Before I get started here, I guess I should say a little about the title of this post. It comes from a song in a 1966 movie and is about the most basic questions in life. It was sung by many artists including Dionne Warwick, Cher, and others. If you are currently bored with what you are doing or just want to see the lyrics click HERE.

The lyrics and its melody just came to mind when I was trying to decide what approach I aim to use for this new series at RJsCorner on the “Philosophy of Life”. Here I am five posts into the series but have never figured out how I want to go about it. 🥸 I am by no means educationally qualified to talk about philosophy. I have never had a single course on philosophy but, I have read quite extensively on the subject over the years, so I have a knowledgeable layman’s view on it. As indicated by the Will Rogers quote above, the primary way you gain many kinds of wisdom is by learning it from others who came before us, including the philosophers.

As I mentioned in a previous post, philosophy at it core means the “love of wisdom”. I certainly value wisdom and seek it out in every way possible. I thought about naming the series “The Idiot’s Guide to Philosophy”, not to mean that my readers are idiots, but instead, to indicate I am the idiot. That idea was cutesy but got quickly pushed aside.

I used to quote Will Rogers quite often here in years past but, for whatever reason have not done that lately. Will was known by many as the “cowboy philosopher” as his words often struck at the very meaning of everyday life. I have read most of what he wrote and collected thousands of quotes in the process. For these reasons, I have decided to use my version of Will Rogers’ wit and wisdom to tell you a little about the dozen or so other philosophers that we will cover. I think this approach will give an unusual spin to what could otherwise become a boring subject. 🥸

Going forward, look to be entertained by quotes from the “Cowboy Philosopher” to get you acquainted with some of the more serious philosophers I want you to learn a little about. I hope that by the end of this series, however long that is, some of you might want to read more about the wisdom of those who were called philosophers in past ages. But the real fact is, all of us who use at least an ounce of our brains are philosophers to one degree or another.