The Uses of Philosophy – The
Incompleteness of Science
To philosophize is to attempt to see in a
coherent and meaningful vision the totality of my whole
existence. It is a renewed effort to see the essential value and direction of
my life. Ultimately to philosophize one must decide for wisdom of life.
Here we face a number of
difficulties.
First a casual look at the
history of Philosophy reveals to us
many and different beliefs, ideologies,
faiths. As already mentioned, it seems that almost everything that has been
believed as true by some thinkers was also denied by others. Philosophers do not
seem to agree on the most vital issues, which perennially confront every
generation of mortals.
Second a casual look at the
contemporary scene, at the world today, seems to suggest the
same. There are so many divergent views, ideologies and mythologies and all have dedicated defenders and followers
sometimes fanatically sold to their visions of what is valuable, true and
meaningful.
This realization may lead to
despair. Is Truth attainable at all? How can I know whether there is
anything worth believing at all? Is not skepticism the most reasonable attitude? Is not
everything relative?
Third the observation of
the great majority of people is not encouraging either. It does not take much
time to see that a great part of
mankind lives without paying much
attention to the crucial questions of human existence.
False notions of security, ignorance deliberately cultivated, thoughtless pleasure-seeking, mad
activism are all glorified and widely
practiced. Preoccupation with senseless trivialities – this is what we see
everywhere, or it seems so.
Not many people like to
think deeply. Many deliberately evade confronting their inner emptiness by
constantly trying to run away from themselves. The society in which we live provides immeasurable ways
for making it easy to plunge into thoughtless spending of time. It
is called entertainment: drugs, alcohol, bought sex,
etc. Many people live this way.
It is enough to reflect on
this all to be tempted very strongly to give up the serious search for a true meaning of our lives. Is there any?
This “temptation to despair” is
nevertheless the result of a superficial and shallow observation. For
philosophy is not a futile quest. Many individuals found deep and rewarding meaning to their lives
in personal search; in Philosophy. The quest itself is certainly difficult and may
last a lifetime. But it is not a futile quest. Gradually light emerges. Many a
truth, a belief acquires through centuries of thinking and rethinking
more validity and more solid justification. Everyone wants to make his or her
life as meaningful as possible. Mankind never gives up this
search for meaning. If it had it would stop existing as mankind. There
would be no humanity, we would not exist. For this search for meaning,
philosophy is the main striving force of one’s existence.
There is no life without it.
The perennial questions
confront in some way every thinking human being, but the horizon of knowledge, the
depth of insight differs from century to
century. All humanity evolves dynamically towards clearer understanding, toward
fuller awareness,
towards simpler vision of meaning of existence.
The differences must be
there, because each culture, each civilization, each
generation (and each individual) has a
perspectival, partial and limited view. Nevertheless the insights, the answers
gained gradually accumulate.
We must not let ourselves
be deceived by the perspectival and limited nature of human knowledge.
Since human beings are limited, so will be their visions, but limited
does not mean non-existent. Since philosophical questions face each one of us,
we are very privileged. We can examine how the greatest minds of mankind struggle with the same problems. We have a
dialogue with the great philosophers
of the past and the present. This itself is a great advantage. By examining
their views, the way they formulated the enduring all-human questions on the
meaning of existence, we
may be spared going into blind alleys of improper ways of questioning. By
examining carefully their answers we may get tremendous insights and depth of
vision, perhaps even true solutions. We
are not alone in this human quest which endures over the ages.
My and your vision is certainly very limited and meager, to say the least, but
in conversing with the great philosophers, the leaders and giants of insight and vision, we can think the thoughts of the
best of all humankind. The great advantage of this fact cannot be overestimated
ever. This is most certainly the most exhilarating experience. It is growing
towards full human stature as a member of the whole family of men. Are we not
contradicting ourselves? First we realized that the philosophical search for meaning must be done by
each one for himself and thus it is a lonely search, and now we are saying that
this search is nevertheless a search together with other thinkers in a kind of enduring search – dialogue over
centuries of time! There is no contradiction here. What is important is our aim, our goal: to shape my
meaning of my existence, for myself. The purpose of philosophy, St.
Thomas Aquinas remarked, is not to know what
others thought, but to attain towards the TRUTH of things. In studying
Philosophy each one must think for himself. Each one is all the time searching and actively
looking for his or her meaning. Philosophizing is a constant determined
reaching towards the vision of TRUTH. Otherwise it would be a meaningless
gathering of scattered information only. So much is always clear.
