For most of us, philosophy is something that seems out of reach and hard to understand. That’s why Kepo has gathered a few philosophical ideas that kepo feel people should know about that has advice that might help you go through hard times and dilemmas.
Stoicism
“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem” - Cpt. Jack Sparrow
Life is full of the unexpected- I’m sure all of us would agree on that. But the way we deal with those unexpected problems is all different. Desperation, anger, lamentation, depression, name the emotion, we probably have all experienced that in the face of the unexpected. How much time have we spent dwelling on a problem instead of actually acting on it? Life is short, no doubt and we have to accept that we have no control whatsoever in it- except for our own happiness. Instead of lamenting over the unexpected, we should spend that time improving ourselves. And that, my friend, is the base idea of stoicism.
Stoicism comes from the word stoic, which means expressionless and rigid. Merriam Webster defines stoic as ‘firmly restraining response to pain or distress’ and ‘a person who accepts what happens without complaining or showing emotion’. When you run into a problem in your life, as yourself, whether it is something in your control or not. If it is in your control then find a way to solve it and improve yourself to prevent that problem in the future. If it is not, don’t dwell on it. To worry about something not in your control is unproductive and irrational. Everytime you encounter a problem, always ask yourself “is this or is this not in my control?” If it is, then act on it, and if it is not, move on. Rather than spending your time and energy on something that you couldn’t control in the first place, better spend that time and energy into improving yourself. By just doing that, you could make drastic positive changes in how you view your life.
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…” – Epictetus
The root of all problems is that it’s unexpected. If you’re used to and prepared for any situation, it wouldn’t pose a threat at all. For stoics, misfortune is not seen as something negative. They expect the worst situations and accept their misfortunes. Instead of lamenting over it, they use it as opportunities to hone their virtues. It is not to say that they’re enjoying misfortunes, but they try to not dwell on them and seek the positive and use it to their advantage.
“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.” – Seneca
Existentialism
(Jean Paul Satre)
“life has no meaning and it’s your duty and right to find its meaning.”
We, as humans, always look for meaning for our life, both subconsciously and consciously. We look for our purpose in life and what it means to be a ‘human’. Some people believe God had already determined that for all humans. That He created each and every one of us with a purpose in mind. And this idea was wholly accepted until Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher stated, ‘what if we were born without any hardwired purpose or meaning, and it was up to us ourselves, to determine that’. And this was the groundwork of existentialism.
In existentialism, it is believed that everything doesn’t have a reason. You don’t exist for a reason and you don’t have a meaning, everything is just… there. Because there is no reason and meaning in everything, there’s also no absolutes to abide by. No fairness, no order, no rules. But the true terror of existentialism is the terrifying abundance of freedom. Because with no rules or order, it is up to each and every one of us to determine all of those ourselves. You might want to ask someone else for answers and some kind of rules to abide by, might it be your parents, teacher, or people with authority. But all their answers and advice would be false, as those people are actually just people like you, people who don’t have any answers, people who had to figure out themselves how to live. So, what do you do?
Sartre said the best way is to live authentically. You have to fully embrace freedom in its beautiful and ugly form, and recognize that any meaning and purpose in your life is given by yourselves.
“Life has no meaning … It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
One way to understand existentialism, is to imagine a scenario. Imagine yourself in a dilemma. You feel that you have a duty to give back to society and become a doctor. But, you also like art and wish to pursue it professionally. So, you ask people around you for advice. Some suggested for you to be a doctor, while some suggested to follow your passion but mostly suggested the first. So, which advice among the two is the right one? According to existentialism, none of them are right. Only you have the right and ability to decide your life. Whichever choice you choose in the end, that one is the right one.
Utilitarianism
“Actions are morally permissible if and only if they produce at least as much net happiness as any other available action”
Rather than talking about what the definition of utilitarianism is, let’s jump right into hypothetical scenarios to better understand utilitarianism. Say you’re a doctor and you have 5 bottles of medicine and you have 6 patients that all need that medicine. 5 patients need 1 bottle to fully cure their disease, while the other 1 patient needs 5 bottles of the medicine to be well again. In utilitarianism, it’s definite to pick the 5 patients and abandon the 1 because the total amount of happiness that would happen to those 5 patients is more than the happiness that 1 person would experience. So far, simple enough right? Pick the decision that can result in the most happiness.
Let’s do another example. Say you’re a doctor again, and you have 5 patients that need different kinds of organ donations urgently. And there’s a homeless person that just came into the hospital. Would you kill the homeless person that has no contribution to society and harvest his/her organ to save that 5 people and create happiness for those 5 patients and their families? Now, this is where the lines blur. There are 2 kinds of utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism, and rule utilitarianism. The difference is, in ‘act utilitarianism’, you can do whatever it is that results in the most happiness both for you and other people. In ‘rule utilitarianism’, you can do whatever it is, but also follow a set of rules. So in act utilitarianism, the doctor would kill that 1 homeless person, while rule utilitarianism wouldn’t.
“To do as one would be done by, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality”
Are you following so far? Let’s do another one. Say you will have a big math test tomorrow and you need to study. But instead of studying, you could just play games with your friends, relax and chill. If utilitarianism is a belief and mindset that says you need to do whatever gives you the most happiness, does that mean you should choose to play games instead of studying? Well, no. Think of it like this – the action that you do that gives the most amount of people happiness is the best action you can do – which might mean you actually make sacrifices to your happiness in order to make others happy.
“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.” - Jeremy Bentham
In utilitarianism, there’s 2 kinds of happiness or some would say pleasures. A higher pleasure which relates to our intellect, and lower pleasure which relates to our senses. So a higher pleasure takes into consideration the quality of the pleasure while lower pleasure focuses on the quantity. So, instead of playing games, study for your tests and do your assignments!
Now that you’ve learned a few philosophical ideas, it is important to know that these ideas aren’t something that you have to follow. These explanations of each philosophical idea is but a short explanation. These philosophical ideas have many layers to discover and we think you might have fun with it! Philosophy will not only broaden your ideas and invite you to think, but also takes you on a fun journey in discovering yourself.
Writer: Christy A
Editor: Jessica A
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