Philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy
Finals Reflection Output

A. Summary
KNOWLEDGE:
Knowledge is formed and acquired in the course of our life though cognition and it is not inborn and develops from our own ignorance. John Locke compared it with tabula rasa or some sort of a blank sheet upon which nothing is written. These are Data or images of the object which stimulated our sense-organs-sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell are, in a manner of speaking, raw-materials which our brain forms, through abstraction, into concepts or ideas, and which we express in signs or language. There are two obstacles to cognition the biases which becloud the human mind as “IDOLS” and the errors in reasoning which are the so called fallacies. Reasoning is a means for acquiring knowledge but if it is fallacious it cannot yield but deception.
Moreover there are three theories of knowledge namely; empiricism, rationalism and intuitionism. In empiricism, knowledge comes from experience and experience is a sense of perception which may be understood as direct observation by the senses or indirect by using instrument or by experimentation. Empiricism teaches that what we see, hear, touch, or smell, is all that we can know. Outstanding exponents of Empiricism were John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume and the so-called Linguistic philosophers. Rationalism maintains that reason is the source and test of knowledge and not sense-perception. Knowledge consists of concepts which generalize about the nature of reality so that it has a universal and permanent character. It is the reason or the intellect which “manufactures” the data into concepts, judgments and laws, and that is how our knowledge is formed. What we know is “what we have thought out”, or what reason has “abstracted” from the data of sense perception. The known defenders are Parmenides, Plato of Ancient Greece, Descartes and Hegel of the modern world. The third theory which is intuitionism claims that the senses can only mirror the appearance of things hence what we call sense-data, cannot tell us what things are in themselves. But through intuition, we can have “a feel” of what lies beyond the phenomena captured by our senses and transformed by reason into conceptual symbols. Intuition “intuere” (to look into) is a direct apprehension of knowledge which is not the result of conscious reasoning or immediate perception.
Add the facts that there are two methods of intellectual inquiry, first is the intuition that grasps the essential nature of reality and “time” and the second is analysis which is the stability and predictability, but offers only “a photograph” or “a snapshot” of what is essentially a dynamic, active world The only way to bridge the distance between the “object known” and “the knower”, we must use “intellectual sympathy” that experiences being as a whole, as “a dynamic continuum”. Lastly, there are different notions of truth namely the Correspondence Theory, Coherence Theory, Pragmatic Theory and the Marxist Theory.
EDUCATION:
The word education comes from the Latin verb “educere” (to lead) or from “educare” (draw out). Education is the art of leading or guiding a person to social culture so that by exposing him to its complexities and he may actualize his potentialities. Every person, regardless of race, gender or class has a dormant power which if drawn out or developed could equip the individual to fill a variety of roles in society. Education and training is of different meaning. Education has to do with the development of the whole personality while training deals with the gaining and achieving of skills. There are aims of education; first is to prepare the young for “citizenship”-the subtle means of providing the state in along run with future leaders and followers who would put interest of the state and nation above self. Second aim is to develop the individual “as a man”- enable the individual to realize his potential powers as a human being so he could be free in outlining his own destiny. Third, it should aim to preserve the prevailing social system by way of transmitting the ideas, the beliefs, the values and the practices of society. Fourth, it aims to contribute to social transformation and it must foster a new consciousness that is supportive of the peoples dream and struggle for a more just, humaine and democratic society. Fifth, it should prepare us for eternal life in a paradise to come and lastly it should aim to comprehensively prepare us to be a “worker” or to be “a citizen and to be “a person.”
Education has an ideological character. To little, indeed, does the school going to public suspect that education as a social institution can be manipulated by vested groups for their own political interests. To some people whose economic and political fortunes are entrenched that education is used to promote social conformity and agreement. To others who have nothing but their state of deprivation and uncertainties, education can empower them to struggle for social charge.
