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Wednesday 31 August 2022

What is my philosophy

So are our pathways all pre-determined from birth? That is an interesting question, and the answer is: it depends on our personal philosophy! Which then requires us to take a step back and consider: what is a personal philosophy? Philosophy has been defined as:

"(In the original and widest sense.) The love, study, or pursuit of wisdom, or of knowledge of things and their causes, whether theoretical or practical" (Simpson & Weiner, 1989, p. 688)

While there is a flavour of that in examining the idea of predeterminism, it seems more likely that this will be the fifth meaning, that of:

"(= metaphysical philosophy.) That department of knowledge or study which deals with ultimate reality, or with the most general causes and principles of things. (Now the most usual sense.)" (Simpson & Weiner, 1989, p. 688). This usage dates from 1794, where one "J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. [said on page] 121 Now, philosophy is that general knowledge by which the works of nature are understood in seeing the wisdom of design" (p. 688).

So how do we know what our personal philosophy is? For those who have studied this area, this is a reasonably easy question to answer, but the rest of us are probably in the dark about all the 'isms'. Stumbling upon this infographic from Vital (2020), I found it very briefly sums up many potential choices we may have:

In considering our pathway choices through the viewpoint of fatalism or determinism, the answer is a clear "yes", all things are pre-determined from birth. But if we take a subjectivist viewpoint, that confidence becomes a 'maybe'. If we pop on the hat of existentialism or absurdism, we get a 'no': everything is either down to us ...or what does it matter anyway?

It really does all depend.


Sam

References:

Simpson, J. A., & Weiner, E. S. C. (Ed.) (1989). Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed., Vol XI Ow-Poisant). Clarendon Press.

Vital, A. (20 November 2020). The Meaning of Life According to Different Philosophies [infographic]. Adioma. https://blog.adioma.com/meaning-of-life-according-to-philosophy/

4 comments :

  1. Thanks Sam, fascinating subject. Who am I - what am I here for - what does it all mean etc. Self discovery for one! Enjoy the day. Best wishes as always and thank you again for your support Chris

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  2. Great post, Sam. My philosophy embraces several of these. As a humanistic psychologist, it definitely does not include Lockean determinism. Three cheers for Kant!

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    1. Thanks, John: you are, as always, very generous!

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