Personal Philosophy - Essay Example

Personal PhilosophyPhilosophy is all about our beliefs and attitudes about us and also the world. I will choose mainly five categories to show what I believed about them. These are freedom, self, ethics, epistemology, and reality. My own philosophy is based on the philosopher Robert C. Solomon because he is a philosopher and also a lecturer at the University of Texas.FreedomMost of us believe that freedom is one of the most advantageous things on earth. It is an ingredient of a good life or the good life itself.

Some of us may live their lives fighting for freedom. According to Immanuel Kant a German philosopher, freedom is not only a presupposition of a good life but also a logical prerequisite for morality and moral responsibility. If we were not free to act whether rightly or wrongly, then it would be senseless to hold us responsible for what we do or undertake. Kant argues that without freedom morality would not exist and life would not be worth living at all. After all, a person is not blamed for obeying the law of gravity.

he or she is not told what he ought to do. Culturally, freedom separates man from the beasts and raises him above nature (Robert 530- 607). Reality It is by faith we believe a lot about the world. For instance, when we were young we believed what our parents told us whether it was true or not. We did this often without testing their answers for ourselves. Most of The people historically have believed that the world has been pretty much the way their religious leaders told them. For instance, an infinite expanse bounded only by God, a plate on the back of an elephant supported on the back of a tortoise.

Reality is what the Scientists inform us is. Robert C. Solomon a German philosopher, supports that we have believed about the solar system the way it is despite the fact that few of us can offer such evidence that there exists such a thing. God was the reality before science claimed complete picture of reality three hundred years ago. The material universe is the real only so far as it is kept in God's existence. Reality may depend on certain principles. That is an appeal to Science or religion.

Religiously, the order of the universe is the sign of ultimate wisdom and goodness of God. Scientifically, the reality is what is measurable and testable (Robert et al 45-65).SelfOur conceptions of self-vary not only for people and cultures but also in different contexts from time to time. What is important to us and other people depend on the context in which we are explaining whom we are. There is still a real self within us that does not vary from context to context. This is referred to as soul in some religions and also thinking of Greeks.

A German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel argues that self and experience of our reality is familiar to us in a number of ways. For instance when filling questionnaires about the date of birth, sex, marital status and so on. According to Buddhism, the self is a process of creation that goes on as long as we live. Self is not all about individual identity but the product of an entire society.Epistemology Study of the knowledge of what we can know, what truth is and how do we know anything.

In short, it is the theory of knowledge. Great disputes arise for statements like damp weather causes us to lower resistance or get sick. There is gravity between two masses. The hypothesis is usually formulated based on experience. General truths exist like, boys will always be boys, and all things will pass. Although tautologies don’t tell us about the world, they are true. Two categories of truth exist. Robert Solomon from his book Introducing Philosophy clearly states that is true based on facts and truth based on reasoning.

For instance, water boils at 100 degree Celsius above sea level is truth based on the fact. Based on reasoning we can say that bachelors are not married. Empirical truth is based on experience. An example is there are no trees in Texas Hospital. Philosophers refer to such statement as contingent truth because in one day there may be trees at the hospital. All empirical statements are true and if true contingently true as a rule of philosophy (Boufoy39-51).EthicsEthics differentiate what is good and wrong, right or wrong, rules of morality and search for a good life.

Moral philosophy supports this. To have a goodwill is to act on moral principles that are justifiable for a practical reason. Nothing can be referred to as good in the world without qualification. Good intentions and attempts do our duty. The Ten Commandments in the Old Testament guide us to know what is good and the injunction to love each other in the New Testament forms the core of morality in Western traditions. Every society has moral values defining of what is permitted and expected. This is according to Kathleen Higgins, a professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas.

He also supports that , the key to morality is doing what you personally ought to do.Work CitedBuffy Bastick. "Introducing 'Applicable Knowledge' as a Challenge to the Attainment of Absolute Knowledge". Sophia Journal of Philosophy. 2005.8: 39–51. Print. Robert Solomon, Higgins Kathleen, and Martin Clancy. Introducing philosophy: A text with integrated readings, Eighth Edition. Oxford University Press. 2012, 45-56. Print. Robert C. Solomon. Introducing Philosophy: 5th edition. U.K. Oxford university press, 2003, 530- 607. Print