Foundations of Philosophical Inquiry: Concepts and Human Existence
Foundations of Philosophical Inquiry
Understanding Key Philosophical Concepts
What is Exegesis?
The linguistic tool that allows us to interpret words within their linguistic background.
What is Phenomenology?
The philosophical tool that allows for a description of the essential facts of something.
What is Hermeneutics?
The philosophical tool that allows us to interpret words within their linguistic background.
The Hermeneutic Triangle
What is more particularly called the “hermeneutic triangle”?
Why These Are Philosophical Tools
In what sense do we say that these are the three tools of philosophy? Because they represent three modes of philosophical reflection.
Reflection, Reason, and Contemplation
Defining Reflection
What does it mean to reflect? To turn over a single idea or thought.
Similarities and Differences with Reason and Contemplation
What are the similarities and differences with respect to reason and contemplation?
- Reasoning: A cognitive process with a linear, temporal expansion. Scientists are an example of people who reason.
- Contemplation: We do not yet know if there is anything, or what process it involves. There is an abolition of time. Mystics are an example.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Meaning of the Allegory
What is the meaning of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave?
When the prisoner leaves and then returns inside the cave, it is because they have a moral obligation to explain to other prisoners and convince them that they live in deception and falsehood. The prisoners, alienated from childhood, consider the returning prisoner crazy and laugh, saying that if anyone tried to untie them and make them climb the steep path out of the cave, they would kill them.
This means that we often refuse to see beyond what we desire.
Philosophy’s Humanizing Purpose
Universal Human Concerns
Is there something that interests and concerns everyone? Knowing who we are and why we are here.
Philosophy as a Humanizing Task
In what sense is philosophy considered a humanizing task?
Philosophy is born from the desire to understand, to find meaning in our existence, and to increase its possibilities. The humanizing task of philosophy elevates us from a state of pure animality to the free and dignified condition of appreciative beings.
Distinguishing Humans from Animals
Key Differences: Animals vs. Humans
What are the fundamental differences between us and other animals?
Animals:
- Their existence is confined to the present.
- They simply live.
- They live a life perfectly adapted to their environment.
- Their relationship with reality is stimulus-response.
- They are driven and guided by instinct.
- They are perfect beings: they are what they are meant to be.
- They move within the realm of necessity, as their beings are biologically predetermined.
- They face reality with a practical attitude; their interest in the world ends where their needs are met.
- Confined to experiencing sensation and perception.
Humans:
- We exist in time: past, present, and future.
- We need to find meaning in life.
- We live in a permanent maladjustment to the world.
- There is a gap between us and our environment, which opens the way for reflection.
- We are driven by desires.
- We are imperfect beings: we invent our lives as we live them.
- We move within a field of possibilities and freedom.
- Our fundamental attitude in relating with the world is our cognitive or theoretical capacity.
- Experience is open to intelligence and thought.
Relationship with Time: Animals vs. Humans
What relationship do animals have with time? And humans?
Unlike animals, which consume their lives simply by living them, constantly busy procuring the means of subsistence, humans are not content merely to live. We need to find meaning in this life; we need to understand why and how we live. We want to live well.
Human Inadequacy and Freedom
The Nature of Human Inadequacy
In what sense do we say that a permanent inadequacy distinguishes humans? Humans are continually making and remaking themselves, correcting their individual and collective existence.
Connection to Freedom
How does this relate to freedom?
The failure to have a pre-existing repertoire of responses to challenges forces us to use our intelligence to create new ones. This indeterminacy, which opens multiple possibilities without closing any doors, is called freedom.