philosophy in the most basic, existential sense is the activity of the self-conscious mastery of one’s being mastered. In essence, any human being will find herself in a situation that vastly outstrips her, and that shapes her while limiting her existential possibilities. She philosophizes when she engages in a self-conscious attempt to master her situation of finitude. pg 9

this is why we philosophize: because there is desire, because there is absence in presence, deadness in life; and also because there is power that is not yet power; and also because there is alienation, the loss of what we thought we had acquired and the gap between the deed and the doing, between the said and the saying; and finally because we cannot evade this: testifying to the presence of the lack with our speech. In truth, how can we not philosophize? (Lyotard 2013: 123, emphasis mine) pg 10