On Philosophizing
Perhaps one of the things I am most thankful to the Ateneo for is the opportunity to have Philosophy classes. Not everyone is able to have the opportunity to have the same kind of experience with Philosophy as we, Ateneans, have had. Four classes, 12 units. That's more than any school requires.
I may not have enjoyed all my Philosophy classes, but I am sure of one thing; that the lessons I learned especially in Ph103 (Philosophy of Religion) and Ph104 (Foundations of Moral Principles), will remain with me until I grow old. You know why? For the simple reason that finally, someone tried to answer all my questions about life.
Why believe in God? What's the use of all the symbols? Why do we have to believe in anything at all?
Who dictates what's right and wrong? How does one define what is morally right?
In the end, it did not matter if I believed what was being lectured or not. What mattered was that someone tried to explain it to me; someone tried to answer my questions. Their answers were of no use to me. It was the process they used to reach that kind of answer that made me enjoy philosophizing so much.
While having coffee this afternoon, Allan and I got into another heated discussion about morality and its grey areas. The issue of morality is a whole sheet of grey. There's no exactly right or wrong answer, it depends on how you explain it, on how you justify it. This just goes to show that maybe, philosophizing really is a personal thing. People like Kant, Tillich, Marcel, heck, even Plato and Aristotle, philosophized by themselves, probably using their own experiences or thoughts as a jump off point. Even they don't provide exact answers. If anything, they just provide you their own musings on the certain subject. You philosophize by yourself.
I may not have enjoyed all my Philosophy classes, but I am sure of one thing; that the lessons I learned especially in Ph103 (Philosophy of Religion) and Ph104 (Foundations of Moral Principles), will remain with me until I grow old. You know why? For the simple reason that finally, someone tried to answer all my questions about life.
Why believe in God? What's the use of all the symbols? Why do we have to believe in anything at all?
Who dictates what's right and wrong? How does one define what is morally right?
In the end, it did not matter if I believed what was being lectured or not. What mattered was that someone tried to explain it to me; someone tried to answer my questions. Their answers were of no use to me. It was the process they used to reach that kind of answer that made me enjoy philosophizing so much.
While having coffee this afternoon, Allan and I got into another heated discussion about morality and its grey areas. The issue of morality is a whole sheet of grey. There's no exactly right or wrong answer, it depends on how you explain it, on how you justify it. This just goes to show that maybe, philosophizing really is a personal thing. People like Kant, Tillich, Marcel, heck, even Plato and Aristotle, philosophized by themselves, probably using their own experiences or thoughts as a jump off point. Even they don't provide exact answers. If anything, they just provide you their own musings on the certain subject. You philosophize by yourself.
posted by Leigh Villegas at
2:31 AM
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