1.2 Doing Philosophy

DOING
PHILOSOPHY
MELINA V. KAHULUGAN

CONTENT: DOING PHILOSOPHY
CONTENT STANDARD: The learner understands
the meaning and process of doing philosophy
Performance Standards: The learner reflects on
a concrete experience in a philosophical way
Learning Competencies/ Objectives:
The learners do a philosophical reflection on a
concrete situation from a holistic perspective.

THINK PAIR SHARE
– Discuss with your partner the following:
1. Do you reflect? How many times you do
reflecting?
2. What did you get from reflection?

Group Activity:
1.Try to recall you everyday activities.
2.Were those activities emanated from deliberate
reflection?
3.Were you happy with the consequence of what you
did during the whole day?
4.How did it add to your personality as human being?

BIG GROUP SHARING
CRITERIA INDICATORS POINTS
COLLABORATIO
N
The members in the group has shown
collaboration among his/her
groupmates.
5
CONTENT The content of report is clear and
concise
5
PRESENTATION The presentation engaged their
classmates to listen well
5
TIMELINESS The time is observed according to its
restriction
5

To philosophize is to wonder about life
About love and loneliness
Birth and death
About Truth, Beauty and Freedom
To philosophize is to explore Life
By asking painful Questions

What Does it Mean to
Philosophize?
We shall not begin with a
definition of Philosophy.
Philosophy is easier to do than to
define.

-Associated with thinking
-Insight is the crucial element
in thinking.
INSIGHT

Insight is seeing with the
mind.
E.g. Insight into a joke

Two things to be considered
regarding insights
a. the insight itself
b. what do I do with insight

I can analyze the insight., but if I am
merely enjoying the joke, analysis can
kill my enjoyment, but if I am to the
joke to others, analysis can deepen
and clarify the original insight and
help in the effective delivery.

Another example: death of a grandfather at 110
years old. I listen to the story of my
grandfather in his youth, think of myself as full of
high spirits, dashing, popular, but
high spirits are not inexhaustible.
Insight: Generations of men start life full of vigor,
then wither away and die after they have given
life to their own sons.

Homer made a metaphor of this
insight: “ As the generations of
leaves, so the generations of
men”.

Metaphor sharpens the insight and fixes it
in the mind.
Also, one portion of reality casts light on
another: by contemplating the fall and
return of leaves, we understand also the
rhythm of the generations of men.

Another example: number 4 can be
analyzed into 2+2=4 or 1+1+1+1=4.
How did we gain an insight into “4”? By
counting, e.g. cars, abstracting the
common and prescinding from the
individual characteristics car.

Abstraction is one of the tools
for analysis of insights. An
abstract thought is a concept.
An analysis by abstraction is a
conceptual analysis.

My insight into the generations of men can
be analyzed conceptually, but note that
conceptual analysis can desiccate an
insight: the throbbing, tumultuous
generations of men become an abstract
fund of energy and high spirits. It is then
necessary to return to the original insight.

Summary
 Insight is seeing with the mind: only you can do it. I
cannot see it for you but I can help you see it.
 There are many ways of doing with insight. Some
insights are so deep they cannot be exhausted.
 It takes insight to do something with insight, like
the metaphor of Homer.
 Insight brings us to the very heart of reality, and
reality is so deep and unfathomable.

Why do we Philosophize?
Philosophy is an activity rooted on lived experience.
Experience is the life of the self: dynamic inter-relation of
self and the others, be it things, human being, the
environment, the world grasped not objectively but from
within.
Self is the “I” conscious of itself, present to itself.
Presence to itself entails also presence to other, the not
“I”.

This relatedness of the self to the other
is characterized by tension,
disequilibrium, disharmony,
incoherence.
Tension calls for Inquiry, Questioning,
Search.

Beginning of Philosophizing
Wonder: For Plato, the poet and the
Philosopher are alike in that both begin from
wonder.
Doubt can also impel man to ask Philosophical
Questions. Descartes’ Philosophy started from
doubting the existence of everything.
Adolescents also doubt their identity.

