervisors on how to handle an event we might be running, I don’t just think in terms of profits, I view it as an experience. An experience to use prior thought, prior thinking, and lean on that to make the best decisions possible. That’s another great thing about philosophy, the more you think, the more resources in your mind you have at your disposal. You can make connections, make references, and grow even more by creating bonds between similar thoughts. Now business is just one of the many unlikely examples that has philosophy mixed in, but I’m so serious when I say, anything you can think of, there is a way philosophy can be used to improve that. 

For a topic that is underutilized and commonly misunderstood, its value is extremely important. A necessity, a pillar that life can count on supporting itself with, philosophy is not just a tool to improve, philosophy is the basis of all thought. Everything that is done is done with philosophy, be it with the most thinking, or the philosophy that carries the, ‘’I’m-not-gonna-think’’ philosophy. Either way, the sooner people realize how important philosophy is and how applicable it is to all parts of life, the stronger people can grow their minds to comprehend all types of crazy possibilities, subsequently making all people, better thinkers.