Philosophy is what leads us to see the truth as a whole. Being able to philosophize lets us see through what is true and not. Through philosophy, we are able to ‘see’ the whole truth and the absolute truth. It is the search for truth not as a collective concept, but as a whole. Philosophy gives us a better hold of what is reality and it gives us a higher idea or form of thinking.
As I have learned from the poem ‘The Blind Men and the Elephant’, views and opinions will always vary, but the existence of absolute truth will always be there. There may be someone who is ignorant, but it does not excuse him of what is the absolute truth. As presented in the poem, the blind men had a collective idea of what an elephant is, but even if they merge it and accept their ideas as an elephant, the objects or concepts they merged do not equal the whole of an elephant. With that being said, knowing the absolute truth means understanding and seeing it as a whole.
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From the lesson of insight by Ferriols, insight is what enables us to ‘see’ with our minds. It allows us to have a better grasp of reality. Relating it to the poem ‘The Blind Men and the Elephant’, having an insight into what an elephant is will let the blind men ‘see’ through the concepts or ideas they had. It will allow them to realize that even if they had collective ideas, it is not enough to create a whole elephant. With those ideas, they could now have an insight into what an elephant is. Insight helps us ‘see’ through everything beyond our senses. There are some things that our senses may not perceive well, but through insight, we can fathom what we are experiencing.
Plato’s allegory of the cave presents to us how choosing to be ignorant or a finder of truth has a huge difference. The symbolism of the allegory leads us to realize that knowing the truth is a personal journey. Even if we escape the ‘cave’ that symbolizes our superficial reality, we still could not think for others. The allegory also presents that empirical truth is just not enough to have a whole grasp of the truth. It tells us that experience is not everything. We have to have the insight to realize and to know that there is so much more beyond the experiences we have. We also need to have a rational way of thinking to balance everything out.
In conclusion, philosophy is more than just thinking alone or experiencing alone. Philosophy is a balance of both in order to have a better grasp of what the truth is. There will always be different views and opinions of what truth is, but through our insight and our experiences we could ‘see’ through those views to extract what is true and what is not. Philosophy, overall, is a way or a form of thinking. It is done with the support of our experiences, which is empirical. It is also done with the support of our insight, which is logical reasoning.
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