Study of Philosophy Gives Life Meaning
Philosophy can usefully be characterized as the attempt to make
rational sense of things. Ultimately, then, it is the attempt
to discover and articulate what is truly meaningful, including
what it is, if anything, that makes life itself meaningful.
In the process of exploring whether and how things make sense,
philosophers have reasoned that the following questions need
to be addressed: what is the ultimate nature of reality? what
is valuable and truly worthwhile? how should one treat other
people, and even one's own self? and how is it possible to know
the truth about that reality, about what is genuinely valuable
and about oneself? Responses to these questions are reflected
in virtually every aspect of one's studies, including the fine
arts, the other humanities and the natural and social sciences.
These areas provide information, too, but it doesn't always fit
together. Philosophy often can be seen to begin when we have
all the information, sometimes coming from different perspectives
and things still don't seem to make rational sense.
Given the big questions just mentioned, and the vast number of
smaller, more specific puzzles in our understanding, the role
of reasoning, so central to philosophy, becomes apparent. Reasoning
can help us become clear about what we might be confused about,
it can help us identify and evaluate ideas for eliminating the
confusion and it can help us integrate these solutions into
our overall sense of things. At any level, a course in philosophy
is designed to enhance one's grasp of fundamental issues and
to enhance one's skill in reasoning. Hence the emphasis in Ripon's
philosophy program is the development of both critical and creative
reasoning skills, as displayed in both oral and written form.
The outcome of the activity of philosophizing is a philosophy.
But while other "philosophies" of others, especially
the great thinkers of world civilizations, can be explored for
possibilities and insights, it is this activity of attempting
to make rational sense by and for oneself that is the focus of
the philosophy program at Ripon.
|
