Philosophy: From This Side!

Each of us constantly undergoes experiences; sorrow, joy, hope, despair, success, failure, love, hatred, peace, anxiety, regret, longing, envy, knowledge, ignorance, striving and struggle, stillness and rest, relationships, reading, eating, illness, death-awareness and death-contemplation, the death of loved ones, recreation, thinking, and the like. We live and, in a sense, are the actors of our own lives, and by the necessity of living, we repeatedly taste the sweet or bitter flavor of such experiences. In the midst of this, we have the capacity not only to be the agent and actor of our own life (which, of course, as long as we prefer living to not living and continue to live, this agency and acting is inevitable for us), but also to be its observer and spectator; that is, at least sometimes, to look at ourselves and the experiences we undergo from above. So, we not only act out our lives but can also watch this very life. It is from here that two types of gaze can be distinguished from one another: the gaze from within and the gaze from without. The gaze from within is actor-like, and the gaze from without is spectator-like.

For example, consider Saeed and Babak, who have two different encounters with their bodies. Saeed is careless in his eating and drinking and eats whatever he likes. He has no specific schedule for sleep, and his sleeping and waking depend on his work conditions. He is indifferent to periodic check-ups. He has no specific diet based on his particular bodily condition. He is not inclined toward sports and lacks sufficient physical activity. In general, he has no concern whatsoever for his health and lacks the essential and minimal information about methods of maintaining health and the signs and symptoms of diseases.

Now, consider Babak, who periodically undergoes check-ups as doctors recommend based on age conditions. Based on this same general information essential for an individual, and upon doctors' advice, he engages in regular exercise. In general, he cares about his health and possesses the essential and minimal information about the signs of a healthy body and also the signs and symptoms of diseases.

Saeed's and Babak's encounters with their bodies are two types of encounters; both, in a sense, live their bodies, but Saeed is content with just this, and his gaze is confined to the gaze from within, whereas Babak has also cultivated looking from without within himself. That is, because he views his physical health from a higher perspective, he can monitor its condition and evaluate the quality of his health. Although Saeed is not entirely devoid of a spectator's gaze toward his bodily state, Babak has employed this type of gaze with greater seriousness. By the same analogy, our encounter with our life can be one of these two types, as two ends of a spectrum. The type of life where the encounter with affairs is actor-like and from within, we call unreflective life, and the one where the encounter with affairs is spectator-like and from without, we call reflective life.

It was previously mentioned that in both lives, commonly, all kinds of experiences exist. Furthermore, both types of living also possess the spectator's gaze, but their difference lies here: reflective life is the result of acknowledging and taking seriously the spectator-like gaze from above upon life. Such an individual, who is determined to live reflectively, does not pass by life's events with an untroubled heart and strives, through thinking and pondering their antecedents and consequences, to give depth and profundity to their life. In other words, in unreflective life, it is as if the individual merely experiences these things and, proportionate to each state, tastes their exigency; for example, they are sad with their sorrow and enjoy their pleasure, just that. They have not entered a level beyond these affairs and what lies before them. But in reflective life, the individual is not only the experiencer but also the observer of various states and incidents, and, in general, experiences. This observation causes them to analyze, interpret, and evaluate them, and with a deeper look at the inner and outer events of their life, to reach for their underlying layers.

Seriousness in pursuing this type of life brings the individual into a realm where two types of questions reside. Observe the difference between the following questions:

1-a) How can one be happy and have a pleasant life?

1-b) Does life have value? What is the meaning of life?

1- a) Is the influence of birth month on human personality real?

1- b) What is truth? How can the truth of things be apprehended? Can human beings attain truth?

1- a) What reason do you have for the belief that smoking increases the risk of stomach cancer?

1- b) What is belief? What is a reason? How can beliefs be justified? What are the sources of knowledge, what tools do we have for knowing various matters, and what is their degree of validity?

1- a) Will God punish someone who does not believe in Him but has observed moral principles in their life?

1- b) What kind of being is God? What reasons are there for or against His existence? Is God fundamentally knowable? What is morality? Are moral principles and values objective or subjective? What is the relationship between God, assuming His existence, and moral principles and values?

1- a) Is heat the cause of water boiling?

1- b) What is causality? Is the causal relation an objective or subjective property? Does the causal relation hold among all entities?

As can be observed, the 1-b set of questions is more radical and fundamental compared to the 1-a set. Thus, we can call the 1-a questions non-fundamental and the 1-b questions fundamental. The distinguishing feature of fundamental questions from non-fundamental ones lies in their ultimacy; in the process of questioning and by traversing the various layers of a subject, we ultimately arrive at questions that are final regarding that subject, as if we have reached the base of the pyramid and no more basic questions can be posed. These are questions that concern the roots of various life issues and are directed at their backstage. Therefore, whenever we do not stop at any of the questions that various life experiences place before us and, through persistent questioning, seek to examine their origin and root, we have stepped into the realm of fundamental questions.

Thus, two types of conscious life can be identified: a life that deals with non-fundamental, though important, questions, and a life that has made addressing fundamental questions its primary concern.

Welcome to the world of philosophy!

Philosophy is the discipline responsible for posing and addressing fundamental questions. The philosopher, motivated by the discovery of truth, exerts all their effort and energy to attain a deeper understanding of life by peeling back the surfaces and layers of affairs. Therefore, a philosopher is someone who, firstly, has resolved to live consciously, and secondly, from the two general types of conscious life, has chosen the life oriented toward fundamental questions.

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Philosophy: From This Side!

Author: Mehdi Ghafourian (PhD Graduate in Western Philosophy)

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