Junior Loera

Introduction to Philosophy

October 3, 2005

What is my reason for being here? What is reality? How do I know anything beyond me exists? Is there a god? What is morality? What is truth? The first and foremost reason I am studying philosophy is to find answers. And while I am well aware that I may spend my whole life searching and may not find answers at all, I at least hope to gain a better understanding of life. Still, people ask why. This “better understanding of life” will not bring me cars, money, fame, or true love. It will not make me rich. What it will do though is bring me self assurance in a vast universe that empirical science has turned into a machine. And with self-assurance comes trust, fulfillment, and personal success. In today’s materialistic, mechanic, impersonal society, so many live without taking time to explore within their own mind, even without analyzing their surroundings. They are distracted by fashion trends, television, video games, money, and other worldly possessions. It is like they are living within chaos. Inner peace is something not even money can buy; it comes through long and careful introspection. And once one has this, he does not need money or fame.

Personal success aside, there are so many benefits to be gained from a study in philosophy. One of the major areas studied in philosophy is ethics, or the way one should live his or her life. One can learn ethics from what a government or religion teaches, but these ethics remain empty and groundless until they are examined thoroughly. If one holds that homosexuality is immoral based on what his government says, and the government turns out to be unreliable, then the person’s moral fails along with it. But if he holds that homosexuality is wrong based on reason, then it is less likely to fail and has more reliability. Logic is another topic of philosophy. Logic is the study of proper reasoning and argumentation. Logic can help a person weed out the bad arguments from the good, and it can help him make sound judgments. This is especially important in today’s society, where the media bombards people with advertisements, and tells them to buy into this statement, or buy that product endorsed by a celebrity. That is another area in philosophy; politics and government. “If you don’t turn to politics, politics will turn on you.” It is important to understand how the government works, to know what the leaders are basing their decisions on, and to think of ways to improve on current ideas. This goes way back to the teachings of Confucius and his ideas of authority and follower, and Plato with his perfect utopia in the Republic. Once a person has gained an understanding of logic, he might then ask “how do I know what I know?” It is then that he turns to epistemology. Epistemology is a fundamental topic in philosophy because it justifies our arguments that we have formed by logic. How does one know that the premises in the argument were true to begin with?

I believe philosophy could be called the study of everything. It would make for a very good high school course because philosophy awakens the curiosity in a person. It is the gateway to science, to art, to mathematics, psychology, history, sociology, government, and many other topics. Philosophy is like the unifying string that ties all other topics together, to try to see everything on the larger scale. It connects the universe to astronomy, astronomy to physics, physics to technology, technology to nature, and nature to oneself. And whether the answers to the questions raised by philosophy are out there to be found or not, in the end, the sense of wonder that philosophy awakens in a person will benefit him or her in more ways than one.