A Philosophical Narrative of the Self: Reflections and Insights
To start with, this is narrative essay about self where I will try to reveal this topic within some philosophical concepts. “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.”, “There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance”-Socrates. Those were just some of the statement or philosophies of one of the great philosopher, Socrates is a wise philosopher on his time, and he was a classical Greek philosopher who is credited with laying the fundamentals of western philosophy. One of my favorite statements of his is “The unexamined life is not worth living”. It is one of my favorite, because through this statement, Socrates means that an unexamined life is deprived of the meaning and purpose of existence. To become fully human means to use our highly developed faculty or thoughts.
The statement of his “The unexamined life is not worth living”, it made me realize many things. It made me question myself something like, “Who really am I?”, and “What is my purpose of existing in this world?” I imagined and reflected myself to reality. To know more about myself I did an exploration and deep thinking about me, I seek to know my purpose of existence. Just like a seed needs a soil, sunlight, and water for its growth, human life needs seeking and examination for its own growth. As I continue to grow myself I need to understand more to it. Turns out I realized that I’m more of a person who loves his family, and a person who loves art; I expanded my mindset to know more about myself. That is why Socrates is one of my favorite philosophers. That is not just the Socrates’ statement I like. One of his famous statement is “The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing”, this means that only one person who thinks that he knows nothing will try to achieve knowledge from anyone and everyone he comes across in life. This statement is also my favorite because it is a fact for me. Even myself if I do not know something I seek for someone who knows what I do not know for a guide to make myself even better. Sometimes I literally had trouble coping up with my understandings that is why I will try to achieve that knowledge with the help of someone. Those two statements of Socrates is my favorite because those had greatly drawn much of my reflections in life’s realities.
At very first I was nervous that I’m going to take philosophy as one of my subject this school year, because I thought it was hard to cope up with my level of understanding, but turns out philosophy is great and understandable if you read its content and expand your thoughts about it. Not only Socrates made me love philosophy even more, but also all the other twelve philosophers we discussed in this subject. Socrates is truly indeed a wise philosopher, he really is a lover of wisdom. He made me realize more about reality and existence, and had greatly drawn much of my reflections in life’s realities.
