Why Philosophy and also Net Neutrality?

"One can never be binary," says on the homepage of my website but what does it truly mean besides the hidden pun in it? As an advocate of humanities and all the other fields that would not come under the umbrella term of technology, I want to present my case for philosophy. I consider that the most important theme that children should be taught about after language should be philosophy and science. For the latter, there are very clear and justified reasons established in the society but the former seems to have lost its prominence and glory that it once held. So why philosophy? Something that sounds so vague and of no material application in today's world? If I were to narrow it down to a single reason, I would justify it by saying that for one to succeed and be happy, one has to know about the people around, the society, and of all, oneself. Science can teach us really well what the Earth is made of and what we are made of biologically but some questions like those of ethics, love, and knowledge cannot be taught by science.

I suffer from Imposter Syndrome as do many others especially in the field of Computer Science but nothing that I was taught in school would help me to encounter or face this problem. Not until I came across the Stoicism school of thought, I knew that there was something that I can leverage to counter the problem. This is just one way in which philosophy has helped me. I by no means say that every growing kid should become a philosopher but the basic knowledge about ourselves can have a great deal of impact on how young kids go about their lives. It is really painful to notice the higher suicide rate among teens, the picture of the Syrian kid wounded and covered with blood, the account of a young Palestine mother about her son whom she lost in the war for their rights, and so many other events to which the generation today will be the answer to. To these, I believe that philosophy can lead to a more aware generation of individuals to counter all these issues and more. I would like to conclude this theme by stating that knowledge of people is the most important knowledge. While writing this, Satya Nadella's account of being empathetic crossed my mind and it is a wonderful story and a must read if you have not already.

Coming to the topic of Net Neutrality, I was disappointed but not shocked by the attack on the regulations. Part of this was due to the paper I wrote at the beginning of this year on the same issue, highlighting it importance and how the landscape was back then. If you would like to have a read then here is the link to it.