Why Do We Philosophize?

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6.0 Philosophy as an activity is rooted on lived experience.
6.1 Experience is the life of the self: dynamic inter-relation of self and the other,
be it things, human beings, the environment, the world, grasped not objectively but from
within.
Experience is an interactive process itself interior to which the human self is in dynamic
relation with the whole range of the other.
6.2 Self is the "I" conscious of itself, present to itself.
6.3 Presence to itself entails also presence to the other, the not-I.
7.0 This relatedness of the self to the other is characterized by tension, disequilibrium,
disharmony, incoherence.
Novel features of experience bring new questions which burst our habitual categories of
looking at reality give rise to hesitancy and uncertainty.
8.0 Tension calls for inquiry, questioning, search.
The positive incoherence between environmental demands and the agents habitual equipment
to meet them calls forth inquiry.
8.1 Inquiry is the whole process by which human experience of himself/herself as responder
to actions on him/her is transformed from an incoherent state to one whose elements hung
together, from a state of tension and discord to one that is resolve and integrated.
8.2 Harmony happens when that novel question raised by the environment becomes a familiar
question to the person where one finds it immediate solution.
8.3 Inquiry is continuous because of the unlimited character of the other prevents making the
world wholly familiar.
9.0 Depending on the level of experience, there are three levels of inquiry:
a.) common sense
b.) scientific inquiry
c.) philosophical inquiry
9.1 Common sense is the generally accepted set of regulative meanings and procedures
applied to particular circumstances. e.g. I fell like urinating, so I look for the "WC" (water
closet)
9.2 Scientific inquiry is concerned with a particular need, treats the world as a means in order
to achieve a concrete end. e.g. I have a stomach ache, I go to the doctor, I take medicine.
10. Philosophical inquiry is inquiry into the coherence, sense of human life as a totality, as a
whole, comprehensive reality and ultimate (final) value. e.g. I have a terminal case of
stomach cancer; I am given only 3 months to live, so I ask, "What is the meaning of my life?"
10.1 Logic: theoretical coherence to justify the variety of regulative meanings and to relate
them with one another as meanings; to integrate experience.
10.2 Phenomenology: theoretical coherence tested in direct human experience.
10.3 Meta-pragmatics-the aspiration for wholeness; philosophy must self-consciously place
itself in the context and service of human life.
"sens de la vie": "sens" can mean the direction of a river, the texture of a cloth, the opening of
a door, the meaning of a word. Likewise, my life can have a direction, a texture, openings
(possibilities), meaning.

Summary notes by Manuel Dy, Philosophy Department, College of Humanities, Ateneo De Manila University, revised
by Roland L. Aparece, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Bohol.