CULTURAL RELATIVISM

Our professor gave us homework to be read about Cultural Relativism. Cultural relativism is about the distinctions of the culture itself. In my opinion, we people do have different ways to perceive things, or the way we views life either through our cultural values or how we believe  such a thing.

Like what had been said in the topic of the Free Radical, “Cultural relativism is the mistaken idea that there are no objectives standards by which our society can be judged because each culture is entitled to its own beliefs and accepted practices.” Yes I agree with it, why? Because every country or every people has its own culture or own standards or even laws. People have its standards from which we accepted and believe in, we have laws that we need to take notes. Like in schools/ universities they do have different cultures. They have different rules that were implemented. Even the bible has the commandments that had been following by the Catholics.

“He argued that because all of our knowledge comes from experience, we couldn't have any knowledge of causality because we do not experience causality.” I think it’s somewhat confusing, because you gain and learn from experiences. For example in school how a student would gain knowledge through the instructors’ way of teaching, and we learned from them, from their experiences through their examples.  Somehow we really learn from others experiences, we gained knowledge we are learning. 

Knowing what is right from wrong, truth from reality is another argument that had been argument on this topic. I think that we have all minds which set right from wrong; it has its own consciousness to know right from wrong. According to “Kant contended that reality (as far as we can know it) depends on the cognitive functioning of the human mind in total. Society sets the norms of truth and falsity and right and wrong. This is the essence of Kant’s social primacy of consciousness theory in metaphysics. Man’s ideas are essentially a collective delusion from which no person has the power to escape.”

PHILOSOPHY: A GUIDE TO HAPPINESS: SOCRATES ON SELF CONFIDENCE

Philosophy a guide to happiness is the title of the documentary film hosted by Alain de Botton. This documentary film featured about Socrates, his main views on self-confidence by means of giving opinions. In the first part of the film, Socrates was described as an extraordinary person, an ugly person. Even though he was given a title like that, he was known for his own beliefs. This film told about thinking and speaking. It was told there that “thinking logically makes us independent.” It taught us to build confidence among our own beliefs. It also taught us to speak for ourselves not for others. The film also talked about governments’ authority; that people was hard to accept the reality that government has the higher rights. In the Philippines, we all know that we are democratic meaning we have our right to choose our own leader that would lead the country in a better way. People must have the right than government authorities. Socrates was really annoyed of the others major opinions, why? It is because Socrates wanted us to speak up our own opinion. He wanted us to be brave and confident enough on whatever we wanted to say. He also disagreed about “the will of majority”. Actually, we do have our rights, we do have our own point of view in life, but one thing we should always remember that we should be responsible in our actions and opinions.

Based on my observation about the film, one thing Socrates wants us to realize is that “Everyone has the right to know about life, that every opinion was equally listening with.” We should not be afraid to voice out our opinions, be confident. But it should have its own limitations in a way that would not only think of you, always remember that other people have their own opinion too. Learn to listen to each other to have understandable and meaningful talks. We should not be afraid to develop our beliefs through our opinions and built up our own self-confidence. That is why it was told in the last part of the film “From being a sheep to a thinker philosopher”. A sheep who would always follows the same sheep, should change because we should know our rights, in which we should have to think like a philosopher. See the world on our own eyes. Remember the quote of Socrates that “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVA8jX9KQcE

Major points in Philosophy

Philosophy means lover of wisdom from the Greek word “philo” – love, and “Sophia” – wisdom. Philosophy used intricate issues from all facets of life. It has 5 main branches, first is logic~ study correct reasoning, second epistemology~ study the nature of knowledge, third metaphysics~ study the nature of existence, fourth aesthetics~ study the nature of beauty, and fifth moral philosophy(ethics) ~ study the nature of moral judgment. The ethics has its sub-division such as the following: meta-ethics (basis of moral judgment), normative ethics (content of moral judgment), and applied ethics (application of moral judgment).

Another is that the topic about the similarities and differences between science and philosophy. Science and philosophy work on different methods. Science empirically-based hypothesis testing/ scientific method while philosophy is through reason-based logical analysis. According to my resources science had been parts of the philosophy.

A topic about the greatest philosophers were also tackled like Protagoras “the father of Sophistry”, Protagoras in his axiom “man is the measure of all things”, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and many more. All of them had been part of the growth of Philosophy and ethics, and also there were all known as the greatest philosophers in the field of this study.