However, it would be
irrational and unjustifiable to reject a philosophical insight,
which after careful rethinking appears as true and valid, within an important
area of my search simply because it is not my
own, but someone else’s. This point is so obvious that it would be a waste of
time to dwell on it further. There
lies the value and meaning of studying the greatest and the
best in Philosophy.
Some of the modern thinkers are rather skeptical of conclusion,
transcending what they define as human experience. This experience is conceived
by them in a rather narrow sense, called scientific. To those thinkers –
contrary to the Ancient Greek belief and Medieval attitude, philosophy should only be concerned with what is
empirically verifiable. By empirical verification again they mean
sense-verification. This attitude in its extreme form narrows tremendously the
horizon of inquiry to the scientifically demonstrable only. There
are some, who believe that Science so understood, is all we have to our disposal.
Scientific truth – truth obtained by special
sciences – has the redeeming quality of being exact, but is never complete and
never ultimate. It does not suffice unto itself. It needs philosophical, that
is more fundamental, grounding. It originates in many assumptions which are
without much scrutiny accepted as good. Scientific
truth does not stand on its own feet and is not fundamental enough. It must be
integrated and rooted in more complete and final kind of truth, which may be
considered neither “scientific” (in a sense described above) nor directly
demonstrable by senses. No scientific theory is in any way ultimate for
each one can be – and historically often had been – replaced by another one.
Where science ends the problems do not end, neither does the search for meaning. It must be noted
also that special sciences give us only piecemeal insight into very limited a narrowly specified aspects
of the world: by no means exhaustive or complete.
The scientist himself within his field of
specialization, as a human being needs truth which is whole and complete.
Whether he likes it or not, by the very make-up of his human mind, he
must form a total concept of the
universe and find his place in it. The
philosophic truth is more general thus less exact but more basic. It is truth
of higher rank not only because its horizon is broader and deeper, but also as a type of
knowledge. The inexact philosophic truth is true truth and indispensable. A
truth may be very exact and yet very small and almost devoid of deeper meaning
altogether. Special sciences alone cannot ever completely satisfy the
imperative need for a meaning-vision of the totality of human
experience as human. As Sidney Hook remarked, “Philosophy concerns itself with the
place of man in the universe from the point of view of certain -large and
perennial questions which all reflective men at some time or another ask. These
questions are not asked or answered in any of the special sciences, but to
answer them intelligently one must be familiar with the best science and
theology of the day.” Sidney Hook, The Uses of Philosophy).
This then is Philosophy as
the quest for wisdom. Wisdom is concerned with meaning, values and value judgments. It
is knowledge of what is good or better,
bad or worse, what is meaningful and what is not. It is
knowledge which throws in the concreteness of human existence a certain illuminating light at the
questions: Who am I? What is the
universe around me? What can I know?
What I can hope for? What should I do? Does the universe show a design or not?
Is there a God or Friend beyond phenomena or are we alone?
Are human beings destined for immortal
existence or perchance only complicated
sparks of chemical elements?
This of course, is only a
random selection of philosophical problems. There is a host of other problems.
All are interrelated and mutually trigger one another and thus throw light at
one another forming gradually a more meaningful pattern of vision.
We are in the position now
to put together the answer to the question:
Why should we study Philosophy? Philosophy provides
(a) purpose in life. It enables a person to attain a coherent system of ideas and beliefs leading towards a
more satisfactory mode of living;
(b) tremendous enrichment of human knowledge because it organizes the best of sciences and draws conclusions relevant for the search for the meaning of life;
(c) contact with the
greatest minds in the history of mankind. The
problems of Philosophy are by their very nature perennial. Mankind has been
wrestling with these problems through the ages and will continue in future. In each
generation there are geniuses of insight and depth who have left their answers to be
pondered and examined.
(d) a sense of worth and
meaning of life. An unexamined life is not worthy of man. An exclusive
preoccupation with everyday concerns without a more comprehensive view limits
and impoverishes life robbing it almost completely of its value and import;
(e) social evaluation. In
our modern rapidly changing world of mass civilizations a mass
destruction becomes more and more probable. The study of Philosophy helps
towards an intelligent evaluation of the political scene and to constructive
use of one’s freedom for the interests of
civilization. It augments the sense of meaning of each person’s individual existence.
To quote Jacques Maritain,
Philosophy reminds men “of the supreme utility of those things which do not
deal with means, but with ends. For men do not live only by bread, vitamins and
technological discoveries. They live by values and realities which are above
time and are worth knowing for
their own sake.” (Jacques Maritain, On
the Use of Philosophy).
Think For Yourself
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