What is important to us

Mu: I will tell you a secret today.

Tal: Go ahead.

Mu: There are 2 types of questions: questions of truths and questions of values. 'Questions of truth' entertain the mind and 'questions of values' justify life.

Tal: What do you mean?

Mu: Questions of truth' deal with knowledge and understanding. For example, 'Is reality knowable? Is the world flat or is there life in another planets? Is there any God? What do I mean when I say 'do you understand that?' These questions are questions dealing with some abstraction, very far away from my pains of being alive. They are the domain of methaphysicals, logical positivists, and crazy linguists. Reason rules here and we are in real trouble when we reach the end of both language and thought.

Tal: And questions of values?

Mu: These are the one that I need to answer to convince myself that life is really worthy, that to be alive is better than to be dead. For example, 'if life is suffering -and obvious fact-, why to choose life instead of dead? Why not to commit suicide? Faith not logic is king. You find Nietzche, Sartre and Christ sharing this universe. No abstractions. They resides in our bones and bath in our own blood. We are them.

Tal: Thanks. Now let me go back to sleep.

Why philosophy?

Tilo: Why do you care about philosophy and questioning the obvious? Is it not better to enjoy the next TV ball game or to admire the new young stars discovered by the media?

Mu: Because with Descartes, we lost our roots. We became divided between a body and an unreachable soul.

Tilo: Why shall we care about the meaning of this and that, the value of a worthy live, or what distinguish man from animal?

Mu: Because of certainty. Since Kant, we have not truth. We know that our own mind constrains all knowledge. We are damn to live in ignorance of what is real.

Tilo: But you know that the only sure things are taxes and death. Why shall we care about God and beliefs, about reason and faith, about truth and freedom?

Mu: Because of emptiness. Since Nietzsche, we have no God and good and evil are totally confused –some say these two are just perspectives. We are orphans in an unknowable and complex world and sadly we know that there is no tomorrow. We suffer in secret our despair.

Tilo: Why shall we care about good and bad when everyone knows that the answer ‘it depends.’?

Mu: Because when we stop caring about the important questions then and only then we become empty shells ready to be eaten by the birds of time. At that time, it is probably better to be dead. At that time, we cease being human.