You have been studying philosophy for the past year.

Do you feel that the study of

philosophy has in some way changed the way you think and the way you look on life in
general? With reference to a text, poem, conversation, film or other experience of your
choice, write down some notes that can help you understand how philosophy is changing you.

Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live

(ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what

counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning

(logic).The word is of Ancient Greek origin (philosophía), meaning love of wisdom.

By studying philosophy and also reading the book “Sophie’s World” by

Jostien Gaarder a lot of questions that may have seemed unimportant and irrelevant before

now are important questions that few can answer them and with a different view for example

“Who are you?”, “Where does the world come from?” and “Was there life after death?”. A

quote from the book which made a lot of sense to me was “the only thing we require to be

good philosophers is the faculty of wonder”. Philosophy made me understand other people’s

point of view and that in every society you are going to find a group of people who do not

agree with the rest. For example the philosophers I have studied so far all had their own

point of view, some agreed with each other and others criticized each other.

A philosopher which influenced me throughout my study was Socrates. He

was accused of preaching against the gods and of corrupting the young by leading them away

from the principles of democracy. Socrates refused to be exiled,the jury found him guilty and

was condemned to death. Socrates’ friends tried to help him escape from prison but he

refused because he believed that he lived a good life and respected his country. Socrates was

considered as the wisest of the Greeks, he realized that he was the wisest because he

recognized that he did not know anything and did not pretend to know what in reality he did

not know. Socrates was looking for the truth of practical things such as the action of a

person. He is known for believing that “The unexamined life is not worth living”.
 A particular topic which also interested me amongst all other was abortion.

Immanuel Kant explains the whole subject in one simple question which I agreed with it “act

in such a way that you always treat human beings as ends and never as means”. A human

person cannot be deliberately used, exploited, harmed or destroyed for the benefit of others.

Abortion can be spontaneous where the pregnancy is terminated by a miscarriage or procured

where the pregnancy is terminated deliberately. The radical school agrees with abortion

whilst the conservative school is against it. Radical school says at fertilization a human being

is formed but it is not a human person therefore does not have an absolute right to live. The

conservative school says that at fertilization a human being is formed who is a human person

with an absolute right to life. I do not agree with the radical school that an abortion can be

done in every circumstancebecause it is a human being but in certain cases for example rape

abortion may take place.

Philosophy has changed my way of thinking and reasoning. Philosophy has

made me think more than I have ever thought before. I think everyone should learn

philosophy because we could think a lot more and do better in school and work. If we

thought more often about some of these things it might help us respect each other’s opinions.