POLITICS:
Politics is a strategy to maintain order and cooperation among people or individuals with differing needs and ideals in life, or for revolving conflict within the group whether this be a family, a tribe, a village or a nation-state. It may be understood as a control over the situation so that differences are resolved and prevented. There are two main approaches to politics namely; Political Philosophy and Political Science. Political Philosophy has a speculative and normative character because it deals with the question of what is politics “ought to be” or what it should be while Political Science is empirical and descriptive in nature because its main concern is the analysis and definition of the state and its instrumentalities and descriptions of their functions. Politics is the science and art of governing society in the pursuit of common good then its concretization is the government whose aim is the people and the security and welfare of the people. For the three great philosophers namely; Confucius, Plato and Niccolo Machiavelli to be good responsible political leaders of state there are very essential qualities to be considered. For Confucius, political leadership is not for the comfort and enjoyment of the rulers, nor are they simply for the maintenance of law and order, but for “the happiness and enlightenment of the people”. He also prescribed that those who aspire to lead the people must possess the virtues of human-heartedness, rrighteousness, ppropriety and wisdom. For Plato, a person’s life is orderly or “just” when his reason controls the emotion and tempers the appetites. The three kinds of people should possess three elements in man. A ruler should embrace reason, the soldiers or warriors should deal with their emotion and the artisans or ordinary people should control their appetites. All citizens must undergo rigid physical, intellectual and moral training. Plato’s philosophy on education was one of so called Selection & Elimination. Niccolo Machiavelli Wrote a book entitled, “The Prince “Politics, as an exercise of power, should be divorced from morality and religion. Politics has no morality; it is a naked power of “expediency”. Or him an effective leader is both a fox and a lion, both a man and a beast and both great pretender or great dissembler.
B. Analysis (Critique)
KNOWLEDGE:
The search for knowledge is a never-ending adventure like we’ve seen in movies and plays. The whole of reality is too vast that we can know only too little of it in our short life-time; hence, it would be the height of innocence to narrow our present knowledge, unless we choose to close our mind to other possibilities. Our knowledge is a product of all our abilities, sensation, reason and intuition. And o agree with the saying that “knowledge is power”, a power to recreate the world, a power to construct a better society where all men and women could live with dignity, freedom and peace.
I do believe that there are always more to know since it is dynamic and too enormous. We should always have the guts, the passion and the love to learn and to continue searching and building on the body of knowledge. No doubt, knowledge adds color and relative character to make our life worth living and spending. Our knowledge should not be affected nor distorted by our own cognition. We should keep in mind to always use reasoning since it is acquiring knowledge not just basing it to what we perceive. Yes, we can construct knowledge by our senses to every situation we’re experiencing yet we should always be rational. Know the reason to every detail not to justify things but rather to be reasonable in judging and jumping to conclusions. Knowledge is a stuff of reality; it is a way of truth and not a way of seeming or giving opinion. Also the only thing we should not doubt is that we always in particular situation doubt. Don’t be afraid to doubt or to question things because it is a way of acquiring and gaining all we need to know. On the other hand we could still obtain knowledge that it is not the senses, nor reason can provide adequate understanding of reality but the so called intuition.
Knowledge is an interconnected chain wherein there is an agreement with one set of knowledge with another set of it. It is a cycle with no beginning and ending. The more we become curious the more we question and the more we seek for the answer. We always have the privileged to open our close understanding of the world and we are free to explore its limitation and boundary. We always have the key to know the secrets of the real meaning and value of life. We should not stop travelling the beautiful and colourful journey of our existence and don’t stop to strive and to gain the perfect and undying knowledge.
EDUCATION:
Since we are searching for knowledge, having an education is of great help. It is a vital instrument to explore our limitation and to go beyond the horizon. Having an education is like seeing a rainbow after a rain shower; it adds color and meaning after the sudden darkness.
We should not just be trained, we must be educated. Being education for me is opening the windows of our mind and soul. We should put effort to understand, to comprehend, and to be sensitive to ideas, aspirations and interest to which we might otherwise be indifferent to each other. We should not just be contented just to be trained because it simply means we just want to improve our ability to do something without deepened understanding, widened sympathy or heightened aspirations for it. There should be a common agreement on what is education should aim and define the purpose of education with no bias and fair chances to people of different social positions and should not be in harmony with their fundamental interests. It would be an illusion to expect the prevailing education to be truly transformative and liberating because of today’s inequality especially in social status aspects thus there is a need to re-invent education so that it will foster a new awareness and perspective that is supportive and reflective to our aspirations and struggle for social transformation.
