Philosophy as a Process of Critical Self-Examination - Essay Example

?2) The first great philosopher, Socrates, thought of philosophy as a process of critical self-examination, the purpose of which is to arrive at the correct principles of judging, choosing and acting. Do you think that Socrates’ approach to philosophy is as useful today as it was during his times in ancient Greece? Knowing oneself is the foundation of Socratic philosophy of self-examination. It is one of the most important strains of Socratic tradition because it is universal in its scope and as timely and applicable as it was during the Greek antiquity as it is today. Critical self-examination is a necessary process in the achievement of self-knowledge, wisdom and virtue – elements that are crucial in arriving at correct judgments, decisions and behavior. This strategy is akin to an inductive approach at learning the truth. An exposition of a Delphic inscription, “Know thyself,” it provided an effective and universally applicable framework by which any individual, regardless of the period, time or circumstance he or she is in, could use in a quest for truth. The process should be able to demonstrate its merits and the claim that it is very much relevant today. The first step, explained Fuller, in knowing oneself is “to perceive how superficial and ignorant and prejudiced one really was” (62). The argument is that wisdom and the ability of discernment can only result as a consequence of an individual’s capacity to understand his surroundings. He or she will never be able to do so if he does not understand himself. For example, failure to identify bias taints ones ability to make objective and just decisions and correct choices. He can never claim righteousness or self-knowledge if he did not pass through the stage of humble realization and recognition of his ignorance – important variables in one’s desire and motivation to learn. Without an understanding of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, one can never realize a need for a teacher, for instance – someone who can be intellectual or psychologically superior who he or she could learn from. There is a need for education and the way we learn from what experience. They could only be gained through a thorough awareness of one self. Socrates stressed that through self-knowledge “one will himself both know himself and be able to examine both what he happens to know and what he does not” (Lampert 200). In this regard, man cannot be considered as a mere vessel and receptacle of knowledge and experience. Discernment is required in order to effectively use the data and experience that people accumulate in order to identify truth from the fallacious. A person can examine oneself – his beliefs, values, thoughts and ideas – in various ways. The diversity in the approaches further shows how the self-examination guide and enhance our abilities to judge, decide and act. Besides self-evaluation and assessment, men can reflect on certain aspects of their acts and thoughts through conversation with other people or through the intercourse of the mind. Each mind has unique ways of acquiring and interpreting meanings. Reflections on one’s own conversation with others can help to examine and stimulate his capacity to be critical of one self and accepting of what is the truth. It is, hence, clear that without self-examination, a person would be ignorant and incapable to think and do what is right. In instances where this may not be true, his personal biases will cloud his ability to discern and acknowledge the truth. Unfortunately, this is aggravated by the tendency of ignorant men to become arrogant, which makes the whole affair tragic. Our circumstance might have changed since Socrates’ time. However, human nature is still the same – we are rational human being capable of rational judgments. People today just like the citizens of Athens cannot realize their full capacity to decide, choose and act correctly without self-knowledge. 8. Do you think that Hobbes is correct in denying that there is such a thing as free will? What was the basis of his claim? What is your view of free will? One of the most famous of Hobbes work was his position on free will, which he considered the same as freedom. It was explored in detail in his work, Leviathan wherein he famously declared: The question… is not whether man be a free agent, that is to say, whether he can write or forbear, speak or be silent, according to his will; but whether the will to write and the will to forbear come upon him according to his will, or according to anything else in his power (Van Mill 48). For Hobbes, there is no such thing as free will in men fundamentally because all behaviors, actions, thoughts are supposed to have antecedent motions or causality. Particularly, for Hobbes, “the actions which men voluntarily do: which, because they proceed from their will, proceed from liberty; and yet, because every act of man’s will, and every desire, and inclination proceedeth from some cause, and that from another cause, in a continual chain, whose first link is the hand of God the first of all causes, [they] proceed from necessity” (King 217). Other external variables were also cited that supposedly inhibits men from actually exercising some semblance of free will such as power, his concept for the internal impediment to motion. For Hobbes, having free will or freedom is not unlike the flow of the river that is why it is irrational and, uncharacteristic of human rationality. Having free will is tantamount to having men resemble animals or inanimate objects such as the wind wherein there is no impediment to action. At first glance, Hobbes offered simple and seemingly sound arguments about free will or its non-existence. First, there is the metaphysical argument about God as the first cause, which I think defeats his philosophical, psychological and even scientific arguments. This aspect in his position rendered the universe as causally determined and human actions are all necessitated by prior events. It is very problematic. If this is really the case, then children committing wrong should no longer be corrected or criminals be punished because whatever their actions were, were all merely part of some elaborate plan and events beyond anyone’s control. The theological dimension seems to muddle Hobbes position and further whittling down his positions’ credibility. Secondly and most importantly, Hobbes philosophy on free will is too mechanical. He has raised several dubious points but the bottom line is that it is impossible for men not to have free will because in doing so he will let himself loose control, finally resembling a thoughtless thing. The causalities that Hobbes has identified may contribute, affect and impede free will but at the end of it all, an individual has the ability to determine and choose from different options and alternatives posed by such causalities. Such decision is also not merely governed by God, his concept of power or other external variables. It also relies on an individual’s intelligence, past experiences, and a number of physical and thought processes that are unique to such person. If one follows Hobbes’ mechanist notion, two individuals provided with the same upbringing, the same living environment, the same experiences, same interactions, same impediments and oppositions to their freedom would respond in the same way. The fact is that they won’t. However similar their circumstances are, they would never have the same decisions all the time. Free will is not a blessing to be given or to be acquired. It is inherent in humans. All the rest that Hobbes mentioned – God, power, and other externalities - are merely secondary. Works Cited Fuller, A.G. History of Greek Philosophy. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009. Print. King, Preston. Thomas Hobbes: Religion. New York: Routledge, 1993. Print. Lampert, Laurence. How philosophy became socratic: a study of Plato's Protagoras, Charmides, and Republic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Print. Van Mill, David. Liberty, rationality, and agency in Hobbes's Leviathan. New York: SUNY Press, 2001. Print. Read More