To Philosophize

Christopher Reiger
"a mode of becoming"
2008
Watercolor, gouache, pen and sumi ink on Arches paper
16 x 12 inches

"To philosophize is to articulate and express our personal reactions to the mystery which we call life, both with regard to the nature of that mystery and with regard to its meaning and purpose.

My answer to the question 'Why do we philosophize?' is as follows. We philosophize for the same reason that we move and speak and laugh and eat and love. In other words, we philosophize because man is a philosophical animal. We breathe because we cannot help breathing and we philosophize because we cannot help philosophizing. We may be as sceptical as we please. Our very scepticism is the confession of an implicit philosophy. To suppress the activity of philosophizing is as impossible as to suppress the activity of breathing."

-John Cowper Powys, "The Complex Vision"