Philosophy and Playing with Building Blocks

As a child, I liked to play with building blocks. I would select a block of appropriate size and shape and then carefully balance it on top of the others. I felt great satisfaction every time I succeeded in building a castle or a village just as I had imagined it. I might have developed an interest in philosophy when I grew up because thinking in philosophy closely resembles playing with building blocks. In this case, the human mind, the body, responsibility, freedom, rights, duty, and other such concepts become the building blocks, out of which a theory is constructed. Philosophy elucidates the meaning of each concept and analyzes how different concepts are related to each other. In fact, society, which we inhabit, is full of constructs made of concepts. The prototypical examples are a company or a state. Studying philosophy, you will learn the pleasure of analyzing and playing with concepts, and in addition you will gain deep insight into humanity and society.