A quote attributed to Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, says:
Kabul 24: “When we strive to earn one million dollars, the truly valuable thing we gain is not the million dollars itself, but the character that is built and nurtured within us along the way.”
I have always applied and reinterpreted this statement with regard to the study of philosophy:When we study philosophy, we do not acquire anything material, yet the subjectivity that is cultivated within us, the cognitive framework we attain, and the standpoint of understanding in which we come to stand — these are the most precious things a human being can ever achieve in life.
Through philosophy we obtain them: a virtue that cannot be exchanged for any commodity in this world. I call it the True Virtue.
Of course, reading philosophy and thinking philosophically has one precondition, which Hegel expressed clearly:
“At first, we must be Spinozists.”
Jamshid Mehrpour — Kabul