POLITICS:
Education here in the Philippines is affected by many factors such as the kind of Politics we have. I do believe that Politics should function and aims to go after the welfare of the people and nothing else but the security and needs of people. Politics is both a freedom and responsibility. It is power yet when used in a wrong way or become a pursuit and chase of personal interests could be abused. Politics is not just a system itself but a system of ideas with mission and functions. In spite of the current situation in our country we could still pursue a fair, just, honest and responsible political system. We could still make a change. Aside from being a good and reliable follower we could choose and elect good and right political leaders especially with our democratic type of system. We need to be responsible enough to designate the fit and appropriate ruler with their best quality and character. We should carefully analyse and evaluate a political ruler who has the interest in serving the people with sincerity and should not just maintain himself or herself in power.

C. Contextualization
KNOWLEDGE:
Filipino is a knowledge seeker and so explorative when it comes to nourish and develop their learning and abilities. We have so many proud kababayan who are so passionate and determine in acquiring such knowledge they are looking for. Some of us even try to go to other country for their search for knowledge. We are not contented with just having a knowledge that is already in front of us. We usually get out of the box and go beyond the horizon. And because of this perseverance, many Filipinos from different field become successful and famous. Many jobs and opportunities become open to Filipinos because of their ability and passion to learn.
EDUCATION:
Puberty becomes a barrier to attain the goal of having a better education. Nowadays, as you look with the status of our country, Philippines I must say that we our struggling especially the unfortunate individual to get such appropriate and good quality of education. In our country; living status affects a lot in maintaining a good quality of education. There are so many families who battle for financing the other expenses of their child like project and daily transportation and food allowance. For an underprivileged family with income that is not enough with their daily consumption, having a budget for education could be a least priority. Many of the youth today even they want to continue their college just could not because they have no choice but to work to support and provide financially for their family. Also it is common, in some far barrios many Filipino children before they could reach the nearest school from their house they need to struggle and walk on rivers and even some sloppy mountain before they can get there. In spite their dedication to be educated, school buildings and good learning facilities and materials is not enough tp accommodates large population in our country. Also corruption is one of the major reasons why number of Filipino is unable to avail their rights to be educated. Instead of financing the education sector, the money of Filipinos goes to the pocket of those who are greed and selfish officials. No doubt, Philippines is a rich country with its splendid natural resources yet our money could not even financially provide and give stable works and opportunities to those who need jobs.
POLITICS:
It been an ordinary scenario during election that there are so many unnecessary actions took place like vote buying, ballot result cheating, killing of political rivalry, and the likes just for those self-centred aspirant officials to win the said election. And even after the election, during their serving years so many void practice is been happening. Corruption is one of the major problems here in the Philippines. Many elected political officials abuse the power given to them for their own interests. Today’s issue is what they called Pork barrel Scandal wherein the budget allotted and given to political official for their projects and programs that should and must help Filipino goes to pocket of just some people. Finger pointing and hand washing that they don’t use any of the public money for their own welfare is still on investigation and not yet answered. Institutionalizing is also happening in our country and the most affected are the public especially the poor. It is also common in our political system having a family dynasty wherein the power in many places is just in the hand of one family. Even we already have automated kind of election system, we still struggle to have the fair and just political system we are looking and hoping to achieve. Lastly, we Filipinos still electing wrong public servant. We are still blind with their looks, whether they are celebrities or if even they tend to finish their education and with their flowering promises and words. We never really practice a critical judgement to choose the right and the good state ruler.

D. Evaluation 1. Subject
The subject Philosophy really helped me to be open-minded and critically inclined with everything around me. We have so many things we still need to know and acquire yet Philosophy serves as an assisting tool to really know the meaning of our own existence and the real meaning of our life and its purpose. My closed world becomes exposed with what is really happening.
2. Prof
Sir Roderick Centeno is a very knowledgeable, respected and full of sense kind of professor in Philosophy. We really enjoyed listening to his lectures about Philosophy. It so refreshing that while learning we’ve able to have fun and enjoy every learning and discussion. The reporting is a good way for us student to express our perspectives and opinions on things. It helps to boost our interest and awareness on the things that before we really don’t have care and is none of our business. The reflection writing activities is a useful for us to have second thoughts to every issue and decisions. And I observed that Sir gives importance in managing his and our time.