Philosophy As Reason but Forgotten by Emmanuel J. Abraham Jr.

Last night, I was reading a book about philosophy. It was a novel to be exact, but the thought is philosophical.


The first thing that I noticed on the book is the way it questions life in the way we live. It came to the point that you cannot experience being alive without realizing that you have to die. The best way of approaching philosophy is to ask few philosophical questions, in a simply and absurd way as possible. For instance, how was the world created? Is there an end or not? Why are we here? What is our purpose?

People have been asking these questions throughout the ages. We know of no culture which has not concerned itself with what man is and where the world came from. History presents us with many different answers to each question, thus it is easier to ask philosophical questions than to answer them. So even if it is difficult to answer a question, there may be one- and only one- right answer. Either there is a kind of existence after death—or there is not. In this case we have to realize that the world is not all sleight of hand and deception, we are part of it. Nothing can come out of nothing, and nothing that exist can become nothing. Remember that there was no such thing as actual change. Nothing could become anything other than it was.

To be a philosopher is to be a detective, and the only thing that requires us to be a philosopher is the faculty of wonder. I just hope that people don’t grow up to be one of those who take the world for granted. The world itself becomes a habit in no time at all. It seems as if in the process of growing up we lost the ability to wonder about the world. And for somewhere inside ourselves, something tells us that life is a huge mystery. This is something we once experienced, long before we learned to think the thought. For various reasons most people get so caught up in everyday affairs that their astonishment at the world gets pushed into the background. It seems like we’ve just grown so used to the world that nothing surprises us anymore.

Philosophy separates myths and god, maybe because a true philosopher is skeptic and questions different beliefs. They are unique and different, and they don’t need to be like the others because for them, they are already special. People who believe in any imaginary gods are people who believe easily in the things around them. They simply stop thinking and start believing. People had always felt a need to explain the process of nature. Perhaps they could not live without such explanations. And that they made up all those myths in the time before there was anything called science.

The point here is what solutions we arrived at, but which questions they asked and what type of answer we are looking for. We are more interested in how they thought than in exactly what they thought. A true philosopher know how to posed questions relating to the transformations, they could observe in the physical world. They were looking for the underlying laws of nature, and they wanted to understand the actual processes by studying nature itself. This just means that philosophy gradually liberated itself from religion. We could simply say that the natural philosophers took the first step in the direction of scientific reasoning, thereby becoming the precursors of what was to become science.

If you were to choose between relying either on senses or reason, choose reason. Remember that our senses give us an incorrect picture of the world, a picture that does not tally with our reason. We need to see it as the task to expose all form of perceptual illusion. Remember that we need to be rational, and all humans are rational. We are born to be one, and this unshakable faith in human reason is called rationalism. A rationalist is someone who believes that human reason is the primary source of our knowledge of the world.

ABE

LEADERSHIP AND ACADEMIC TALENT: THROUGH PHILIPPINE POLITICS

 Every living being, human or otherwise, throughout the whole universe is struggling for existence through a never ending battle for survival. However ingeniously we might plan and organize our society and adjust human relationships, so long as the world remains what it is even the best of us cannot escape suffering. Suffering from one point of view is one of the nature of life, this include our history and our politics. Defining Philippine Politics is tough but defining 'politics' per se is more of the right track. Politics is the study of power and the powerful, of influence and the influential, of rules and the ruled, and of authority and the authoritative. he said that the standard definition of politics will include some essential elements such as power, rule, authority and influence and the manner in which all are acquired and exercised. Philippine has been undergoing the process of this, in which for so many centuries, even in the time of great rajas and sultanate, had the view/knowledge in politics. Thus, conflicting the argument of the late Spaniards that "they are the one who gave Filipinas civilization" that well in fact a paradoxical statement.

In recent years, quite a number of scholars have come out with specialized studies on different areas of Philippine history, but it is a little sardonic that Filipino people have learned not much to it. The tasks of the people who are in position in Philippine politics have forgotten the basic concept of human nature and human society. Some of them were blinded by money, while the others have shown bad leadership through selfishness and self-interest. they have forgotten the basic principle of politics and governance; and that is "human" (the Filipino people). In this perhaps, I got to the point where I asked myself, why exactly are we (Filipinos) suffering from this kind of cruelty and status? Do we deserve this? Have we really forgotten the basic principle of history and politics? What can we (student/ regular citizens) can do to change/prevent it?

History, as a fact, is the recorded struggle of people for ever increasing freedom and for newer and higher realization of the human person. But the struggle is a collective one and as such involves the mass of human beings who are therefore the motivators of change and of history. history is not merely a chronology of evens; nor it is not the story of heroes and great men. Essentially, history consists of the people's efforts to attain a better understanding to life. The common people possess the capacity to make history.

Since the mass of humanity is still in a state of poverty and ignorance, since a few nations have attained advancement and development at the cost of consigning others to underdevelopment, what has hitherto been regarded as history is predominantly a conscious record of the rich and powerful but by no means the just and the correct.  All politicians/present leaders had exerted efforts to insure that the history of their time would be written in their image. Image in which is wasted, dirty, and corrupt. This might be the reason why the Philippines had suffered cruelty. As far as status quo is concern, we (Filipinos) are suffering form different problems such as poverty, crimes and corruption, disaster (natural or man-made) adn so on and so forth. this is a cycle, this is natural, why? It is because other countries are suffering the same fate, even worst. But these challenges, has its own response, and the response are reason, education, love, nationalism, philosophy, and patriotism. If all of these are with us, and with our politicians and present leaders, then our country would have had otherwise. We don't deserve suffering, but we deserve the challenge. These challenges have made our country as strong as it is. Inspite of different disasters and colonizers, we have established a paradigm of success and a paradigm of nation-state.

This coming election, we should be the one (students and voters) to make a change. But of course, we have different political views, but what is important is to vote for the person who do you think can make a difference. How? Simply by not cheating the election! If a candidate asks you and pay you for your vote, just simply says "NO," while if a candidate ask you to be a flying voter, simply say "No," as simple as that. If we have seen some cheatings and rule breaker in the election, simply report it to the authority. With regards to the non-voters, just simply do things better with your lives in order to attain success, don't just sit around, do absurd and useless stuff. Look for a job, inspite of difficulties, try hard and study more. Wasting time is one of Filipino cultures that have been passed generation to generation, but this MUST/should change. Filipino time is considered as 1-hour-late. And Filipinos sees this as a joke, damn it!

By making this, we will and we can establish a community for a better Philippines, a nation-state with less unfortunate and highly succes, or better, all success. It is a challege, but simple response can make a big difference.

Hence, in conclusion; "winners don't do different things, but they do things differently." If these politicians/future politicians are really winners, they will not do things to show bad reputation, they are not afraid on their principles and they have this sense of pride and fear, which they use as their handicap. True leaders never give up and quit, true leaders show pride and succes, true leaders are real, and after the failure, they stand and make things otherwise.