Philosophy 4 Teens

Yesterday in psychology class, we saw a quote that really got me thinking. It was a Nietzsche quote. As my class mates know, I am a very big fan of Nietzsche! The quote was this one: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how”. This quote ties back to existentialism and the meaning of life. It basically means that if you have something to live for you can live through any situation, no matter how horrible it is. A psychologist would tell you that this is a theory that is out of style and doesn’t make any sense. But I am no psychologist and there are many examples that can prove this theory. For example, Ingrid Betancourt, when she was a prisoner of the FARC,  she had to live in absolutely horrible situations. Forced to live like an animal, being pushed around and chained to a tree like a wild beast. Yet she never lost her mind. Why? Because she held on this belief that no matter what would happen, she would one day see her children again and that no matter what, she still was a human.  Another example is Viktor Frankl, he was an Austrian psychiatrist who got caught by the Nazis in WWII and was put in a concentration camp. He found meaning in life by retracting into himself. He did this by imagining his wife and clinging to this image. He once said:”Even in the deepest despair and in the darkest of time, man can find meaning in life.” I believe that once we find our meaning in life, it will set us free and we will be able to live through any hardship. 

"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next." 

This quote inspired me to write my blog post. As we have previously discussed in class, philosophy is very important for the people who understand it and study it. Since the beginning of the semester, we have learned so many new things, which I think are very important and will be in our future. The Socratic conversations that we discuss really open up our way of thinking things through and our opinions on different subjects. I believe that we should show the world what philosophy is really about because just like the quote says it will be in the government in the next couple of years ad especially in the court rooms. 

I just came across a quote by Heidegger, which was "Why is there something rather than nothing?" and it really got me thinking. I find that this question is kind of impossible to answer, but it does make you wonder why we're here, and why everything exists. Realistically speaking, the world is going to end one day. Whether it's tomorrow or in a billion years, it will end. Now if that's our ultimate fate, then why is everything happening? Why are we advancing our knowledge if it's all going to go to nothing? It would make more sense if there was absolutely nothing, rather than something, no? I'm not too sure what my stance is on the answer to this question, other than the fact that one day everything we've worked for will just vanish. There are so many unanswered questions about our existence, and why everything is the way it is, and I think that it's gonna stay that way for all of eternity. 

Even though Marie-Lise did the same topic yesterday, I would like to touch on the same. The reason why I want to talk about it is because we had such an incredible class discussion on this exact topic, and due to the intensity of that class, I didn't think I would be able to write about anything else. 

I believe that there is a huge importance on Philosophy when it comes to learning as a young adult. Philosophy allows young adults to finally know how to answer the questions that they have had all through their child hood. I don't think philosophy has the answers, but I do think that philosophy will teach us how to get to those answers for ourselves. What I have noticed in my philosophy class is that I decided what I want to believe and which ideas I want to trust. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to the things we talk about. I am also never pressured towards one side or another. This allows me to embrace other peoples ideas and include my own so I am able to walk out of the class with my own personalized opinion on a topic, and have my own understanding of the answers.

     Last philosophy class we talked about philosophy and what was the meaning of it. It made me realized how much my view on what philosophy changed. Yes, after a few class I knew philosophy was about perspectives like I talked about in my first post, but now I see that it’s so much more. It’s all about shaping the good questions and mental flexibility. A lot of people like Marx and Freud had theories and even though they were not proven they shaped our world because of the way they thought and that was goo philosophy.

    Philosophy is all about good questions because that’s where it all starts; without a good question we don’t have the basic element for philosophy. Asking a question might seem so simple but it is much more complicated then it seem. Without a good question we might not have the elements to focus on to get to a good answer. The question is the main idea of the philosophy and we shape our thinking around it.

   Philosophy also brings us mental flexibility since we are changing perspectives constantly and trying to find every single possibility. I remember my first few classes, I would come out with a headache but it trained me to think and my head doesn’t hurt anymore! To go to the answer our brain has to examine every single possible context to really get the truth (even though we don’t know if there’s an absolute truth but that’s a whole other subject…).

   Philosophy has really helped look through life with a different angle. I’m now much better at asking questions and at looking through things differently. Like Miss Bambic says, “Truth is a moving target.” And because  of philosophy I can now look from the truth in a better way.

