According to English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, ‘questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation.’ This shows that questions are the most important factor in the study of philosophy. It is through questioning the force that made an apple drop downwards that Isaac Newton came up with the law of gravity; it is through questioning why the kettle cap will move when the water boils James Watt invented the steam engine.
So does it mean that answers are not important in the field of philosophy? The fact is answers are as important as questions for philosophy. Through the search for answer, we often come across more questions and will launch another attempt to search for more answers. However, to some extend, when a commonly recognised answer is establish, the subject is not called philosophy anymore. Most people do not know that Astronomy used to be one subject under metaphysics and Newton’s work used to be called 'the mathematical principles of natural philosophy’. However, through the constant work of the philosophers, these subjects are all under a new branch of discipline, and something that all of us are more familiar with, Science.
Whereas philosophy tries to answer the fundamental questions, science tries to use the scientific method to give a useful model of reality. Despite the popular belief that science gives us the truth, science can only provide reasonable explanation to those phenomenons that we do not understand. The reason why science is much more popular than philosophy is that science has directly helped us to improve our living quality through technologies. However, philosophy cannot offer that, rather, it comforts our mind and soul. Philosophy was always hidden in the little corners of our every day life.When we do not have an aim in life or when we are lost in the process of something, we will start to soul search. That can be one form of philosophy. When we are free or when we are contended with our life and do not have to worry about survival, we will start to look for the purpose of life, that is another form of philosophy. Those who are poor will more than often be preoccupied with trying to feed themselves instead of wondering the meaning of life. Those who are busy coping with everyday life will be numbed by their tight schedule and will not be bothered to ask the fundamental questions of philosophy.
Japanese industrialist Konosuke Matsushita led a busy life from his youth till his retirement from the National Electronics. His philosophy of ‘Developing a road to peace and happiness through prosperity’ was formed only in later part of his life after he was retired. It is the lack of purpose in his life that led him to wonder what his purpose in the society was. Today, his philosophy is a compulsory part of curriculum for MBA. This shows that we need to have spiritual support in our life.
One without the knowledge of philosophy will go through his life with all his knowledge derived from common sense, from what his mentors, friends and the society tell him. Thus his thinking will be full of assumption and the world will be like a mathematical formula where nothing changes. With a philosophic mind, we will start to question and see relevance in everything. It may not tell us what is the true answer but it does rise up new possibilities to widen our confined thought, opens up to all new possibilities. With the advance information technology, the issue of Information overload is getting serious. That is when philosophy comes in and helps us to filter out the excessive information. In the field of philosophy, we can prove something to be true, but how can we prove that the proof is true? We human think that something is right base on our logic, but how do we know if our logic is working properly? We do not even know exactly how it works. That is how psychology came about. Thus we do not know whether what we think is right IS RIGHT.
Well, people may doubt that by saying how can we not know what we know? According to Greek philosopher Plato, knowledge is the subset of truth and belief (refer to cover page). Truth is the facts that are for us to uncover and our belief is what we know to be the truth but does not necessarily have to be true. In another word, we are not be able to distinguish belief from truth, thus we do not know how much we know.
When I was a child, I believed in Christmas and the Santa Claus. I really thought that Santa Claus will come in from the chimney and put the gift in the socks. Well, I know that it was my parents doing now, but that was what I believed at the point of time. One’s belief is likely to be influence by society and thus one can be easily blinded, thus the reason for me to have so much faith in Santa Claus may be because of the many stories that my parents read to me. However, as I grew up, I started to question the possibilities of the presence of Santa Claus, which led me into believing that Santa Claus does not exist. At least that is what I believe at this point of time. To uncover as much truth as possible, one has to open up the mind which can be achieved by knowing philosophy.
What is truth? What is the good? Why be moral? How can we think logically? What can we know? How can we know? Do we even exist? The fact is we will never find the answer to these questions. The more we try the more questions we encounter. It is the out come of the finding the answer to the questions that matters. If we did find the true answers to the questions, then we will lose our spiritual life and it will lead us to the road to extinction. However, then again, how do we know that we did find the true answer…? I leave the question for you to answer.
