NARVAEZ, Patricia Eurielle R.

August 20, 2019

BA Business Economics Reaction Paper

First of all, I would like to commend about how the chapter, “The Value of Philosophy” in
the book “Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell, was written. Even though you really need
to comprehend it well in order for you to understand the message, the paper was really full of
content, not only informational content but meaningful and in some way and enlightening.

There are a lot of misconceptions about philosophy like it is a non-sense matter to talk
about because the answers are merely common sense already. Another one is that the value of
philosophy can only be seen through the people who are studying it; nothing more, nothing less.

We should know that philosophy is about removing any prejudices in our minds, our bias
judgements, and declining to base everything on our beliefs and tradition. Let us keep in mind
that just like the body, the mind needs nourishment and food in order for it to develop and grow.
We are the one that is responsible for our own selves to grow holistically. You can see the value
of philosophy through this aspect, if a person doesn’t believe that he or she needs to feed his or
her mind, he or she will never see the value of understanding and studying philosophy.

Just like any body of knowledge, philosophy aims knowledge that examines our beliefs,
judgement and a knowledge that unify the different bodies of science. I would just like to quote a
sentence from this chapter which says, “those questions which are already capable of definite
answers are placed in the sciences, while those only to which, at present, no definite answer can
be given, remain to form the residue which is called philosophy.” This only proves to say that
before any science became what they are called now, they were first included in the study of
philosophy. When they already had definite answers, they formed a new science yet ones without
definite answers are remained in the field of philosophy. Given this statement, we should see the
value of philosophy that other sciences came here before being what they are called now.

Philosophy is certainly not about having definite answers to questions. Its about having
your own answers with the most uncertain questions. “The man who has no tincture of philosophy
goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual
beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the
co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason.” I would like to expound what was said in this
part because this is one of the main reasons why we should value and study philosophy. It is said
that a man who doesn’t want to philosophize is a man that is imprisoned with what he only knows
or what the world told him so. Because we grew up, knowing that all of the things have answers.
But in reality, we should know that being able to philosophize means we are given the chance to
look at the wide range of possible answers which will make our mind wonder and be free from our
customs and beliefs. It is somewhat refreshing one’s mind, values and beliefs – if what you are
believing is really your own belief and if you have your own reasons behind it.

After reading this paper, I valued the importance of philosophy. Before, it is just a mere
subject for me to pass that is why I need to study philosophy, but now, I would like to study it for
myself as well as how I can contribute to the body of knowledge out there. I learned that
philosophy is not about debating what is right and wrong, it is not about which is good and bad
but philosophy is about asking and questioning what life gives and presents you.

When we’re young, our tendency is to ask and ask about a lot of questions, about things
we don’t understand. An example of this is when we are asked to pray before meals, before
sleeping and as a child, you will ask why? If we are still not satisfied with the answer, we will ask
more and if they don’t have answer anymore, our parents will just say that we need to do it
because it is tradition, our belief or it is what they knew and did as they grow up. And if we will not
pray, we will be scolded or we will be punished, so you will bear in mind that it is a must because
it is the right thing to do and this is what was taught and planted on us. Growing up, you will have
these traits and beliefs that you didn’t even know why you are doing. Growing up, we forgot to
ask about the reasons why we believe with this and that, why we need to this and so on and so
forth. And this is the reason why philosophy is important, for us to see if we have reasons who
and what we are now, to see if our beliefs is because we really believe in it or because it is what
was taught to us.

Philosophy is asking about things that others might say should not be asked. Questions
that others will consider invalid, inappropriate or even just a common sense question. Questions
like; “‘Is there a God?’, ‘Why would I believe in Him?’” If these types of questions will be asked,
not everyone will understand and be open about it. Only the ones who know about philosophy
and understands its value will be able to accept these kinds of questions. This is the basic reason
why we should study and value philosophy as what Bertrand Russell said in his paper. We need
to know that we should enlarge our knowledge. We should not be like a mere machine that we
will just accept any input given to us and have the automatic or expected output from us. We
should learn to process, question and comprehend things after having an information. Asking is
not about not believing, it is also not about questioning the person or the act but it is merely
wanting to know the reason behind it. When studying philosophy, one will understand that not
everything that is present now is the truth. We should not be like a sponge that we will absorb all
the water surrounding us. We should learn to filter what we will absorb and not.

Philosophy is about the enlargement of knowledge. It is about having and perceiving all
the points of view and one can still add another from his own perspective. It is not about just
choosing what was already present but it can be adding what was not yet discovered or not yet
comprehended. A tendency of a human is to just live with what was there, to accept what was
presented to us and just continue it. We never had the courage to question things because we
have the initial notion that it is wrong and it is what we knew growing up.

After everything I have said, I would really like to commend this paper, for it enlighten me
and made me realize about the things that I never would have imagined I would think of. This
somehow made me look and see the deeper meaning and value of philosophy, that it is more of
what I thought it was. That it is never too late to philosophize and it will never be wrong to ask
about uncertain questions, even the “invalid” questions. It is also important to bear in mind that
even life gives you a hundred definite answers, you can still question them and you can have own
unique answer to each and every question you asked and no one can say you are wrong about
it.