2 July 2013
Discussed Text: Garcia, "The Promotion of Responsibility and Hope"
Primum vivere deinde philosophari. We must first live and experience life before we can philosophize. It requires us to be knowledgeable of the things around us before we can actually explore and question them further. Just like the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover,” we should not judge that person/thing by what our eyes can perceive for we don’t know them/it fully. Also, when we argue about a certain topic, we don’t just say things that are irrelevant to the topic because we should be able to know something about it in order for us to defend our side.
Moreover, the connection between philosophical reflection and our everyday experience is somewhat the same. It’s impossible for us to reflect on something without experiencing it first. For example, we can’t learn from our mistakes without committing the mistake first. It’s just as simple as that. I think this is the reason why philosophers tend to live and experience life everyday as if it’s their last because it will give them more chance to reflect if they have more experiences.
Going to the topic about a person’s true happiness, in order for us to achieve that, we should narrow the gap between ourselves and the person we truly desire to be. But first, we should know who we really are. I don’t actually know how to know one’s self because according to my theo131 professor, knowing one’s self is the hardest thing to do. So an alternative way for acquiring our true happiness is to do our best to be the person we truly desire to be. We can do this by changing our outlook in life. We should learn how to care for others even if they don’t feel the same way. In addition, we should learn by heart to think about others as well and not just our own for we are sent in this world to serve and not to be served. Following the example of Jesus Christ, we should completely dedicate our life in helping and influencing others to do good to one another. By doing this, we are able to achieve our goal to be the person we truly desire to be by being men and women for others.
The goal that philosophy can offer to the present society, to will that all persons form one humanity and to will that each person realizes his/her unique humanity is very interesting and rather hard to do. Firstly, the idea that all persons should form one humanity is very difficult to do because we speak different languages, we have different customs and traditions, we have a different lifestyle and we all have our own way of living life. So in my opinion, this first goal of philosophy is almost impossible to achieve. The second goal of philosophy on the other hand, is more realistic and more feasible than the first one. Many of us now already realized his/her unique humanity. It is just like what I have said earlier, knowing one’s self. By knowing one’s self, you have already realized that you are unique and unlike any other.
To wrap things up, we should always make the most of our day because everything that we experienced in that day can help us to become the person we truly desire to be. By being that person that we desired to be, we can already attain true happiness.
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