Do you ever feel like the universe is trying to tell you something? A photographer at the Paris OlympicsA major international multi-sport event held every four years. certainly felt that way on Monday when he captured the photo of a lifetime: a Brazilian surfer, one finger outstretched in triumph, seeming to hover in the stormy air.

If the world has been awestruck by this image, it is perhaps because many of us are looking for a sign that the universe carries some deeper truth for us.

After all, we have always read meaning into moments of natural wonder. In ancient Greece, it was believed that the majesty of a solar eclipseA solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow over parts of Earth and blocking the face of the Sun for observers in those locations. was a sign the gods were angry.¹

Many cultures also have myths about a flood being sent to destroy humanity, probably reflecting a common human experience of disaster.²

In these circumstances, it can be comforting to believe there is some meaning behind the disasters that befall us.

Many feel we are deeply in need of such meaning today, when the news often seems to be one disaster after another.

But today we can find little comfort in myths. Which is why some think we can get to grips with the fundamentalKey. truths of the universe through philosophy.

Philosophy began as a way of understanding the world. Most of the early philosophers were also scientists: AristotleA student of Plato, tutor to Alexander the Great and the father of political philosophy. spent much of his life cutting up and studying marine life.³

And most philosophers throughout history believed truth is something that we can find in the world if we train our minds in the right way.

Aristotle's tutor, PlatoOne of the most important Ancient Greek philosophers. , believed that everything we see is a copy of a set of "forms" that we cannot access through our senses but that we can perceive through reason.⁴

Many thinkers, such as Immanuel KantA German Enlightenment philosopher who is regarded as one of the most important thinkers of the modern era. He fundamentally changed the way we think about a variety of subjects, from aesthetics to cognition to morality., also thought that the laws of true morality could be discovered in the same way as the laws of nature.⁵

So it is little wonder that in the modern day, more and more people are turning to philosophers to help them figure out the truth of their own lives.

The last few years have seen a surge of interest in philosophical counselling, a kind of therapy that encourages people to reconsider, not their thoughts or behaviours, but their value systems.

Which is why some think that when the world seems to be telling us something, as it did on Monday, philosophy can help us understand what it is.

Is philosophy the answer?

Yes: Philosophy had its start as a way of understanding the world and its connection with our own minds. Today it can still help us find the meaning in tricky situations.

No: Karl MarxA 19th-Century German economist and philosopher who argued that capitalism was doomed to collapse. once said, "the philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." There is no point in understanding things if we are not moved to better them.

Or... Philosophy is one arrow in our intellectual quiverAn archer's case for holding arrows, or nervous shaking. . But there are also other ways of finding truth and meaning in a chaotic world, such as science or faith. We should keep an open mind.

FOR YOUR SUMMER READING CHALLENGE CLUE GO TO STEP SIX IN THE SIX STEPS TO DISCOVERY BELOW.