Limit Situations are inescapable realities
which cannot be change but only
acknowledged e.g. failure, death of a beloved.
We may not be able to control them but we
can control our response to them through
reflection. They provide opportunities and
challenges for us to make life meaningful.
(existentialists)

Metaphysical Uneasiness is to be unsure of one’s
center ( Gabriel Marcel) equivalent to Soren
Keirkegaard’s “Angst”.
Metaphysical Uneasiness is contrasted with Curiosity.
To be curious is to start from a fixed external objects (
outside of me) which I have a vague idea of.
Metaphysical Uneasiness is beyond the physical
(external ) but more of internal.
Curiosity tends to become metaphysical uneasiness as
the object becomes part of me.

Philosophizing here begins from
the inner restlessness which is
linked to the drive of fullness.
Philosophical Questions ultimately
can be reduced to question of
“WHO AM I?”

Philosophical Inquiry is inquiry into the
Coherence, Sense of human life as totality,
as a whole, Comprehensive reality and
ultimate (final) value. E.g. I have a terminal
case of stomach cancer; I am given only
three months to live, so I ask “ What is the
meaning of my Life?”

“Sens de la Vie”: “Sens” can mean
the direction of a river, the texture
of a cloth, the opening of a door, the
meaning of a word. Likewise, my life
can have a direction, texture,
opening (possibilities), meaning.

PHILOSOPHY: TRANSCENDING AND
AIMING FOR A LIFE OF ABUNDANCE
“Abundare” Latin word of “to over flow nonstop,”
a.Abundance is not what we gather but what we scatter
- Often abundance is equated with materialism, but it is
when we raise our empty hands and surrender, when we do not
grab, when we are unattached to anything or anyone, when we
offer oneself-all these are abundance. Only if we have empty
hands can we receive full of blessings.

b.Abundance is not what we keep but what we
give away
To live an abundant life, one must pursue one’s
desires and inner self. One must go after what
fulfills, before making more money. It is truly
paradoxical because to be able to have, we must
first let go. To be able to have, - we must first let go.
To be able to acquire, we must first control
ourselves.

To be abundant, we must learn to control our
appetites and desires, for they have impact on other
people. Harsh words, pollution, and eating unhealthy
foods are some examples where our choices
influence or affect not only ourselves but others as
well. In other words, there is karma in our thoughts,
words and actions.

c. Abundance is not what we hold but what we share
Money counts in our globalized society. Money
should not matter much, for every moment is a blessing,
even if one does not have money. Abundance comes to
the one who has money and heart, money and values,
money and relationships, money and deeper happiness.
Abundance is more than our ambitions; there are more
precious things such as people that matter. (Aguilar, 2010)

d. Abundance is a choice
Abundance is more of an effort of the heart than mind alone.
To achieve, one must commit. Only the heart can commit.
Abundance, therefore is a choice which translates to commitment,
determination, and perseverance. (Aguilar 2010)
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne offers a similar idea, which claims
that we have our dreams, and regardless or who we are, the
universe will answer our wishes. According to “The Secret”, our
dreams come true because we attract them. We achieve our
dreams if we cooperate with the Power of Dreams Himself of God.
God will grant our wishes in his due time.

e. Abundance is to evolve into a higher being
It becomes clear that the concept of abundance covers
both external and internal life. We cannot truly live without
material considerations, but externals are not all there are;
values, for instance matter.
Thus, to live in abundance means evolving to a higher
being in following one’s mission; a deliberate or conscious
desire to act upon what can make us and others happy. As we
are bombarded by negative people and moods, it becomes our
choice to adopt an abundant disposition.

Tracking and Analyzing Your Purpose
Happiest Times
(List the activities, people, locations, and
conditions in your life you were most
happy.)
What did you learn about your purpose?
1
2
3
Happiest Times
(List the activities, people, locations, and
conditions in your life when you felt
dissatisfied.)
What did you learn about your purpose?
1
2
3

Reflection:
1. As a student, how can you live a life of
abundance? Give examples.

1.2 Doing Philosophy

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