★★★ #1 Overall Bestseller ★★★
★★★ #1 Bestseller on Amazon Japan ★★★
★★★ Highly recommended by major media outlets such as Chosun Ilbo, Donga Ilbo, and Hankyoreh ★★★
"How Philosophy Becomes a Weapon for Life" Recovered!

From everyday concerns to business strategies, the world's most useful humanities classes.
“Philosophy will always find the answer!”

"How Philosophy Becomes a Weapon for Life," which immediately rose to the top of the general bestseller list upon its publication in 2019 and sparked a "philosophy syndrome," has been republished with a recovered version.
This practical philosophy book that teaches you how to think philosophically and arrive at answers in life and business is highly praised by over 2,000 CEOs and strongly recommended by major media outlets such as the Chosun Ilbo, the Dong-A Ilbo, and the Hankyoreh, and has been named a “humanities classic of our time.” Through this recover, it returns to readers with a luxurious design that visualizes a “dictionary of thoughts that enhances intellectual combat power.”
The author, a senior partner at Conferry Hey Group, the world's leading management and human resources consulting firm, is a 'literary scholar' who majored in philosophy in college and studied aesthetics and art history in graduate school.
Although I have never received any formal training in management, as a consultant I have never had difficulty solving corporate problems across the board.
This is because when I think about the situation in front of me through the lens of philosophical, psychological, or economic concepts, I always find a clue to a solution.

The author, who strongly denies the idea that philosophy is a discipline detached from the real world, diagnoses that the reason people consider philosophy useless is because they do not know how to connect philosophy and business.
Rather, he says that the most necessary weapon for modern people is a philosophical way of thinking that penetrates the essence and finds the optimal solution.
"How Philosophy Becomes a Weapon for Life," which contains 50 philosophies and ideas that he uses in business settings, is the world's most practical philosophy user manual that sheds new light on the usefulness of philosophy.
Let's take a look at this book, which has been considered the "best humanities book" by domestic and international readers for five years now, proving the "usefulness of philosophy" in every aspect of life, from everyday concerns to business strategies.

A philosopher in the classroom cannot move the world.
Many people may feel uncomfortable with this point, considering the influence that Sartre and Marx once exerted.
But it's true.
It's not those people who run the world, it's people like us who do the work and do our best in our daily lives.
(……) Will we repeat the same tragedy that humanity has endured so far? Or will we live as a new type of humanity, one that demonstrates even higher levels of intelligence, making the expensive tuition already paid worthwhile? ---From "Prologue: Nothing is more dangerous than an uneducated expert."

There is a story in Aesop's Fables called "The Fox and the Sour Grapes."
The fox found some delicious grapes, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reach them.
Finally, the fox said, “These grapes must be very sour.
“Who would eat something like this?” he says and walks away.
This shows the typical reaction of someone caught up in ressentiment.
The fox resolves his resentment about the grapes being out of reach by changing his mind to, "Those grapes are incredibly sour."
Nietzsche took issue with this very point, pointing out that our original cognitive and judgmental abilities could be distorted by ressentiment.
---From "Observing the jealousy of others reveals business opportunities"

Numerous empirical studies have shown that the more open the exchange of opinions in organizations today, the higher the quality of decision-making. Mill was convinced of this fact as long ago as 150 years ago. (...) In On Liberty, Mill pointed out that the 'evil' of one era can become 'good' as the times pass, citing the fact that Socrates and Jesus, who were executed, are now praised as great men and that their ideas are widely accepted.
This suggests, in other words, that the rightness or wrongness of an idea is not determined by the control of the elite of the time, but rather through the multifaceted thinking of many people over a long period of time.
---From "Is there anyone who raises objections until the end?"

According to Levin, an organization with a fixed way of thinking or behavior changes through the process of 'action-confusion-refreezing'.
It is important to note here that this process begins with 'thawing'.
This is because the word ‘Haedong’ contains the meaning of ‘ending’.
When we try something new, we focus only on 'getting started'.
It's a given.
However, Kurt Lewin's point reminds us that the first thing to do when starting something new is to forget the way things have been done so far, that is, to 'put an end to' the old way.
---From "Innovation begins not with new attempts, but with saying goodbye to the past"

While we always love children who understand quickly, we have a bad habit of giving up on children who do not improve their skills very quickly.
This happens because the cost of education is not infinite.
This is true whether it's an investment in training within a company or an educational opportunity as social capital.
We tend to focus our educational investments on those children who are more cost-effective.
Based on early academic results, better performing children are given better opportunities, which in turn leads to higher grades.
On the other hand, a child who does not perform well in his first at-bat is likely to be pushed into increasingly difficult situations.
If this continues, only the worldly-savvy children will be accepted into the organization, and the children who take time to become proficient but are essentially trying to understand things, that is, those who can come up with ideas that will become the seeds of innovation, will be excluded.
---From "The poor get poorer and the rich get richer"

In today's world, where logical thinking is dominant in seeking the optimal solution, the attitude of "I don't know what the right answer is, I'll just decide as things unfold" may be seen as "giving up."
From a management perspective, the attitude of thinking thoroughly for oneself may be considered a virtue.
There are probably few people who would consider it foolish to think only with the head.
But isn't it intellectual arrogance to think that we can come up with all the optimal answers on our own? (...) In modern society, where the interrelationships between all events and situations are becoming increasingly complex and dynamic, the attitude of believing that we can reach optimal solutions by relying on logical, top-down thinking seems ridiculous.
This is an era that requires flexibility to heuristically pursue a "satisfactory solution" rather than simply trying to find the optimal solution with the optimal approach.
---From "There is a limit to the optimal way to think with your head"

Even if we make certain choices unconsciously and without any purpose, a preference is created by 'choosing' certain things and 'not choosing' others.
No one can escape this awkward truth, and Baudrillard emphasized that we live in a hell of signs.

Conversely, this also means that products and services that do not have any symbolic value, or if they do have it, are weak and have little value, will have a hard time surviving in the market.
Self-actualizing consumption usually emerges in the final stage of market growth.
However, if self-realization is not defined voluntarily, but rather defined in the form of "difference from others," as in language, it will be difficult to develop successful products and services unless we are conscious of the differences that each product and service defines.
---From "People spend money not because they need it, but to look different"

So, what significance does understanding Husserl's epoché have for us living in the modern era? Epoché is a perspective that offers a variety of implications, but I'd like to highlight the fact that it helps us recognize the "difficulty of understanding others."
(……) One thing I can say for sure is that by doing so, the room for conversation has widened.
When we don't understand each other, the world we see ourselves and the world the other person sees can be very different.
If both parties have strong convictions about their own worldviews, the chances of their differences being resolved are slim.
(……) The worldview we have cannot help but be subjective from the beginning.
The Epoch is a neutral stance that takes a temporary pause, a so-called intermediate measure, without confirming or abandoning the worldview.
So, isn't this epoch an intellectual attitude that is even more necessary in this day and age?

---From "Sometimes it helps to withhold judgment"