Joel Gem Karlo M.

Dumagpi II BioSci1-A Philosophy 11:05-12:05 MWF

What is Philosophy?

Centuries have passed, still, there has been no concrete or a single definition we

can define what indeed Philosophy is. One cannot say that Philosophy is this and that

this is Philosophy for I believe, that has been the essence of Philosophy; vague. The

vagueness of it drives every individual to look for the meaning of it. And looking for the

meaning of philosophy, we also could find in the path the essence of everything around

us and even the sole purpose of our existence. This paper aims to thoroughly discuss

and understand the underlying concepts of philosophy through different approaches and

lenses.

"An unexamined life is not worth living."

According to Socrates as he was facing his trial for the accusation of corrupting

the mind and the youth and contradicting the way of the Sophists, Philosophy is the start

of everything. It is the fulcrum, the driving force to understand everything around us. It

attempts to comprehend the full existence of everything around us through the

fundamental question. Socrates wrote nothing about his works and beliefs because he

believed that knowledge is primarily gained through experiencing it firsthand.

Philosophy is deeply rooted in the human life. It is an essential and critical inquiry

and the fulcrum in which we see the essence and value of everything around us. It is the

very nature of the Philosophy then that the man could find the meaning for himself and of

the things around him. Completely, these ideas will lead to the notion that philosophy

begins with questioning ourselves. It is the most special of all the human actions since

we are doing Philosophy in our life without even noticing it leading us to examine the
things around us, our own identity and even the realm of uncertainties. It is of questioning

we seek for the truth, be liberated and free, confront the realities and abandon the thing

that hampers our existence from transcending into its fullest potentials. Questioning then

is the start of philosophy, the starting line perhaps that opens the run for the finish line.

We must always remember that questioning is only the match that ignites the candle,

allowing us to see through the dark and not the fuel that keeps it alive just like to what

Socrates is, he never really searched for answers, but for understanding.

Relating this to Plato's Allegory of the Cave, philosophy is an unending search for

the truth. The men shackled in the cave are ignorant of the outside world. They are not

ignorant because they choose to ignore what is outside of the cave, but instead, they

have no reason to believe there would be anything outside the cave. They possess

invincible ignorance and do not know any better to look outside the cave. But when

someone got the chance and got free from his shackles to follow the light outside of the

cave, he could not take the radiance of the sun.

According to the text of Allegory of the Cave, "at first, when any of them is liberated

and compelled to suddenly stand up and turn his neck around and walk and look towards

the light, he will suffer sharp pains…". Just like humans, we are too fed up of the things

we know, the bliss of life perhaps. We tend to compensate for the true essence of our life

to conform to the things follows a system that can't hassle us. Or sometimes, the world

remains too big to be understood. Which leads me into my notion that, does the path to

the ‘truth' have an end? Perhaps, it doesn't have. Learning is unending, and an ocean full

of uncertainties and will be at some point, tiring. Shall we then still pursue the path

knowing all the consequences we will encounter in trying to reach the unending end?
Many will back down, and some will continue. Humans are unlimitedly limited with a

candle lit up with a time limit. Unlimitedly limited in the sense that we have all the

resources in this world, and we are free to roam, but the candle we have can only let us

see a very small portion of the world with a time limit. The only thing we can do is to stop,

put the candle down, and appreciate and learn everything the light could let us see and

make it into something that could better us as a person.

Philosophy itself suggests a revolution, a positive revolt to the invariable world we

are facing in our everyday life and must be confronted with acceptance. It is of philosophy

we have learned to understand that it is not of the answer that we should look, but for the

more profound understanding of life and even of ourselves, living in a fully diversified

world rather than just be confined to the norms and rules of the society and through this,

we will indeed be able to appreciate and value the true essence of life.

"The disciple must break the glass, or better the mirror, the reflection, his infinite

speculation on the master. And start to speak."

Philosophy has been tried to be understood by many of us. There are already

several established definitions and meaning in which we try to adhere to what philosophy

is about. Etymologically defined, Philosophy comes from the two Greek words "Philos"

which means love and "Sophie" which means knowledge. Per se, philosophy is the love

of wisdom. But does it stop there?

Objectively understanding one's meaning according to Derrida is foolishness. The

idea of his philosophy for is that objectively understanding things drives the desire for

certainty of the things around which is heavily anchored to the existence of an absolute

truth that makes sense of our place in our world. It is very dangerous to look at things in
this way, but this opens in to probing more or digging deep to what it metaphysically

means.

The idea that philosophy is the ‘love for wisdom' is, therefore, rubbish, at least

according to Derrida's philosophy. We, humans, easily subject ourselves into superficial

learning. We, ourselves, shackle our hands and enclosed us into the cave, living in the

shadows of the reality and tend to succumb into the bliss that made us a total fool. One

must understand that the meaning of philosophy is continuously evolving and is not static

and that it doesn't up in just purely defining the idea of philosophy.

Philosophy is both the question and the answer. As one tries to comprehend the

things around him, philosophy often answers a series of inquiry, yet it doesn't stop there.

Philosophy is neither contented or satisfied with what it has given. It is a cyclical process

which further scrutinizes and justifies the thing it has offered to further validate itself.

Philosophy aims to debunk the idea of humans succumbing into the false realities and is

pushing each and one of us to transcend and pursue the holistic view of everything.

"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."

According to Bertrand Russell, to determine the value of philosophy, one must be

able to recognize the fact that our brains must be taken care of. To understand that

philosophy is important and not a waste of time, we must know that our minds must be

looked after as well as our bodies; and philosophy does that. As Russell says, "philosophy,

like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge…but it cannot be maintained that

philosophy has had any very great measure of success in its attempts to provide definite

answers to its questions."

 Russell describes philosophy as the ideas that are not certain. Russell says,

concerning the transition from philosophy to not, "as soon as definite knowledge

concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy,

and becomes a separate science." Philosophy, as its purpose is to have questions, and

not answers, helps us understand and view the world better as a whole. With philosophy,

according to Russell, "through the greatness of the universe which philosophy

contemplates, the mind is also rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with

the universe which constitutes its highest good." Philosophy opens our minds because

we are no longer focused on one thing- the answer. We can instead look around us and

observe the world more because there is no definite answer in philosophy, only ideas,

and possible solutions. We must think more and explore more, which keeps us in tune to

the universe in a way nothing else does.

Furthermore, one must not objectify what is philosophy or just settle to primary

reflection. Through primary reflection, only a piece of the puzzle fits into the whole picture.

The overall picture would be then useless. One must understand that philosophy should

be done. Secondary reflection then takes into place. A higher form of understanding,

transcending all of our knowledge and experiences and recuperates it to have a solid

representation of what truly is philosophy. It may be hard to understand it, but as soon as

we see it as an extension of ourselves, it will come right into place. Philosophy is therefore

not a noun; it is a verb that we should all do.

Undoubtedly, philosophy has and will always be part of ourselves and everyone's

life. It is the cause and the answer why things happened. Philosophy has many forms

derived from different experiences and knowledge in each of us, but one must always
understand that philosophy is us and through doing philosophy, we try to understand

everything around us. It is still of the process that should matter and not solely on the

answers. We might not be able to fully grasp everything in our hand or might blind us due

to its extreme radiance, the thing that we ventured out through the vast sea with full of

uncertainties with no reservations made us the true seeker and embodiment of philosophy.