Nandita Kochar
Can travelling be approached from a philosophical point of view? Of course! Let’s see what have been some of the major philosophical strengths and drawbacks on moving from place to another.
Strengths
- “Travelling through the world produces a marvellous clarity in the judgment of men… This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves.” – Montagne Travel allows us to explore ourselves at a deeper level, to see what parts of us are shared and what parts belong solely to us based on our interactions with those we meet while travelling. Happy Ho organizes best Meditation and Tarot classes in Noida and Delhi NCR area in India.
- Many philosophers, especially around The Age of Enlightenment saw travelling as an activity that helped strengthen social bonds via trade.
- For many, travel is an extension of life. As George Santayana suggested: What is life but a form of motion and a journey through a foreign world?
Drawbacks
- Travel does not deliver what was promised. In his essay Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Travelling is a fool’s paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places.”
- Modern travel is a source of unhappiness as correctly pointed out by Ghandi, “Is the world any better for quick instruments of locomotion? How do these instruments advance man’s spiritual progress? Do they not, in the last resort, hamper it? Once we were satisfied with travelling a few miles an hour; today we want to negotiate hundreds of miles an hour; one day we might desire to fly through space. What will be the result? Chaos.”
- Travelling necessitates a long time to recover, whether it is after travelling across time zones and suffering from jet lag or sailing on ships and being at the sea for months. “Travel is only glamorous in retrospect,” wrote Paul Theroux.
One must always have one’s boots on and be ready to go. – Montaigne
The soul is no traveller; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
So whose side are you on?
