abby-philosophicalselfportrait

[abby-philosophicalselfportrait]

introduction

I think that when talking about my personal philosophy, there is main idea that I see as being the most impactful on building my personal philosophy. That is perception. 

I see perception as the basis of all aspects of one’s philosophy. It influences how we see and understand the world around us. How we view things such as truth, beauty, morality, even reality. 

I believe that our personal perceptions come from a few things. Most importantly our life experiences. The way we experience life is a huge factor into how we view it. Another influence on our perception is the way we grow up and the culture we’re raised in. This is a huge impact on the way way we perceive the world, but essentially it is the world we live in. We are all products of our upbringing and that is reflected on our perception of the things around us as that is what we grew up to know. 

Now, as for the main point of my project. I seek to gain a higher understanding as to how my perception of things has changed or influenced the way I see certain ideals. I have chosen three topics that I think best represent this idea, all of which are linked down below.

Morality

Truth

Beauty

[abby-philosophicalselfportrait]

beauty

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is a line we’ve all heard a thousand times. But it stands true. Beauty is subjective, and the ideals of beauty can vary from person to person - from culture to culture. It all depends on the perception of the one looking at it. 

For me, the idea of beauty was something that I had very much made my mind up on. And I found that through this course, that remained true. With regards to beauty and aesthetics, there are a few factors that influence one’s idea of what is and isn’t “beautiful”. As we can see that all around the world, there are many different ideas of the beauty standard, and that plays a huge role in influencing someones idea of beauty. This is a huge factor as it plays into their perception of what beauty. Let’s sat in the west, where the beauty standard for women is often seen as thin, blonde, tall. For someone living in that region, their idea of beauty would be based off this standard, in some way. As it is the idea of beauty they see all around them. 

I always saw beauty this way. Though, we can see beauty in other ways aside from the one pushed onto us by our culture, traditionally the standard is how we see it. I honestly don’t believe that there is anything objective about the idea of beauty. I think that there is so much beauty out there that varies in a million different ways that there can never be a concrete definition or idea of what beauty is.

Source:  Sartwell, Crispin, "Beauty", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/beauty/>.

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truth

To me, there are two main forms of truth, both of which lead back to the idea of perception changing how we view something. I think that the correspondence theory is a large impact on my views around truth. It is the idea that truth exists in relation to reality. And our reality stems from our perception of it, leading back to the whole original idea. 

The first is internal truth, this is the truth that is for us - the more subjective kind. It is our personal truth and therefore may not be the truth of others. This is the form of truth that can differ from person to person as everyone has their own truths. This can be something like their opinion on a topic to the emotions they feel inside.  This are two things that stem from the way the person perceives the thing they have the opinion or feeling about. Look at something such as love, the people involve feel those emotions for each other, and that is their truth. Not the truth of others. 

Now, the second type of truth is external truth. This is the objective truths, the ones that aren’t solely based off one’s perception and are more rooted in fact. This is more the opposite. It is not one’s perception that shapes these truths, rather the truths that shape the perception. Examples of external truths could be math and science. 

As we can see truth is something that can be created by or create perception. With internal truths, they are based off the perception the person has about something. While with external truths they come from fact and therefore make a perception. 

The idea of truth and where is came from was something I never thought about before this class. But as we delve deeper into the idea of truth and where it comes forms, I found myself thinking about it more and more, enough to gain a opinion on it. 

Source:  David, Marian, "The Correspondence Theory of Truth", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/truth-correspondence/>.

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morality

Before this course, morality was something I saw as very grey. This is a way of thinking I still follow, but it is a bit different now. Before, I thought that though morality is very grey, there will always be right and wrong decisions and actions. But now, I see that quite differently. 

I used to think that there was nothing that could be considered properly right or wrong. But as we talked more about the idea surrounding morality in the course, that had begun to change, at least a little. I believe that there is a ways to distinguish right from wrong with the theory of Utilitarianism.

Utilitarianism is something that has stuck with me through this course as I find the concept quite intriguing. It is a moral theory that determines what is right or wrong from a cost-benefit analysis. It bases morality off the value of different aspects of the choice being made. 

Examples:

An act such as murder, would be wrong as one’s life has value. 

While, education is right, because it adds value to someone and the society they live in. 

But I don’t fully agree with this concept. Though, I do think it would be the best way in constructing a universal idea of morality, there are a few flaws in it. I see good and evil as something in a constant balance, and any little thing can tip the scale. As for what is considered right or wrong - good or evil? Well is all depends on the person looking at it. 

A activity in the class that I see as a perfect example of this was the discussion on pushing the fat man onto the train track. This was a choice that divided most of the people and I found it fascinating to see the different viewpoints made on the topic. 

Yes, pushing the man off is technically murder and that is largely considered wrong. It all comes back to that idea of Utilitarianism and the value of the lives at stake. Is one life worth more than five? Especially is that one life is responsible for the other five being in danger. 

It can be decided by the perspective of the person looking at it. As all questions of morality are.

Source: Grey, JW. “Moral Theories (Normative Theories of Ethics)” Ethical Realism. August 2010. https://ethicalrealism.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/ethical-theories/