I am trying to connect “PHILOSOPHY” with our day to day lives……
how does the thought of say, Kant, who the average person has never
heard of, match with the day to day actions that we have…
in other words, how do the philosophers thought and philosophy,
enable day to day actions by a person?
we have two means of thinking about actions,
from the particular to the universal
and the universal to the particular…
so let us take the particular to the universal first…
so we have an action, let us take a look at the controversial action,
abortion…….
we have a women trying to decide if she should have an abortion……
that is a particular going toward a universal……
how should she decide?
there are multiple methods of trying to decide this matter…
she could be very rational about it or she could be emotional about it…
or some combination of rational and emotional……
the problem with making this decision, as with most decisions,
they are done ad hoc which means she is most likely to make this decision
in isolation of other concerns… in other words, without some overall
guiding principle… such as in light of what we might call, pro-life or
a women’s right to choose………… she won’t make this decision because
of some overarching principle that she has like the freedom to
choose…… no, the decision will most likely be made based on
some emotional context and not some overall principle…………
in other words, ad hoc………….
and that is how we make most of our decisions, not as part of an
overall principle, but as part of individual decisions that aren’t related
to any other decision…….
we do this personally and we do this in the political and economic
aspects of our lives……… we don’t react with some overarching
principle that guides our actions and decisions……
so, if she had freedom as her overarching principle, then
she can make the decision in light of her principles…
and if she makes all her decisions in light of some overall
principles, then it is no longer “ad hoc” but her decisions
exists within some overall framework………but few, very few
actually think this way………… they don’t make decisions
by way of some overarching principle that they have conceived of………
they just decide in the spur of the moment without any attempt
to put their decision into a larger context…
so in this sense, philosophy does have some value in showing us
how to make decisions within some larger context………
and philosophy helps create that larger context or principles in which
one then lives by… not as rigid as Kant and his “duties” but as
a general guide in which we can make decisions in light of
some overarching principles that help us understand
the overall context of our choices and our decisions………
for every decision is about the choices and the final decision…
what choices that we have, that fit into the context of our overall
principles…………if we take freedom as our overall principle,
then we make decisions based on the principle of freedom,
and every choice we make, every decision we make, is understood
in light of our freedom………. for having a child is a burden,
make no mistake about it……. you’ve given up the next 20 years
of your life to raise this child… as a parent, I have lived this
idea……… so if freedom is your goal, then having a child is not
really conducive to freedom… for once you have a child, you are
no longer free……………
this may be one way someone might understand their decisions making process
in regards to individual decisions that we face every single day………
using freedom as a guide to making decisions…………
but is freedom the only guide or overarching principle one can use?
no, of course not……. there are plenty of principles one can use…
principles can also be called values… what values are important to
someone? we can make decisions about our individual choices based
on the values we have…so for example, we can use love as
our overall principle or justice or equality……….
so in regards to abortion, we can make judgements about having a abortion
in light of these principles like love or justice or equality………
and now we are really talking about philosophy because as noted before,
philosophy is about which values are the important values…
science is about facts and philosophy is about values……
so we can use philosophy to separate out and understand
the possible values that we can then use to make decisions upon………
what values are truly the values we should base our lives upon?
so, how do you make decisions? do you simply make a decision
without regards to any overall principle?
or do you make decisions based on some overarching principle?
and what values do you use to make your decisions?
and how do you come with or understand those values?
for it is by values, that we make any decisions… or it should be at least………
so how do you make judgements? and are your judgements “ad hoc” or
are your judgements based on some overall principles or values?
Kropotkin