The document discusses the importance of studying philosophy. It defines philosophy as the "love of wisdom" and notes that philosophy provides both passion and wisdom which are important for progress. Philosophy involves both critically examining knowledge claims and constructing accurate understandings of reality. Studying philosophy develops important skills like problem solving, communication, self-knowledge, and persuasion. Everyone engages in philosophy to some degree as humans naturally desire to understand themselves and the world.

1. Mengapa Belajar Filsafat Itu
Penting?
Trias Mahmudiono, S.KM, MPH (Nutrition)
Universitas Airlangga

2. 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.”

3. “love of wisdom.”
 Memberi kita dua hal yang penting untuk
melangkah maju: cinta (love/passion) dan
kebijaksanaan
(wisdom/knowledge/understanding).
 Kata yang pertama harus menjadi perhatian
utama karena aspek ini sering
dikesampingkan dalam academic
philosophy: love and passion.

4. What is Wisdom?*
 Hampir setiap saat filsafat dipelajari tanpa passion dan tanpa cinta,
sebagaimana mempelajari pelajaran teknis seperti engineering atau
simple mathematics.
 Filsafat harus dimulai dari suatu dorongan passion untuk mencapai
tujuan utama — dan disinilah pertanyaan tentang kebijaksanaan
muncul.
 Filsafat mempunyai titikberat tentang mempertanyakan segala
sesuatu — pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang pada kenyataannya tidak
akan pernah mendapatkan jawaban akhirnya.

5. 2 Complimentary tasks of Philosophy*
 CRITICAL and CONSTRUCTIVE
 The Critical task of philosophy meliputi: memberikan
pertanyaan yang sulit tentang berbagai klaim kebenaran baik
yang telah menjadi kebenaran umum ataupun kebenaran
yang disampaikan oleh seorang filsuf.
 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 meliputi:
mengembangkan gambaran realitas yang akurat dan
produktif.

6. 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.”

7. 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.

8.  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.

9. The philosophical enterprise: three
disciplines
1. Discipline of questioning
 “Cessation of questioning leads only to the stagnation
and arresting of growth.”
2. Discipline of liberation
 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?
3. Discipline of personhood
 “One’s life is one’s life is one’s own unique creative
project.” – Søren Kierkegaard

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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”.

16. COME AND JOIN US!!!
 “Philosophy is the wisdom of love in
the service of love.”
 Emmanuel Levinas, Otherwise than Being
"... [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