Today I will be doing something a bit different, I will be writing a reaction to something said in the lecture. In the lecture was mentioned how some people find shopping to be therapeutic, and that those people are shallow and superficial. I will make an argument why people are allowed to find shopping just as therapeutic as philosophy.
Philosophy is described as the remedy to the illness of the soul. How something changes inside you when you do philosophy, because it allows you to feel more certain, satisfied and complete. I do not doubt that philosophy brings this to some people, but not everybody has a mind inclined to do so. Most people are different, they have other things they use as therapy. For example, sometimes you have these days you are just feeling really out sorts, and you want to crawl back in bed and wallow. Will thinking about Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality make them come out of bed? Of course not! They will fall into even deeper despair. When an important occasion is coming up, a lot of people will feel more certain about themselves if they have bought for example a ‘special dress’. They will put it on and get that extra piece of confidence to go out into the world and do what they have to do. Can you call a person superficial if this is what they need to preform well?
Philosophy has also left me with a lot of stress, but maybe that is because my way of doing philosophy is linked to obtaining credits and receiving grades. Especially during exam weeks, when I usually have up to 8 exams, I feel a lot of pressure. Does it make me shallow that during a study break I scroll through the entire Zara website and order a nice top? Is it superficial that I will wear this top to my medieval exam to get that extra confidence boost?
Sure, what philosophy does have over the act of shopping is that philosophy is also a mode of living, it allows you to live and respond to real life. I agree with this, the little time I have been studying it, it has already changed my outlook on a lot of things in live. But some of us need more, some of us need that little extra thing to make us feel better, and this is what shopping does.
An Introduction to Medieval Philosophy 