THE ENTHUSIASM AND PLIGHT OF A BEGINNER IN PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy is a noble enterprise that makes a sincere effort to explain things in terms of their first principles. Many a scholar see it as the love of wisdom; the befriending of understanding.
If this is what it is, then everyone who is a philosopher presumes a very high position of taking themselves to task on giving at least satisfactory answers to questions that the human experience generates. The philosopher then, apart from being seen as a problem-solver, or problem-discoverer, is expected to do so much as not lead people astray. This dialectic of been looked upon as a man who knows at least some answers and who has to give the world answers that do not lead it to ruin leaves in the philosopher and more so, the beginner in philosophy an indefatigable enthusiasm that is almost always tempered by attendant plights. Thus, while they are enthused to help, they face serious plights.

 Two questions: these, need to be answered. The one is interested in the enthusiasm of a beginner in philosophy. The other is concerned with the plight of this same individual. It is to the task of reflecting on these questions that the present discourse is concerned. In order to systematize our approach, we shall proceed as follows: first, we shall reflect on the definition of Philosophy itself. Then we shall reflect on what the enthusiasm of a beginner in philosophy consist in. We shall also look at the plight of a beginner in this noble discipline. But it might not be inappropriate to, at the beginning of this work, attempt stating this dialectic. 

Attempting a Statement of the Dialectic

            Again, there is this desire that is present in the beginners of any endeavor. At times, they cannot, just wait to start. For them, it should begin immediately. This is also the case with beginners in philosophy. There was this man who applied to study this noble course in the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom state. He could not just bear it through the admission process, since his name did not come up in the first list. He was so disturbed. He wanted to start immediately. What must have put him in this state of excitement? There have been many like him. What could be the source of their elation? In other words, what is it that gets the beginner in philosophy so enthused in the study?

            Now, apart from the excitement of beginning to study philosophy, beginners soon find out that there are things that are not what they seemed from afar; that there are dangers to them as beginners; that there are perennial problems that this noble course launches them into. They soon discover that their premature wings cannot stand the high flying of this seemingly simple discipline. That good friend of mine later got the opportunity to study philosophy and soon some things started cooling his initial zeal. He started asking questions that he, himself, could not answer. Whether the beginner likes it or not, he makes a new discovery. He has started out on a journey of discovering the real thing about being. A journey, that leaves him vulnerable to anything. Thus, he is plighted with a myriad of things. The question can then be asked: what is the plight of a beginner in Philosophy? Or better, what are those things that constitute the plight of a beginner in Philosophy? From the foregoing we can adduce that for beginners in the enterprise of philosophy the enthusiasm and plight that they feel and experience respectively, are not entirely separate from each other. We could also say that the enthusiasm and plight of a beginner in philosophy both constitute the faces of a coin. So, whenever we speak of the zeal a beginner, especially in philosophy, has, it presupposes something else that tempers that zeal. It might not be unfitting now to briefly consider the nature of philosophy, the thing itself that causes so much excitement and constitute a problem for its beginners.

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