He must snatch himself out of it if he is not to lose himself to the world, to habits, to thoughtless banalities, to the beaten track. Philosophy is the decision to awaken our primal source, to find our way to ourselves, and to help ourselves by inner action. True, our first duty in life is to perform our practical tasks, to meet the demands of the day. What is characteristic of philosophy is the piercing of that dead crust of tradition and convention, the breaking of those fetters which bind us to inherited preconceptions, so as to attain a new and broader way of looking at things. It has always been felt that philosophy should reveal to us what is hidden.
Philosophy is an attitude of mind towards doctrines ignorantly entertained. . . .
It is a way of contemplating, examining, or thinking about what is taken to be significant, valuable, beautiful, worthy of commitment. Philosophy has many tasks, yet in our age the task of bracketing and seeing, of uncovering the forgotten sense of the cosmos and of our lives therein, may be one of the most urgent. You think perhaps of philosophy as dwelling in the clouds. I hope you may see that she is able to descend to earth. You think that in stopping to pay court to her, when you should be hastening forward on your journey, you are loitering in bypaths and wasting precious hours.