Primary & Secondary Reflection 1

Protocol 7 June
Author: Phil

1. Problem
1. An obstacle which breaks a routine.
2. A task that [gets in the way of achieving] your main goal
3. It implies a desired outcome with an apparent deficiency or inconsistency that prevents the outcome from taking place. [Comment: Is this from Marcel or from a dictionary?]
2. Reflection
1. From the [Latin] word [re]flectio which means “to [bend] back”.
2. When we reflect, our attention is directed.
3. Helpful in solving problems.
4. Marcel gives two types of reflection: primary and secondary
3. Primary Reflection
1. The person sees a situation as a problem.
2. This reflection solves the problem e.g. solving a mathematical equation.
1. Marcel gives the example of losing your watch and by tracing back your steps, you solve the problem.
3. However, this reflection does not totally involve the self. Marcel [borrows the popular notion of life and reflection as hot and cold, respectively].
1. [Romanticism] says that reflection is cold and life is hot.
2. In the watch example, when you trace back your steps, you are somehow separated from yourself as you do the reflection like seeing yourself from a[nother] perspective.
4. Is reflection really separated from life?
4. Secondary Reflection
1. Involves the person entirely

Introduction 3

Protocol: 5 June
Author: Jeric

 

1. Marcel: On Philosophy and Art
1. Art
1. By way of a work of art, the artist is able to capture his own experience of reality, so that the audience may be able to share in this experience.
2. Something must be analogous between the artist and the audience, in order that the artist’s experience of reality will resonate in the audience’s participation in the artist’s work.
3. (p.10) “When I look at or listen to a masterpiece, I have an experience which can be strictly called a revelation;…such revelations appear not to be granted to other people, whom I have to difficulty at all communicating on other topics.”
4. There is not one correct or hard and fast interpretation for a work of art.
2. Art transcends the artist
1. A story or a novel has a life of its own
1. After one gains new experiences, a novel, when read again, can provide a whole new meaning
3. Philosophy
1. 8th midterm thesis- Philosophy cannot accept a simplistic conception of universality
1. Like art, there is not one correct interpretation, or insight for that matter, on a particular aspect of reality.
2. In the same way, there is no such thing as a wrong interpretation [only misguided or ill-informed ones], but one must also be wary of complete subjectivity.
2. Marcel: On the ‘true questions’ and the ‘persons of goodwill.’
1. The ‘true questions’
1. There are questions that are not simply answerable [by] a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
1. (p. 11-12) “Do you believe in God?”
2. True questions are the underlying questions regarding the meaning behind existence, and behind reality itself.
1. Ex. Why do you wake up everyday? What is the purpose behind the things you do everyday?
2. Free thinkers and ‘persons of goodwill.’
1. ‘Philosophy is a quest for honesty’- Walter Kaufmann
1. In [his writings], Heraclitus criticizes Homer (56), Hesiod (57), and Pythagoras (81).
2. Also criticizes his fellow Ephesians for assuming that the decision of the majority is ultimately the best and most just decision (121).
3. Perhaps Heraclitus invites everyone to be honest with themselves, and have the courage to question the accepted order of things.
2. Marcel: The role of the free thinker is to “swim against the current (p.11).”
1. The challenge is to take one’s own stand on the truth, even though it may be unpopular, or against the accepted order.
3. Person of goodwill: One who has a genuine concern for other people.
3. Challenge of philosophy: have the courage to think freely, and to be honest with one’s own experience of reality, though it may be met with opposition from others.

Introduction 2

Protocol Thursday 31 May 2012
Author: Kayle

[Strictly speaking, p]hilosophers did not [intend to build] their own “philosophical systems” in investigating reality; their followers [who tried to emulate them where the ones who transformed their thoughts into systems or schools].

SYSTEM vs. REALITY
Reality must outweigh the system.
*Procrustean bed – twisting reality to fit the system; an act of betraying and denying reality; it is impossible and highly irresponsible [very heavy word; unfair to scientists] to even attempt to sever experience from the results
“Happy accidents” (in science) – Yes, they exist; but in science, the scientists’ effort is discounted – only the result matters,
as if it were separate from the method.

MARCEL’S INSIGHTS
Metaphysical unease
o Likened to person with fever, when he/she twists and turns to find the “right position”
o The sick person cannot dictate the body to get well and therefore must go through the agony/pain.
o Similar to perplexity that all being is in Being (Heidegger); question on being vs. nothing(ness) (Parmenides)
Wondering about reality as being (as existent) and not nothing (non-existent) – a probable cause for human life to pause
momentarily, for humans to ponder on reality and produce insights about things taken for granted
Musical discord as a part of a wider harmony
o Similar to Heraclitus’ example of tension as a factor to produce music
o Harmony is not about removal or elimination; rather, adjustments are [] made. But before one can make
the necessary adjustments, one must go through the experience of music.

