Philosophy often gets a bad rap among college students. While usually classified as a subject within the Humanities, Philosophy doesn't fit into this mold easily because of its unique characteristics. This feature can make the subject intimidating to undergraduates, and dissuades them from pursuing a major or minor in a field which can prepare someone excellently for a future in a career in law, teaching, or academia. I argue that the qualities that make Philosophy seem ambiguous are just the ones that make it an exhilarating and awe-inspiring way to hone your critical thinking skills.

1. You can rediscover childlike wonder

Children love to ask questions. I'm sure most of us remember being highly inquisitive as kids, or have at least been pestered by a child asking an endless string of questions. The most typical of these questions is, "Why?" As the comedian Louis CK ingeniously pointed out, what can begin as an innocent question about why the sky is blue can lead to a parent questioning their own existence, just because their child didn't stop asking "Why?" Not only do kids have an insatiable hunger for answers about how the world works, but there is little that compares to the look on a kid's face when he or she understands the answer to a question that has been bugging them. All of a sudden, everything is illuminated.

Philosophers ask these same kinds of questions all the time. Metaphysics, one of the major topics within philosophy is built entirely on the question "Why is the world the way it is?" This is the sort of question a six-year-old would ask, but philosophers can spend a lifetime searching for a satisfying way to answer it. Philosophers have spilled great amounts of ink over the question of whether God exists: kids often wonder about this topic out loud. Similarly, when philosophers find solutions to pressing questions, they usually describe a sensation of "enlightenment," which can be fantastic motivation for pursuing further philosophical questions. This phenomenon led some thinkers to create their own followings, such as Pythagoras, who was so inspired by his findings that he created an entire religion based on the mathematical harmony of the universe. By "philosophizing," we can tap into something that comes incredibly naturally to us, and rediscover a sense of joy and wonder that may have been missing from our lives.

2. It's the most democratic subject

As we have just seen, children can sometimes be as talented at philosophy as adults. This is just a reflection of the fact that philosophy is the great equalizer among college subjects. A couple examples from history drive this point home. Marcus Aurelius, the famous Roman emperor, is best known for his philosophical work Meditations, a series of insightful quotes that he originally wrote as a diary for self-motivation and encouragement. On the polar opposite side of the social ladder, Epictetus was a Roman slave, the lowest status a person could have in ancient Rome. At the same time, he was a renowned philosopher whose teachings still ring true today. The most striking fact about both of these figures is that their philosophies were almost identical, and are traditionally known as Stoicism. Although it is a debatable question, examples like this demonstrate that as long as someone is a deep thinker, they have all they need to be a successful philosopher.

Part of the reason behind this phenomenon is that unlike most other subjects, there isn't really such thing as philosophical information. When you take a course in biology or history, you would expect to have learned many biological and historical facts. The case is different when it comes to philosophy. While you can learn about the different views philosophers have held, this wouldn't truly be studying philosophy, but the history of philosophy. When two philosophers argue about an issue, there is no way to definitively prove the correct opinion through experiment, as is done in science. The best we can do is lay out all the possible options on the table, and choose whichever answers that seem correct to us. Of course, philosophers will rarely agree about which answers are the best to choose. However, the flip side of this conundrum is that there is no set body of information that is required to absorb to become a competent philosopher. Anyone can potentially become part of a conversation that has been taking place over hundreds of years, between thinkers from vastly different parts of the world.

3. It can make you a better person

One of the stereotypes of philosophy is that at the end of the day, it's just impractical. Critics might argue that it provides no practical benefit to society. Unfortunately, this assumption strays far from the truth. Philosophical topics bleed over into every area of life. The subject of political philosophy has had major impacts on the course of world history; the Constitution of the United Stated is firmly rooted in the philosophical views of the Enlightenment, which focused on the natural rights of humanity. In the past century, countries that have adopted Communism and Socialism as models of government owe their ideology entirely to Karl Marx, whose philosophy took on revolutionary overtones. Every legal system in the world has some sort of foundation in Ethics, another significant philosophical topic. Opinions about what makes something ethical can range from the claim that what is moral is whatever makes the most people happy, to the assertion that we should do moral actions purely because it is the right thing to do.

A major theme that runs throughout the history of philosophy has been the question of what humanity's purpose is in the larger scheme of things. In the Ancient world, the ultimate purpose of mankind was to achieve virtue. For many philosophers, including Plato and Aristotle, if one knew the truth about what truly constituted good, there was no question that he must behave with correspondingly virtuous behavior. The two facts were absolutely inseparable. The Ancient Greeks coined the term Akrasia, or the idea that it is impossible for a person to act against his or her own better judgment or self-interest if they know it is wrong to do otherwise. Perhaps people would become better decision-makers if they kept this concept in mind. Perhaps the world would become a better place if we all dabbled a bit in philosophy.