Edgar Allan Poe (in the photo below) once said “Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant”. This quote got me thinking. It makes me think about the value of philosophy in my life. This quote shows us that sometimes it’s not about the obvious, huge philosophical theories, but about the simple ones that sometimes seem very irrelevant that give us the utmost truth. Sometimes it’s not about taking a 50 minute detour to a destination that you can take a 10 minute shortcut too. This quote speaks to me. Edgar Allan Poe was trying to convey a message of the importance of philosophy in uncovering the truth. And to me, that is very important because part of philosophy is uncovering the truth that hides from the mind. Philosophy opens so many doors for our minds to undercover the truth, and sometimes it’s those super simple (almost irreverent) methods and theories that lead us to know the biggest truths of our lives. Just like this quote, seems so irrelevant, it’s just a bunch of words that make up a sentence, but look what it truly means and look at the truth it reveals, that is exactly what Edgar Allan Poe was trying to show us, and he did. 

Fate is something that we cannot prove and can say it exists, just like God. We all believe that there’s a God that has all the power but we do this because we are scared to face our fear of being our own “boss” and take care of ourselves. Being the responsible human for others and yourself can be really challenging and sometimes even impossible but et we still accomplish it by thinking that there’s someone there for us. This is where it connects to fighting for your life. When you don’t realize that its all you but you still keep on trying, that means you are confident in yourself and have the power and courage to do anything you want without anyone bothering you. I believe that fighting for your life and your freedom and is something that no one else can do other than yourself. Letting fate decide and saying “Oh, its my fate so I’m giving up and if something magic happens then good,” is a really bad thing because you are giving up everything you have accomplished until now in your life. People should always fight for what they want and never give up. If you keep on trying and taking other routes, which you haven’t before but lead you where you want to end up, then you should take them and not give up before you even try.

    Believing is a very personal thing and is very controversial in certain societies. It is confusing for some people sometimes that other people believe in something that is not concrete and that you can’t see. Something at it’s a safer thing to believe in G-d since you don’t lose anything if you’re wrong and you can gain a lot if you were right. That’s what the game theory from Pascal said.  But, is it really believes if you just take a “chance” to believe in something? I understand that Pascal came up with this theory because his surroundings were atheist and he had to come up with a theory to justify his believe, but it still upsets me because people actually only believe so they have a better chance at getting something out of it.

    If someone says that they believe in G-d “just in case” really counts. What if G-d knew what everyone was thinking and what everyone said about their beliefs? He would probably not let them in “heaven” if there is one since their faith wasn’t real. I believe that faith shouldn’t be a game and that people who say they believe should really mean it. What is the point of believing if you’re not even sure? Another reason why people shouldn’t pretend is because they will spend their whole life lying to themselves. Instead of taking a chance on believing they should try and discover  more about their belief, look at the history of the religion, try to practice the religion and after they can make their decision.

     I am not forcing people to believing I just think that they should make their choice not by playing a game and trying to win by guessing. I think people should really think about what they want to have faith in. There is no point in believing if you’re not sure. People can take their time to figure out what they want but in the meanwhile they shouldn’t just take chances on their beliefs. 

The difference between fact and faith are extremely large. To have faith in something is to believe it from within yourself have 0% proof that it is true, whereas fact has some form of truth to it, however not 100% true, facts give us a sense of what can possibly be true. So we can say that fact is truer than faith is, even though facts are not 100% true. But the question I want to ask is what is more important? Knowing the facts, or having a faith? I decided to approach this question because of a conversation my fellow classmates, Brandon and Maria, had on May 1st. Their conversation really intrigued me, even though I have the same position. I believe that facts are the more solid path to go on in order to lead us into the future. The future is filled with unwanted problems and global warming, that we almost need facts in order to survive. But instead of just favoring one side, I decided to do some thinking into the other side too, even though I do not agree with it. If humans went through life with faith that everything was going to be okay, god will be there for us as long as we all pray, wouldn't that just lead us back to the statement "Ignorance Is Bliss"? Having faith is almost the same sort of thing as being ignorant to anything around us, in my opinion. If I had faith that the world was not going to burn due to global warming in the next 40 years, and all odds were against my faith, I would be ignoring the fact that I may die in 40 years. If I was a person that enjoyed facts and not faith, I would realize that in 40 years something bad was going to happen, and make sure that my friends and I begin to try to make a difference, because I want to live. By doing this, I am not being ignorant to the fact that things are happening around me.