During the preliminary period, we also tackled about the different Faces of Relativism. Relativism is the only position of universal truths or beliefs in life. There are five relativism that was discussed by our professor in Philosophy and Ethics such as Cultural Relativism, Conceptual Relativism, Constructive Relativism, Postmodernism, and New Relativism. Cultural Relativism talks about the culture itself, that there were no right and wrong because we do have different beliefs that we believe in. Second, Conceptual Relativism is about the individual concepts or perceptions in life. They have different schemes, scientific paradigms and framework that they follow. Third, Constructive Relativism talks about the scientific studies; it does have its own basis of study. Fourth, Post Modernism is all about the power relations, we go on with others higher degrees of perception. Lastly, New Relativism also known as truth relativism, it shows talked about the relativism itself that’s why we should be the one to be responsible to understand its definition. 

Lesson Learned

I learned that philosophy would help us improved our knowledge and skills of thinking. I learned through Socrates quote “The unexamined life is not worth living.” In my own understanding, if you don’t know your goal or purpose in life it’s like nothing, in a way that is not worth to live with. Each person has the idea why he/she lives on earth, the purpose of his/her existence. People may not understand the main purpose of living, but at least we know why we live. People are wise because we are thinking, we know understanding, but to improve this we should do with righteousness.

I also learned about Socrates “Socratic method” that a student may also learn through question and answer. Asking question to a person would help you more understand what you do not know. It would help you know more about the details of your ideas. Knowing ideas through logically thinking make you a better person.

PHILOSOPHY IS NOT A SCIENCE

In my opinion to this article is that it tells about philosophy as not part of science.  Science and Philosophy had been interchangeable in such a way that philosophy becomes science and vice versa. Science and Philosophy do have it similarities and differences that are considerable to know. We don’t need to make some issues about this article as long as we do understand the difference between them. Philosophy and Science are the same in such a way that they both used methods to answer a problem. Another is that there were studies about this that would tell us the relationship between science and philosophy. Philosophy had been part of science; it has been told in the article that there were still some studies that would engage between the two. Some research in philosophy requires the use of science, it help us to understand the human nature of philosophy and other fields. Science could be applied also on the other fields which require research that enables to use scientific methods. Science do not inevitably answers all the questions regarding the fields of philosophy, but some were answerable by it.  Science do not answers questions about morality, religions, values, and norms about other matters, since it could not be scientifically studied under the field of other sciences. Science observed the things around it, while philosophy observed the opinions of other. Science used experiment to have a proof, philosophy do not. Some studies under science should be tested through experiment, it couldn’t be done just through a research but philosophy can. 

SCIENCE VS PHILOSOPHY

Both Science and Philosophy concerned with the study about the universe. Philosophy and Science both undergoes different tests to determine such a problem. Science and philosophy used its knowledge to made some analysis and theories. They both find truths and artifacts but what differs is on the way they search for it.  Science and philosophy both observed things. They both used logic in testing. Both understood the truth and reality, but science adds some research or test to prove if it is correct or not.

Science and Philosophy differs in fundamental/methods of applying it to matters. Science is based on empirical-hypothesis test while philosophy based on-reason analysis. Science is a body of knowledge in a form of tests and prophecy about the universe while Philosophy deals critically on reality, truth, theories, rationalism, reasons, values, beliefs, morality and knowledge that matters about the world. Science does not deal with study about morality, values, beliefs, arts and literature. Science provides evidence about a matter that exists than philosophy that does not need it.  They differs on the way they observed matters, Science observed the things around it, while philosophy observed the opinions of other. Science used experiment to have a proof, philosophy do not. Some studies under science should be tested through experiment, it couldn’t be done just through a research but philosophy can. 

My Ideal Philosopher

GOTTFRIED LEIBNIZ

One of my ideal philosophers is Gottfried Leibniz, because he has a very broad mind. He thinks that all exist for a reason. According to my resources (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-mind/) that “in the history of the philosophy of mind is best secured by his pre-established harmony, that is, roughly, by the thesis that there is no mind-body interaction strictly speaking, but only a non-causal relationship of harmony, parallelism, or correspondence between mind and body.” Meaning there is a reason behind it that made it happened. He is my ideal philosopher because he views in dual, through thinking and materialist, which two can’t move without the other one; the relationship of the thought to its matter. Gottfried is a genius that makes sense of it that he made a lot of contributions in the field of mathematics. Gottfried has the positive sense making the negative thoughts be in positive way. He is very religious that made him come to philosophical work about the problem of the evil created by a good God.

