How Might One Live?
An invitation into a world of color.
September 30th, 2023.
A deep exhale. I place the book on the nightstand and fall onto my bed. My eyes look at the ceiling, but I am gazing into another world. Awestruck and giddy, my mind races across pure possibility.
I have just finished reading a life-changing book. This was my third attempt at reading a book throughout the year. The others—bestselling novels—failed to capture my imagination.
The book is Hackett’s Five Dialogues by Plato, the ancient philosopher. I picked it up a month ago, by chance, when I recognized the author’s name on my parents’ bookshelves.
Five Dialogues is a collection of five conversations involving Socrates, Plato’s teacher. It explores concepts of piety, of society, of morality, and of knowledge. But to me, it explored something deeper than any one of those subjects alone.
What I got from this book was an introduction, or rather a re-introduction: this book captivated me more than any novel, not because it brought me into another world, introducing me to its flora, but because it brought me deeper into my own, re-introducing me to the things most familiar.
Crossroads and Connections
Ever since I started coding in elementary school, I was certain that I would be a software engineer. And not just any software engineer, for I would use my programming skills to change the world. In middle school, I made messaging applications. In high school, I built a platform for developers to construct integrated programs. Now that I am in university, I am pursuing a degree in engineering. In other words, I have always been certain of my future.
On September 30th, 2023, I felt an overwhelming urge to drop everything and dive into the wonderful new world that Five Dialogues made possible to explore.
“What if I changed my degree to philosophy?”
The very conceptualization of this possibility drove me insane.
Every minute of my engineering coursework was painfully slow. To me, it was all moot and meaningless, as it seemed that none of it served any real purpose. Compared to my exploration of philosophy in my free time, studying engineering was crossing the Sahara without any water. No, it was even worse than that—I had water, and I could drink it. I was the only one keeping myself from quenching my thirst; I was the only one keeping myself from changing my degree. But at the same time, engineering had always been the plan. Was I about to sever it?
The 19th century philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard must have had my situation in mind when he wrote that
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
This anxiety is a sign of the importance of freedom, of considering how one might live.
January 2nd, 2025.
Over the past few months, I have been exploring the realm of philosophy in a particular way. I have been interested in the history of philosophy and the various questions people had sought to solve. For the longest time, philosophy could not be regarded as anything other than practical.
Now, however, the public laughs at philosophers. They laugh either because they do not know that ‘philosopher’ is an occupation, or because they have become people who have become aloof in the towers of universities. To me, that is a problem. If philosophy cannot impact the lives of ‘everyday’ people, can it even be called philosophy?
As I developed these concerns, I explored the realm of concepts and their connections to everyday life.
If you are so inclined, you can even track my thinking—Mind as a Figment of Yours is something I wrote while struggling with what exactly philosophy is and with what its purpose might be.
Throughout my thinking and research into these concerns, I realized that one philosopher had already reached many of the same insights I had: Gilles Deleuze.
Deleuze was a complex and complicated thinker. His style of thought was so distinct from others that I needed some sort of introduction to orient myself. So, before diving into his works, I picked up philosopher Todd May’s book Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction.
In his first chapter, May addresses my questions about philosophy and its purpose. He describes Deleuze’s emphasis on philosophy as exploring a question: how might one live?
The Big Question
“How might one live?”
The question, once understood, is clearly an important one. What, after all, is more important to a human being—something that lives—than life?
And by ‘life,’ I do not mean merely the binary condition of being alive or being dead. By ‘life’ I mean our very existence, what we do with it, and its effects on other lives. And I am certain that there are a variety of other aspects that still need to be discovered, analyzed, and lived!
All I’ve said so far is very abstract. What is key is that at the core of the question is its practical manifestation, the one that brings about anxiety. At the core of the question is freedom, as Kierkegaard highlighted. At the core of the question is possibility.
I am sure you, the reader, can relate to Kierkegaard’s sentiment. Let me spell it out with my own case:
My anxiety is caused by my future possibilities of life. If I become an engineer, will I have enough time to read, to think, and to write? Would I be fulfilled?
On the other hand, if I get a degree in philosophy, what will my employment prospects be like down the line? And if I do not find myself a secure job, will I constantly worry about finances?
I am anxious because I am aware of the stakes corresponding to the varying paths in front of me.
But is this anxiety really something to be avoided? Perhaps not!
See, a key point to note is that exploring diverse ways of life broadens horizons. It is exploring the various possibilities of living. Had I not noticed, for example, that there are professors who do philosophy full-time, I would have never considered a route in academia.
In other words, the question “how might one live?” is important.
Indeed, it is so important that it is often the central consideration for the people who change lives. Inventors and entrepreneurs imagine how people might live if some aspect of everyday lives were different, and with those considerations enact the differences through their inventions and products. A human’s life, for example, has completely changed since the invention of smartphones.
On the other side of the same coin, writers and teachers communicate how people might live so that others may explore their own possibilities and strive to fulfill them. Writers might share these paths through creating characters of inspiration, and teachers through demonstrating interesting skills. I learned of my interest in writing, for example, when a kind teacher encouraged me to write in a way I found valuable.
Similarly, philosophers explore how people might live. But what makes them so different from others? After all, many people of other occupations explore the same question, as shown. What sets philosophers apart is that they explore the question itself.
See, if philosophers are very good at one thing, it is questioning the premises of questions! If you ask them whether you should be eating animal products or not, chances are that they will ask you what you mean by “should.”
