A Philosophical Testament
Ethics
When working on ethical dilemmas and encountering every day problems which my morals are put to the test was a very important lesson to me. We did an activity and we had to decide if a situation was right or wrong and how we justify our actions. This helps me in the future as thinking about these situations and what I personally would do with the time to decide is an important life skill.
Ethics helped me to come back to god as I do believe in him and ethics connects god to my personal morals. The ten commandments helps to prove morals and when being faced with everyday problems abiding by these rules makes me feel like I am doing the right thing. Being happy in life is the most important thing to me and this begins by my morals and what decisions I can make that make me happy. Ethics was a very important lesson and is the most valuable lesson I will take from school
Ethical dilemmas
Ethics and morals are closely related and have a connection.
Morals relates to what you should or should not do. This is what someone defines as proper behavior. Religion is a key aspect in this and this is how many people relate to the way that they act and behave. For those who follow god and the bible, the Ten Commandments is a list of rules in one which has to follow. These rules define who these people are and what they believe in, ultimately defining their morals.
Ethics is the basic principle of right and wrong. It defines how one should act or behave or live their life. These rules come from different types of moral philosophy
Metaethics
The study of where ethical principles come from and who established them. Perhaps god or a supernatural being defined what is right or wrong
Normative Ethics
The study of how to make a set of rules or moral principles. This determines what is good, bad, right or wrong. This looks at questions such as what is a good person and what is a morally good life
Applied Ethics
The branch of ethics which focuses on real world problems and everyday ethical dilemmas. This focuses on questions such as what do we have moral obligations to
Metaphysics
The big metaphysical questions
What is coinsciousness
What is our place in the universe
What is the meaning of life
Does the world really exist
Do we have free will
Does god exist
Metaphysical abstractions
Mind and matter
Existence and consciousness
Identity of change
Space and time
Religion and spirituality
Necessity and possibility
Cosmology and cosmogony
The big metaphysical questions helped me as an individual to think in a way different perspective. These questions are ones that are quite common and answered by either yes or no. Actually diving in with an open mind and thinking of how to give reason to answers for these questions is what is going to help me in the future. Thinking hard about these questions ans seeing all of the different answers from peers helped me to open my mind to many different possibilities.
I believe that god exists but one of the questions that really got me thinking in this course was why. Personally I have always believed in god but it was because I was brought up that way. Trying to prove to myself that god does really exist and explain why was difficult because there really is no right or wrong answer. I felt the same way about the rest of the metaphysical questions seemed to hit me the same way. This was very important to me as it helped me to open my mind to new possibilities which is one of the most important lessons I have learned in school
The metaphysical abstractions were a huge lesson and helped me to become more open minded. Connecting an object to something such as space and time or reality and spirituality helps to refer to an idea outside of human sense. There is a lot that I don't know and making these connections helped me to see something I would only see one side of before, now with many possible outcomes and overall helped me to have a better sense of open-mindedness.
Aestitics
Personal view
The activity where we were to construct a mind map and give an example of beauty that we find in the four categories of beauty was important to me. I never realized how beautiful I thought the ocean was until I had to define why I like it so much. I never realized that the 5 human senses had any part in beauty and I realized that when all 5 senses are in contact it is something that makes me feel fulfilled. Being around an ocean is calming and it makes me feel like me and that is something that is so important. Being around water makes me feel comfort and knowing I can rely on that makes me feel like I have a purpose.
Beauty is a sensitive topic in today's worldview. Social media has taken over with pictures or airbrushed models and people who are viewed as perfect. In reality everything is far from this and social media has altered the definition of beauty. Throughout exploring this unit I have realized that there is so much more to beauty than someone on social media and this was a great turning point for me in today's society
What I found most important from this unit
Beauty
Beauty is pleasing to the human mind and it incorporates most of the human senses. Beauty is defined in many different ways and it is completely different for each individual. This unit demonstrated different ethnicity and what they believe is beautiful.
Human beauty
A person that you know such as family, someone that you don't know such as an actor or a musician, a model or a character from a book
Natural beauty
A landscape feature, a water feature, the sky or an animal
Everyday object
An object that you use everyday, potentially could have meaning and be beautiful because of that
Fine arts
Visual art, literary art, architectural art, music, dance or theater
Present State
Is this exploration in Philosophy the end point, or simply a beginning of a journey in search of the authentic self?
I believe that my exploration in philosophy has just begun. Throughout this course I have learned so define who I am, what my morals are and what I believe in as an individual and so much more. In doing all of this I am just starting to learn who I am as an individual and I believe that the way that I have learned to view things in this course is going to help me to become the person I want to be. I have defined who I want to become and what kind of future I want, I need to focus on what I need to do to get there and align what I say to my actions.
Has defining your philosophical worldview given you a greater sense of your place in the world?
Defining my philosophical worldview has in fact given me a greater sense of place in the world. Studying faith and religion and defining what it means to me and how I use it to reflect upon my decisions was a large aspect of this course. The worldview influences peoples thinking, knowing and doing and I think reflecting on your outlook on life, religion and ideology helps me to gain a better understanding of life and my personal worldview.
Has the process of excavating your philosophical foundation granted you a stronger sense of who you are?
I believe that throughout this course I was exposed to so much new content and I learned so much more about myself. This was a course that I truly believed to be helpful moving onto the future. I believe that I now have a stronger sense of who I am. Activities that revolved around answering what kind of life is worth living was very helpful to me. I had outlined what I want my future to like and how I can accomplish getting there. I also spent a lot of time focusing on my morals, helping me to get a better understanding of who I am. Situations were set out for us to explain what we would do and why our decision was the right one, overall helping me explore what kind of a person I am.