The greatest idea or belief of my ideal philosopher is his idea about matter and thought. He emphasized on his one article about the human thought and materialism. We live in the best possible world, he emphasized here that God had created the world with its best that no one did wrong, and no one is evil, because he made it all right.  For me this perception was right, there is no such a thing that God made wrong, only the people made it much that complicated for us to live with. Does evil exist? I do not know, but it may exist because of the man also, we do have the gifts and free wills that we do not used right making the evil take advantage of the world. As long as people do not know what is right from wrong and continue to make some crimes and sins, evil would be there. But remember that God created the things with its best that we could avoid wrong doings. So doing such a good thing will make the world on its best. He also emphasized about this quote that world can be the best without being perfect. Meaning we don’t need to be perfect at all, because God created us in a good way, so we should do our to be best within the eyes of our Lord.

Socrates: I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

       As I read this quote, I do agree about Socrates sayings. Agree Why? It is because as we born on this mother earth, we know nothing about what we lived for. When we were still young we all know that we were born only to live, to do what we want, to be ourselves. As time pass by, we were taught by other people, that’s why we learn.  We learn on the way other people teach us. We learn on how we perceive and observed things around us. We are the wisest man that we can be as long as we know what we are doing, as long we are thinking, but then I don’t think you can be wisest man alive if just don’t know anything. How could a person live without knowing anything in his /her life? Every person has a brain that functions to think, but not all people used its brain to think right. Not all people have the capability to learn through school, but they can be wise as long as they know how to think wisely. Practically, people are really wise man because they are using their way of thinking to live in this world. Today, many people are out of school youth, no work, but then they are still surviving in a situation like striving from their hunger.  People are very intelligent in terms that they could make other impossible things be possible.

Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics

According to Austin Cline “philosophy addresses complex issues from all facets of life - being an expert on all of philosophy would entail being an expert on all of the most fundamental questions which life has to offer.” For me studying philosophy and ethics would help us in developing ourselves as a human being, because it would let us understand what life is.  As a student, it would help us developed our skills and abilities in understanding humanities. Philosophy and ethics would help me learned about life and other things surrounding me. It would let me grow with sense about what I know. It is important to my development as a student and as a human being because it would help me improve my sense of thinking. Studying Philosophy and ethics would teach me to think first every action that I would do and to think first every words that I would say, before I do it.

Philosophy and ethics would teach us about its different branches like logic, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, and moral philosophy. These branches would help us know and understand more about different ideas under it. For example in logic, we all know that logic studies correct reasoning. Logic could be seen in our daily lives, it could be taught anywhere, and it is because it studies arguments in ordinary way. We could able to study the nature of knowledge, the way people are thinking. The nature of existence, why do people exist, where do we come from, does a person evolved from apes, and etc. A lot of questions made I want to know, and only philosophy and other sciences / studies would help us know and understand the real answer to my questions. It also studies the nature of beauty and morality. All of this would be found under the branches of philosophy and ethics.

Studying Philosophy would be a great deal in our lives. Philosophy and ethics has a big factor that influences the development of us as a student as well as a human being. One of the major factors is that the way we think, the way we perceive things around us. The way we understand life and developed your real self as a person, would help you answer the big questions about yourself. It may be boring to study philosophy and hard to understand, but it would help the person to know more about the things that is unexplainable and questionable. Another factor about philosophy is that we don’t only learn through thinking; we could also learn values, teachings, knowledge, truths, and etc. It would enable us to critically examined our lives.

“We live in the best of all possible worlds.” – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

            On my own point of view about this quote, God has created the best things for us. God had created the mother earth and the nature for us to live on it. He created the world for us to use it in all possible way. He gave us the land for shelter we lived in, the wind for the fresh air we breathe, the animals for food, and many more. Humans were given the gift of knowledge to think, and interact with other people. He gave us a lot to make it all possible. It would all be possible for us to do what we want because God given us the greatest gift we had in our life.
             People may be good enough to understand the true meaning of life. The reasons we live here on earth and were born. People were given the chance to learn things about what we need to learn. We were given a family, friends, and others to be with. All were given to us by God, but it is up to us on how we would apply, use, and live it in a best possible way. There is always a reason on the things that exist around us, and that is to should be use in a proper way.