Discussion Summary
Our group chose to look at philosophy in two different lights: personal philosophy and philosophy in society. We agreed that it is difficult for humans to obtain a universally acknowledged "truth." Part of this comes from the fact that we do not have the ability to completely remove our opinions and biases from any given situation. Our personal philosophy is influenced by our frame of reference and we are incapable of using cold, hard logic when we ask the difficult questions. Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian speaker and philosopher, said in his book Think on These Things that the only way to find "truth" is to remove all of your beliefs and essentially start over, forming your own opinions from scratch. However, as simple as this may sound, it would be an incredibly difficult task to accomplish. Even at the relatively young ages of 18 or 19, many of us have grown up knowing a certain lifestyle and belief system to be true. Jake Goza mentioned that Iris Murdoch once hinted at the fact that, in order to see the big picture, you must remove yourself from yourself. It would be incredibly hard (perhaps impossible) to force ourselves to forget, to be unmade, if you will.
In a more broad sense, we discussed the role of philosophy in everyday life. It was mentioned that philosophy deals with the intangible. You cannot do experiments on philosophical questions. We discussed how answering philosophical questions is essentially asymptotic - we continue to get closer and closer to "truth," but we never reach it. Philosophy defines boundaries and what is practical, however, as Nate Tilton said, we must be careful when it come to "defining what is practical." While philosophy is abstract, it has real life implications and effects all of us. Nate also mentioned the consequences of philosophy, both on a personal and societal level. For instance, we can look at the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler for the perfect example of how one man's corrupted philosophy brought about so much pain and destruction to the entire world.
On top of this, we discussed the use of philosophy in determining morality in politics. We noticed that, as a society, we seem to moving away from utilizing philosophy as a means to judge what is politically moral or immoral. It was speculated that this could be the cause behind our deeply divided Congress.
To summarize our beliefs as a group, it would appear that we believe philosophy is a science that deals with the intangible but which has real life implications. Philosophy is taking nothing for granted and leaving nothing unexamined.
Group 3
Chloe Madigan (author)
Nate Tilton
Matthew Pyles
Jake Goza
Michele Kelley (floater)
Discussion Question: As "average" students (not specializing in this field), why should we be concerned with philosophy?
Good summary Chloe. Thanks for adding that citation of the quote you used today, I was interested in that.
ReplyDeleteUpon the topic of being unmade. I think there is some truth in this idea. Stepping into someone else's shoes involves courage to let go, to expose yourself (mentally) to a reality you did not expect. I have a lot of family in Mississippi. There are a lot of people I really love there, but perhaps because I'm older I see a lot of faults I didn't recognize before. In particular, racism. That's loaded diction, but what I mean is passive racism, the kind that makes a wary comment about the garbage man because of the color of his skin. It is deceptively poisonous; people don't seem to even recognize it. In this area, they lack the ability (or perhaps the desire) to examine reality through a different lens.
A caveat to that thought. I don't think becoming unmade means forsaking everything one has known. In fact, I think it actually breeds an appreciation for the experiences you've had. A child interprets an act of punishment in one light, while as an adult may see it in another. Life happens, but how we react to it an interpret it can (and frequently should) change.
DQ: We seemed to come to a consensus that philosophy has little affect in our current government. Do you think all governments (past/present) are like this? If not, how are they different from our own?
FQ: What is the basic idea behind Aristotle's doctrine of the Golden Mean?
Link: Nothing much this time, but a funny comic playing on Socrates' death. Cracked me up.: http://www.funnytimes.com/playground/gallery.php?tag=socrates#.UP9fN0qjf88
I like how your group talked about how we have to look at questions or ideas with an open mind. Yes, we have our own personal views that we decide what is right or wrong. However, people need to look at these ideas with an open mind. I personally have to work hard at this, but I know this class will allow me to become better at being open minded.
ReplyDeleteI also believe your statement that we are starting to move away from "utilizing philosophy." From the news I hear every day, it seems that Congress is more concerned about what they believe and are not open to change. I have had a real problem with this because the people in this society (including myself) have elected these Congressmen to do what is right for our country. However, it seems that they are lacking to do their job. I feel strongly about this because I believe that "utilizing philosophy" to get the job done is necessary. Congressmen and everyone in society need to try to look at the whole picture without any biases in order to better this country to the best of their ability. This could possibly lead to more compromises than fighting.
I actually do not entirely agree with Jiddu. I do not think that we should entirely cast off everything,to therefore start new again. As Nathan pointed out we have indiscretions , to use the term in the lightest sense, that we have grow up with or have been "cultured" with. I believe that it is more vital that we recognize these things through things such as philosophy and spirituality (religion). Then after recognition through knowledge given to us by these things, we may change ourselves. If we gain all this knowledge, then do nothing, but say this is the truth, it is the same if we were ignorant. It is like the man who builds his house on the sand.(here is a link to the full verse text) http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A24-27&version=NIV
ReplyDeleteDQ: Is bias a completely terrible thing to have (either way their is no way to get rid of it in a world of humanuity),so what are we to do?
Also for the FQ:
ReplyDeleteWhat is Aristotle's answer to "What can we do to increase our chance of eudaimonia?