In our culture we tend to think of philosophy – literally the love of wisdom – as interesting but it’s things like science, technology, engineering, politics, business and economics which are important to our day-to-day lives. 

Are we right to do so? 

If we don’t question and try to understand why and how we make decisions, and how reality really works, we risk everything. 

Here are some facts we might highlight to illustrate why philosophy is vitally important to us: 

1. The current reductionist materialist scientific paradigm which dominates our culture represents what physicists, metaphsicians, mystics, and now even neuroscientist and biologists, say is no less than a delusional relationship with reality.
2. The way we perceive the world – see this video – affects all our decisions: so, for example, if we continue to see ourselves as existing primarily as independent individuals rather than also existing as communities, ecosystems and a living planet, our political and economic systems will continue to be organised in a way that fails us.
3. We cannot separate how we attend to the world from the way the two halves of our brain work ; so we fail to recognise the massive limitations of processes such as rationality and concepts such as objective reality.
4. Unless we go beyond a reductionist material perspective we will not understand why spending more on the National Health Service will not improve health outcomes, or why treating disease has very little cross-over with promoting health; 

Should philosophy be made compulsory in schools and universities and become part of our everyday lives?  I think so. 

It’s only when we take the time to question reality, our perceptions and the meaning of life, that we start to free ourselves from our delusions, giving us the opportunity to deal more effectively with the reality of our lives, society and the challenges we face.