Mengapa Belajar Filsafat Itu
Penting?
Trias Mahmudiono, S.KM, MPH (Nutrition)
Universitas Airlangga
Apakah Filsafat Itu?
Secara etimologi berasal dari kata Philoso-phia
(Yunani)
 philein artinya mencintai atau philos artinya
teman
 sophos artinya bijaksana atau Sophia artinya
kebijaksanaan

“love of wisdom.”
“love of wisdom.”

This gives us two important starting
points: love (or passion) and wisdom
(knowledge, understanding).

The first part should be addressed right
away because that is the aspect which is
so often left behind in academic
philosophy: love and passion.
What is Wisdom?*

Most of the time, it seems that philosophy is pursued without
passion and without love, as if it were a technical subject like
engineering or simple mathematics.

Although there is certainly a role for dispassionate research,
philosophy must ultimately derive from some passion for the
ultimate goal — and this is where we come to the question of
wisdom.

One way to describe philosophy is “disciplined inquiry.” Despite the
need for passion, that passion still needs to be disciplined, lest it
get out of hand and lead us astray.

The fact that philosophy is a type of inquiry, however, emphasizes
the fact that it is about asking questions — questions which, in fact,
may never actually get final answers.
2 Complimentary tasks of Philosophy*

CRITICAL and CONSTRUCTIVE

The Critical task of philosophy involves posing difficult and
probing questions about various truth claims, both those
made commonly in life and those made by philosophers.



A “critical” philosophy is not one that criticizes, in the carping, censorious
way where “nothing is ever right.”
CRITIQUE is the attempt to get behind knowledge claims and ask, What
makes them possible?
The Constructive aspect of philosophy involves developing
an accurate and productive picture of reality.
The Hope of Philosophy*

The hope of philosophy is to understand: understand
ourselves, understand our world, understand our values and
the entirety of existence around us.

We humans want to understand such things and, without
prodding or pushing, we naturally develop philosophy in order
to develop such understanding.

This means that everyone does at least a little bit of
philosophy, even when they have never experienced formal
training.

Aristotle (Metaphysics I): “All men by nature desire to know.”
Does Philosophy ever accomplish
anything?*

Many people tend to think of philosophy as an idle pursuit,
never amounting to much.

Reason: “If we go back and look at the works of ancient
Greek philosophers, we’ll find that they were asking the same
questions which philosophers ask today.

Is this true? Certainly not — philosophy is not simply
something for egghead academics in ivory towers.

On the contrary, all humans engage in philosophy in one
form or another because we are philosophizing creatures.

FACT: It is true that remaining with philosophy does not
afford an especially wide range of career options.

But skill with philosophy is something which can be readily
transferred to fields like law, public policy and more.

Basically, anything which requires careful thinking,
systematic reasoning, and an ability to ask and address
difficult questions will benefit from a background in
philosophy.

Quite aside from career options, philosophy is also important
for those who, on their own time, desire to learn more about
themselves and about life.

Such activities are themselves philosophical pursuits, and as
such can benefit from any background in an academic study
of the subject.
The philosophical enterprise: three
disciplines
1.
Discipline of questioning

2.
Discipline of liberation

3.
“Cessation of questioning leads only to the stagnation
and arresting of growth.”
What are the consequence if a person engages in “blind
adherence”, “unquestioning acceptance”, and
“thoughtless conformity” in the presence of societal
structures that close avenues to the truth?
Discipline of personhood

“One’s life is one’s life is one’s own unique creative
project.” – Søren Kierkegaard
What are some of the benefits of
studying philosophy?*

Problem Solving Skills:

Philosophy is all about asking difficult questions and developing
answers which can be reasonably and rationally defended against
hard, skeptical questioning.

Philosophers need to learn how to analyze concepts, definitions
and arguments in a way conducive towards developing solutions for
particular problems.

Because of this, you can also have an increased assurance that
your beliefs may be reasonable, consistent and well-founded
because you have examined them systematically and carefully.
Benefit 2

Communication Skills:

A person who excels at communicating in the field of
philosophy can also excel at communication in other areas.

Philosophers are expected to express their ideas clearly and
precisely, both in speaking and in writing.

While those ideas may seem incomprehensible to those who
are unfamiliar with the topic or jargon, this also tends to be
the case with the physical sciences.
Benefit 3

Self-Knowledge:

It is also worth noting that it isn't just a matter of better
communication with others that is helped by the study of
philosophy — understanding yourself is improved.

The very nature of philosophy is such that you get a better
picture of what you yourself believe simply through working
through those beliefs in a careful and systematic fashion.
Benefit 4

Persuasive Skills:

The whole purpose in philosophy of developing problem
solving and communication skills is not simply to gain a better
understanding of the world, but also to get others to agree
with that understanding.

Good persuasive skills are thus important in the field of
philosophy because a person needs to defend her own views
and to offer insightful critiques of the views of others.
Who cares about doing philosophy
well?*

EVERYONE who cares about whether or not their answers are
reasonable, well-founded, well-developed and coherent.

Those are the qualities which the study of philosophy can bring to a
person's questioning and curiosity, and that is why the subject is so
important.

We may never arrive at any final answers, but in many ways it is
the journey which is most important, not the destination.

*Source: Cline, Austin. “Introduction to Philosophy: Defining, Studying, Doing Philosophy
is Important. Why Do Atheists Need Philosophy? We Need to Reason Well About Life & Society.”
Available at http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutphilosoph1/a/philosophyintro.htm.
Reference:

Cline, Austin. “Introduction to Philosophy: Defining, Studying, Doing Philosophy
is Important. Why Do Atheists Need Philosophy? We Need to Reason Well About
Life & Society.” Available at
http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutphilosoph1/a/philosophyintro.htm.

Kavanaugh, John S.J.“The Philosophical Enterprise”.
COME AND JOIN US!!!

“Philosophy is the wisdom of love in
the service of love.”

"... [E]vil is an invention of freedom....[A]n
ethical vision of evil is a vision in which
freedom is revealed in its depths as power
to act and power to be; the freedom that
evil supposes is a freedom capable of
digression, deviation, subversion,
wandering."
Paul Ricoeur, The Conflict of
Interpretations
Emmanuel Levinas, Otherwise than Being