SITUATION
Associated with “involved self”
*nuance – a slight difference in context/appearance
The involved self makes the experience appeal to its senses; thus, inhabits the situation (in contrast with simply making
the experience a mere experiment).

IS PHILOSOPHY TOTALLY SUBJECTIVE?
Is it purely personal and idiosyncratic?
One thing is for sure – it does not aim to be universal.
*Denken überhaupt – “generalized thinking”; überhaupt translates to “universally”, “totally”, or “absolutely”
o (philosophical) systems which attempt to generalize all human experience
o E.g. Hegelianism ([Georg Friedrich Wilhelm] Hegel), Thomism (St. Thomas Aquinas)
Reliance on generalized thinking, a ready-built system which instantly provides, is tantamount to [preoccupying] oneself [with] an abstraction – an illusion of having an omniscient view (in contrast with [being] engag[ed with] the concrete experience).
o E.g. driving with a map; one simply receives directions to reach the destination
One is compelled to move back and forth from the act of driving itself to the act of looking into the map,
which in fact is a mere illusion[?] of a bird’s eye view.
The map fails to show a great deal of things which only reality can manifest.

SCIENCE AS GENERALIZED THINKING (Denken überhaupt)
In the scientific method, the aim of the scientist is to come up with a generalization.
Science attempts to homogenize and predict outcomes (following the correct variables and methodology).
These generalizations are meant to hold true at all times.
o How? Through experimentations for the sake of verification.
One is compelled to move from the generalization to the particular case. (such a movement is similar to
the example of driving with a map)
o More calculations and generalizations are built upon pre-existing generalizations – that is how science works. [please provide examples]
Generalized thinking may be based on reality, but still fails to capture actual reality; for reality is not meant to be captured
by any school of thought – it is meant to be lived, inhabited and experienced.
It is clear that philosophy is not about denken überhaupt. The evident difference between philosophy and science can be
seen.

There seems to be the tension between the idiosyncratic and the general. The involved self [is] intermediary
[to] the two.

Introduction 1

Protocol: Tuesday 29 May
Author: Jabo


I.  Heidegger on Sophists and Socrates

• Sophists: means “the wise ones”, they presume themselves to be wise. As they already have ready-made answers, they claim to be wise enough to teach whatever it is you might want to know.

• The Sophists removed the astonishingness of the most astonishing thing by claiming that they hold the truth which is a false assumption.

• No one can every truly grasp the whole truth.

• Socrates: known for his method of asking questions. He believes that inquiry is the best way of [ar]riving at the truth. He tried to revive Hen Panta which the Sophists destroyed. To him, “education has nothing to do with filling a pail, rather it has everything to do with igniting a flame” (Heraclitus[?]):

• He affirms that knowledge is possible for everyone who makes the effort to realize it.
• You have to have skill[s] in asking questions so as to be able to [arrive] the truth (in a sense, this is how [p]hilosophy operates).

• Points: (1) Though there are no sophists around, sophism is still alive and can be represented by today’s science and technology, education, etc. (2) Truth is so much bigger than everything we have now because we are mere apes compared to goddesses who hold absolute knowledge [warning: mixed metaphors].

II. Assessing Heidegger’s Text

• From a technical point, his text is useless, but that is the point – not to give a conceptual definition o[f] Philosophy.
• He answered the question performatively: he wrote the text philosophically and the text initiated us [into] the act of philosophizing.
• We will never be able to inhabit the sophon again.

• What then is the point of [p]hilosophy? Strive for the sophon makes us more human.
• There is hope if we come back to a poetic understanding (artistic scientist and vice versa).

III. Marcel’s The Mystery of Being: Introduction

• Why was he hesitant about giving a Gifford lecture?

• He does not want to [] limit[] Philosophy [].

• According to him, [p]hilosophy cannot be reduced into [a few sentences].

• He is wary of the possibility that the audience may refer to his [thought] as “Marcelism”.

• He displays his resistance against establishing categories/labels because these do not, at all, fully represent the ideas that he wants to deliver.

• What made him continue?

• Marcel sees this as a duty to [p]hilosophy; an opportunity to engage other people [with] his ideas.
• He is inviting us to go along his unfinished system [This is not faithful to Marcel!]. He wants his audience to realize that philosophizing is a quest where one should not expect a polished outcome (unlike in scientific investigations where one already formulates a hypothesis at the beginning).

• General direction of his thought thus far:

• Image of a road that is open to objections of two sorts:

• Presupposes spatiality
• Presupposes a destination