What is Philosophy?

Introduction

Philosophy defies any definition since it is a “mental activity” afforded to all rational beings.  Ludwig Wittgenstein (1974 cited in Mabaquiao, 2016) describes philosophy as "an activity (mental) and not a body of doctrine."  It is rather helpful to do philosophy rather than define it.  One important way of doing philosophy is to play with one’s insight.  Insight is an act of seeing with the mind (Ferriols cited in Dy, 2001).  In the history of philosophy, philosophers have been active in the search for new insights to answer the demands and signs of the times.  Though different philosophers make conflicting insights, it’s undeniable that “insightful” activity is true to all human beings.  It is a way of distinguishing ourselves from brute animals.  Reflective thought is a distinctive characteristic of human beings, which most animals don’t have.  With our reflective thought, we are able “to see” something in the mind using concepts or ideas.  And these concepts or ideas mirror the reality we are dealing with at present.

Gabriel Marcel (1970) claims that reflective thought is rooted in one’s experience.  It is inseparably one with life.  It goes without saying that each one of us is capable of doing reflection –whether a student, a businessman, a parent, or a doctor, so long as you stop and reflect on your experience.  But, this is easier said than done.  Why?  Because to reflect means that we need ample time to do it, which many of us, if not all, don't have.  Nowadays, to spend ample time to reflect remains a challenging task.  We live in a fast-paced society.  This fast-paced society demands much of our time to work.  Thus, our busy time wouldn't allow us to spend ample time to reflect.  We will have a thorough discussion on this idea below.  (Related article: Knowledge and Wisdom [click]).

Definitions of Philosophy

Before discussing insight as a way of doing philosophy, let me offer some definitions of philosophy.  This is intended for clarity and convenience as we embark to answer the question, How to do philosophy?  

      In a literal sense, philosophy means “love of wisdom” –derived from two Greek words, philo, meaning “to love” and sophia, meaning “wisdom.”  Pythagoras is said to be the first to coin the word, philosophers.  He differentiated three classes of people who attended the Olympic games: (1) the lovers of gains, who sell their wares during the occasion; (2) the lovers of honor, those who compete; and (3) the lovers of wisdom (philosophers), those spectators who pursued knowledge or wisdom pertinent to the events (Caraan, 2016).

        In technical sense, philosophy is "a search for the ultimate principle of all things that exist in aid of natural reason."  Under these definitions, any philosophical inquiry is characterized by the following:

1. Love of wisdom.  Based on its etymology, what motivates philosophers to pursue knowledge or wisdom is love.  This love springs from the "inner drive to know all that there is to know" in each and every one of us.  This drive to know is innate in all of us.  All we have to do is to recognize this inner drive to know (Clarke, 2002).  Once we imbibe this drive to know, it turns into a "love or passion" of wisdom, which is always characterized by madness, more or less, similar to a romantic love.  Thus, a philosopher never stops unless he satisfies his desire to know.  However, to convince oneself to imbibe this drive to know is never easy since he/she has to wonder, to always ask questions and further his questioning.  If he/she makes questioning a habit, then he/she has the germ of philosophizing –the love of Sophia.  Take, for example, the case of Thales.  Thales is known to be the first philosopher recorded in the history of philosophy.  He loved to know the heavenly bodies.  Because of this obsession, he watched intently the skies but failed to watch his steps, and fell into a well (IEP, 2020).  A servant who saw him falling into a well laughed at him.  Thales' account is a good example of the "love of sophia," which resulted in getting ridiculed.  
2. Ultimate Principle.  Philosophical inquiry aims for the highest principles of all things that exist.  In this sense, philosophy is considered the highest form of inquiry because it tries to seek for one unifying principle wherein the whole of reality is viewed as one meaningful whole (Jumawan, 2017).  It is like seeing the whole forest rather than looking at the individual trees.  In the classical tradition of the Greeks, philosophizing is a god-like activity.  It is believed that the gods and goddesses dwelt in Mt. Olympus.  Dwelling on top of Mt Olympus is an ideal place for the gods and goddesses to contemplate, to philosophize on the affairs of the mortals (human beings).  As a god-like activity, philosophizing is taking a higher perspective and have the vision of the whole of reality.  Thales, for example, claimed that water is the primordial element or the one ultimate principle.  With this idea of water, every explanation of the origin of all things that exist and the beginning of all forms of life is attributed to water.  For Thales, life and all its forms begin in water.  NASA has sent rover missions on Mars.  The aim of the missions is to “search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars” (https://mars.nasa.gov/). NASA scientists believe that if water exists on Mars, it is highly possible that other forms of life exist there and humanity can live there in the near future.  Imagine a person named Thales, who lived about 600 B.C., also thought the same –“Life and all its various forms begin in water.”
3. Natural Reason.  Philosophizing is a search for an ultimate principle aided only by reasoning.  Before philosophy came into practice, Greeks relied on myths to explain human and natural phenomena.  For example, earthquakes, lightning, typhoons, tidal waves, etc. were attributed to the activities of gods and goddesses.  Without any resort to mythical explanations, philosophers tried to understand the world based purely on reasoning.  Thales, for example, relied on rational demonstration to attribute the origin of everything –even any form of life, to water.  By logical reasoning, he might have thought that the element of water has properties to transform into other material objects.  By empirical observation, we know how water transforms into gas or transforms into solid such as ice.  Yet, Thales went far in concluding that water is the principle that was, is and will be.  It doesn’t change substantially yet change only accidentally.  On the contrary, the Jews established their identity as a group of people in a strong belief in one eternal God.  The Greeks never had this kind of faith.  Their faith is entirely based on human capacity to understand the world and all things therein (Jumawan, 2017).

Related articles: (1) What is Philosophy?  [click] (2) Is There Any Filipino Philosophy? [click]  

SPUD VISION STATEMENT

St Paul University Dumaguete, committed to the formation of integrated persons, will become the center of excellence in Catholic Education dedicated to building a just and humane society.

Based on its characteristics, philosophy cannot be only found in every individual person but also in an institution like St Paul University Dumaguete.  The Vision Statement of the school clearly states its philosophy about the human person –that is, each human person is multi-dimensional or multi-faceted.  What is meant by multi-dimensional individual?  He/she is a person who has different aspects of life, namely: intellectual, moral, religious, social, political, physical, and emotional.  The very vision of the school, then, is to have the formation of every student to become a well-rounded individual (integrated person).  It can be seen in all activities of the university like the celebration of the Eucharist for the spiritual aspect, classes for the academic aspect, intramural games for physical, and so on.  St Paul University Dumaguete strives to create avenues for students to grow holistically.  It is not forming students to become “intellectual giants but emotional or spiritual dwarves.”