Developing a Personal Philosophy

A lot of students who are gifted like to tackle the meaning of life for themselves by answering or pondering questions such as:

• What is time?

• Is Schrödinger’s cat cat alive or dead?

• What is real? How do I know? How does that adult supposedly know?

• What is truth? What is beauty? 

• What really matters in the end?

• How do I “do life” right? Is there a way to live that could be better than other ways?

• What is the purpose of life on the planet? Is there a purpose?

• Is true altruism possible?

• Is there another me (or millions of me’s) in a multiverse somewhere?

• If infinity is real and the universe is infinite, does that mean everything could happen is happening?

Insert any other questions you can think of!

A lot of this questioning starts long before any “Introduction to Philosophy” class. Philosophizing is for everyone, no matter how young. With this style of questioning, there are no “right answers” either (and this can be hard to realize in discussions with peers). This style of reasoning is related to wisdom (sound judgment, tolerance for uncertainty, rationality, practicality, awareness of bias, and open-mindedness). As an activity, students were prompted to choose a “big life question” and see if it fell under one of the four main branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, axiology, or logic.

Metaphysics tries to determine what, if anything, can be said to be real. The abstract idea of personal identity, for instance, can benefit from this kind of questioning, as can concepts such as time and space.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. Epistemology proposes that there are four main bases of knowledge: revelation, experience, logic and reason, and intuition. 

Axiology is the branch of philosophy that considers the study of principles and values in two forms: ethics and aesthetics. Ethics = questioning of morals and personal values. Aesthetics = examination of what is beautiful/enjoyable.

Logic aims to avoid coming to conclusions without evidence. Logic has two types: deductive and inductive reasoning.

Additional Activities:

• It’s fascinating to choose a couple of these questions and journal about them over time. Consider creating a time capsule for yourself and come back to it annually or every five years. Do your answers change drastically? Do they stay the same? Either way, you will learn a lot about yourself. Don’t expect your answers to be satisfying either (what?)!

• Consider a central question to focus on for a long duration. What would be your number one question to ponder throughout life?

• Regardless of the career you have someday, how could learning how to philosophize help you? 

• How does philosophizing impact the books, movies, classes, and environments you choose to engage with?