WHY STUDY PHILOSOPHY?

Chief Aims of Philosophy

E.D. Klemke, A David Kline,
Robert Hollinger

1. The critical scrutiny of our

beliefs and convictions
All of us have beliefs.
Most if not all of our beliefs are held in a rather
naive and unquestioning manner.
Advocates are quite dogmatic in their adherence
to such beliefs.
Reflecting on these beliefs - on what they mean,
on whether they are true or false (or
nonsensical), on what their implications are, on
what life would be like if they were true (or if we
believed them), we are already beginning to
philosophize.

 Philosophizing consists of the articulation,

examination, and critical appraisal of our most cherished
beliefs and convictions.
Untimely meditations - meant reflections and thoughts
which go against the cultural values and ideals of one's
own time.
Believing what happens to be true, if you are dogmatic
and closed minded about it, is worse than believing what
happens to be false, as long as you are open minded and
willing to discuss your beliefs and change them in the
light of evidence, discussion, and criticism. - J.S. Mill

2.The bringing to light of our hidden

assumptions or presuppositions
Philosophers also try to make us aware of our
assumptions or presuppositions.
beliefs which are taken for granted and hence, of
which we may not be conscious.
assumptions to which we often appeal in order to
justify these ordinary beliefs.
as long as we are unaware of our assumptions we
are not intellectually free

3.The bringing to light of our hidden

assumptions or presuppositions
Philosophers also try to make us aware of our
assumptions or presuppositions.
beliefs which are taken for granted and hence, of
which we may not be conscious.
assumptions to which we often appeal in order to
justify these ordinary beliefs.
as long as we are unaware of our assumptions we
are not intellectually free

if we are unaware of them, we are enslaved

to them and to all of the consequences they
entail.
We are confined to the limits which are set by
our unrecognized assumptions.
We must, then, first, become aware of them,
and second, examine them critically.

4.The quest for a genuinely

worthwhile life
An unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates
A human being needs more than bed and bread
in order not merely to survive but to live well.
A human being who has and acts on ideas,
beliefs, and values, and has only a relatively
short life span, would do well to think seriously
about what to be; about what to do with his or
her life; about what things are most important.

What do I want to be/do with my life?

The importance of having a well-developed
sense of values and purpose in life.
Our world today:
pervaded by a never-ending series of crises and
dilemmas. We live in a society where manipulation of
information and public opinion, and emphasis on the
faddish and the superficial, are the rule rather than the
exception. Too many of us get caught up in the "rat
race" too early in life.

Success" and Happiness" can be measured in

monetary terms, or in terms of socioeconomic status,
or in terms of how many college degrees one has, and
so on.
We view our own well-being in comparison with that of
others and take our bearings by reference to social
standards that we often don't even think twice about.
the belief that happiness consists in the unlimited
search for more and more material wealth.
The illusion of happiness

Socrates believed that the best life comes

from the realization that self-control, and
not insatiable desires, is the source of
happiness.
Raising issues that are worth thinking
about; for the answers we give them will
bear on the way we live.

5.The effort to keep alive our sense

of wonder about the world
Human beings, are naturally curious
This sense of wonder and the desire to learn, to
know to contemplate the mysteries of life and
the universe have given rise to philosophy,
science, religion, art, and culture.
such activity makes us what we are human
beings, not mere animals.

It does not matter if our wonder cannot always

be satisfied.
Indeed, it may be the case that our recognition
of how little we know and how much there is to
learn is precisely what makes life so interesting.
it is important to keep this sense of wonder
alive.

All too often we tend to leave it to experts to

tell us what it all means.
The knowledge we receive from the sciences is
often taken to be the highest or the only form
of knowledge, capable in principle of answering
all our questions and solving all our problems.
Scientism, or the view that science is the
measure of everything.

Philosophy challenges us that we have to learn

how to learn.
Asking basic questions.
Do we now live in a society in which the
dominance of science actually stifles human
curiosity and creativity, and in which education
is more like training than it is an adventure in
ideas?

6.The posing of certain questions which are

not dealt with by other disciplines, and the
attempt to answer them
Attempting to provide answers to certain
questions questions which are very different
from most other kinds of questions
simple observation
experimental procedures
formal or linguistic determinations

Isaiah Berlin:
They are often very general.
They may have little practical utility (or if they
do it is not always clear just what it is).
They are such that there are no obvious and
standard
procedures
or
techniques
for
answering them.

Do minds exist as well as bodies?

Are humans free agents?
What is humanitys highest goal?
What is the purpose of life?
Does God exist?

How then, does one try to answer them?

Through critical analysis and argument.
One must first make the necessary distinctions
in order to be sure we know precisely what we
are asking.
one must consider the arguments, pro and con,
which have been given (or which we ourselves
provide), weigh them, and critically evaluate
them.

The most important questions which

we all face are philosophical
questions.
have a crucial bearing on your life in
thought and action.
in science, we ask questions; in
philosophy, we find ourselves
questioned.

The pursuit of philosophy involves

asking a lot of questions.
there are no easy answers to these questions; in some
cases there may be none at all (or at least none which
are obvious)
there are no easy answers to these questions; in some
cases there may be none at all (or at least none which
are obvious)
But sometimes asking questions is more important than
finding the answers to them.
it is better to be a Socrates unsatisfied than a pig
satisfied. JS Mill

"Philosophy is the eternal search for

truth, a search, which inevitably fails and
yet is never defeated; which continually
eludes us, but which always guides us.
This free, intellectual life of the mind is
the noblest inheritance of the Western
World; it is also the hope of our future. W. T. Jones

-END-