Yes, the constant questioning can be an annoying trait, I understand. Plato writes about how it even got his teacher, Socrates, killed! But it is also important. Philosophers want to be right about things, at least to the extent they can be. Isn’t that the right thing to do, when somebody genuinely asks for advice?
Philosophers, therefore, question the question of how one might live, revealing that to understand which possibilities are livable, we need to explore what life might consist of.
The story of the Buddha’s path to enlightenment will be a good example here. I present my own rendition:
The Buddha’s Story
Siddhārtha Gautama, the man to eventually become Buddha, was son to King Śuddhodhana. Upon Prince Siddhartha’s birth somewhere between the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.E, his father the king asked an astrologer to predict Siddhartha’s destiny.
Rejoice! Your son, the prince Siddhārtha, is destined to greatness! But the form of this greatness presents itself in one of two opposite ways. For, your majesty, Siddhartha will either become king of the lands as far as the eye can see, or he will become a great spiritual teacher with many followers.
The king, desiring his son to become an even greater king than he was, sheltered his son from the outside world. He kept Siddhartha in a grand palace, with anything he could ever want. If the prince was hungry, the world’s greatest chefs were to at once prepare a grand banquet. If the prince was bored, the best singers and dancers would at once sing and dance.
Over time, however, the prince became unsatisfied. The riches and splendor became old. Eventually, the prince got curious about the world outside his palace walls. How might those people live?
“Bring me into the village, let me make merry with my people,” he told his personal guard. Instructed by the king not to do such a thing, the guard refused. But as the prince pushed and pushed, the guard relented, and they went out to the village.
The prince absorbed the village sights from his carriage. Children at play, young men engaging in discussion, and… a frail figure, limping along the road with the assistance of a cane.
“Guard, who is this man? Why does he behave so?”
“That is an old man, my prince. Age has caught up to him, and has made his body weak.”
“Does age catch up to everybody in this same way?”
“Yes, my prince. Everybody, even you.”
The prince was disturbed by this, but even more curious about what else he could discover in the village.
Not long after passing the old man, the prince saw somebody surrounded by flies and covered in bumps.
“And this person? Guard, what is this person’s condition?”
“That is a sick person, my prince. Sickness has gotten to him and has taken from him his health.”
“Does everybody become sick?”
“Yes, my prince. Everybody, even you.”
This disturbed the prince even more. But, fueled by his curiosity, he ventured further through the village.
When he reached the village outskirts, the prince noticed an immobile figure on the ground.
“Guard, see this person here. Why are they not moving?”
“This is a dead man, my prince. His life is gone, taken away by death.”
“Does everybody die?”
“Yes, my prince. Everybody, even you.”
With this, the prince’s worldview had been transformed. But as much as he was disturbed, he had also made an important discovery: suffering is an inevitable part of life.
“What Is” and “What Might Be”
From this insight into human life, the prince sought after the solutions to suffering. Through further experiences and realizations, the prince understood the solution out of suffering and became the Buddha. His teachings, Buddhism, became the foundational materials for a new possibility of life.
These kinds of realizations are, to me, at the heart of philosophy. When philosophers are not directly exploring how one might live, chances are that their research explores the various elements of living. Philosophy is thus an avenue to investigate questions about what life consists of, unfolding how one might live, and what livable possibilities might be.
A different, but similar aspect of concern for what life consists of is exploring one’s current circumstances. After all, the possibilities that are open for you to live depend greatly on where you are at right now.
But the philosophers are relentless with their questioning! There is one last aspect of the question, yet another aspect that is also vitally important. Exploring what one’s life might consist of involves exploring what that ‘one’ might be. “What is this thing that lives?”
For example, one of the Buddha’s other core insights into existence, one that allows his possibilities of life, is one about what human beings are. Or more precisely, what the self is.
When exploring what one might be, the Buddha realized that there is no enduring self at all; the self is an illusion. However impossible that may seem, this view led the Buddha to revolutionize the way he thought about what people’s lives consisted of. In turn, this realization influenced his advice on how to live; and therefore, on livable possibilities.
Exploring “what is” helps explore “what might be.”
This maxim extends into the realm of other ‘ones’ in our lives. It is not limited to an exploration of yourself as the ‘one,’ or human beings as ‘ones.’ When futurists think about what AI is, for example, their insights inform what they predict the future of AI might hold.
And since our dependence on AI is increasing day-by-day, how we might live in the future is informed by what AI is now. In general, considering what the things around us are helps establish the relationships between those things and our future lives.
For example, if you are an artist or an art lover, your life and possibilities are intertwined with what art is and what its possibilities are. “How might art live?” Is art supposed to be pleasing? Perhaps intriguing? Does a duct-taped banana qualify as art? What are the effects of art on life? It is questions such as these that philosophy seeks to answer.
But what is the big picture here? It is that all of these elements of life, intertwined and interrelating, become our individual lives. Exploring life means exploring these elements.
This sprawling world, teeming with life, is the world into which I was introduced by Plato’s book. The various elements and considerations have always been there, but never before have I actually looked upon them. In this same yet new world, I could see compassion, listen to virtue, and feel reason in my hands. The invisible forces at play in our world are expressed in full color through philosophy.
I call this world the world of “immanence.” Through Immanent Essays, I will be your tour guide through this kaleidoscopic world, showing you the various landmarks that influence my own journey and may influence yours.
The question of the essay, “How might one live,” does not have a definite answer. There is no conclusion, nothing that resolves the question “once and for all.” All that we can do in response to the question is explore and keep on exploring.
It is my hope and pleasure that you will join me in this journey of exploration.
This was a great read and was incredibly interesting! I love the stories mixing in with your personal anecdotes! Keep it up!