Article
What is Philosophy? What Did I Actually Study and Why?
I’ll never forget my grandmother’s reaction when I told her I was pursuing philosophy for my master’s degree. She was bewildered, even disappointed. To her, philosophy seemed impractical, pointless. But to me, it made perfect sense. In an ever-changing world where fields of study rise and fall, philosophy stood out to me as something that had endured through the ages. It offered a timeless perspective.
When choosing a field that has stood the test of time, the options narrow: mathematics, physics, and philosophy. I’ve always admired certain aspects of mathematics and physics—concepts like the weak law of large numbers or the law of conservation of energy can profoundly shift one’s worldview. Yet, what transformed my perspective on life the most were certain branches of philosophy.
Philosophy’s first lesson is its own complexity. After thousands of years, humanity has yet to agree on its exact definition or boundaries. Is it the broad, rational exploration of the world, humanity, and their relationship, as seen in antiquity? Or is it the meticulous, language-focused analysis characteristic of 20th-century philosophy? For the sake of readability, I’ll simplify: philosophy is the love of wisdom.
The question of what philosophy is might be an excellent starting point for a newcomer to the field. However, I’ve reached a point where debating its definition feels less important. Philosophy, derived from Greek, translates to “love of wisdom.” Perhaps that’s the only definition it truly needs.
The journey of philosophy begins with an emotion
So, why study something with such ambiguous boundaries? Why devote myself to a discipline even its practitioners can’t define? The answer lies in curiosity—a curiosity sparked by reading works like Gorgias (Γοργίας) and The Defence of Socrates (Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους). If those texts awaken something in you, as they did in me, there’s no turning back. The opinions of others fade in the face of a lifelong pursuit of understanding.
Summary
Common questions on this article's topic
What is philosophy?
What are the main branches of philosophy?
What is the Socratic method?
Is philosophy practical or purely academic?
Why has philosophy endured for thousands of years?
If you have any thoughts, questions, or feedback, feel free to drop me a message at mail@richardgolian.com.
Related articles
If I have learned anything from this experience, it is that my life is not driven by something predefined.
Is it better to doubt or to act with determination?
I ask: “Why?” Mom answers, and I ask again: “Why?” Mommy answers: “Because it is so.”
More articles
Prague, 13 May 2026. On my way to work I started thinking about something that stayed with me for days. If most routine work on a computer disappears in the next ten years, and a large share of repetitive manual work disappears with it, what happens to the flow of money? Who pays whom for what? Which economic layers will exist, how large will they be, and what relationships will run between them? This is the six-layer map I sketched as an answer.
I am building an AI system to predict the S&P 500. It runs on my own machine, uses free public data — yfinance, FRED, the Shiller dataset — and grades every forecast against reality. This series documents the build itself: the decisions, the methodology, the mistakes. What I will eventually share from the running system is a separate question, and an honest one.
Yesterday I could not tear myself away from the computer. When I lifted my head, it was half past eight in the evening. I had been sitting alone upstairs for about three hours.
Will AI take my job? A certified Google trainer told me in June 2024 that my profession would cease to exist. Twenty-two months later, my job title has not changed — but ninety percent of what I do during the day is different. I have delegated more of my thinking to AI agents than I thought possible. I am not afraid. This is why, and what it means for anyone asking the same question.
One hour. Fifty-five minutes. That is how long it took to build what a Czech software firm had quoted at over €50,000. I built it with Claude Code. Not a prototype. Not a proof of concept. A working tool — the one the company actually needed. By the evening of the same day, it was running on staging. This is not about Claude Code. It is about what Claude Code exposes.
I have conducted roughly one hundred and fifty practical interviews over the past four years. Fifty for data specialist roles. A hundred for advertising and performance marketing specialists. Almost every one of them involved sitting down with a candidate over a practical task — something close to a real problem we actually need to solve at the company. Not theory. Not trivia. Applied problem-solving. Over time, I started noticing a pattern.
Before you can teach AI to understand anything, you need to see what it is hiding from you.
The moment other people needed access to it, the problem changed completely. It was no longer about whether the agent could learn. It was about who gets to teach it.
I wanted to build an agent that doesn't just assist. One that acts.
This is what I learned about local vs cloud AI, and why I switched to Claude Code.
Four days in Catalonia. No computer, no AI, almost no social media. I bought this notebook so that I could write down what I would think about, and what I would come across and learn on the trip.