Magisterial Lectures | Antonette Palma-Angeles PhD - Doing Philosophy
Summary
TLDRIn this philosophical lecture, the speaker explores the relationship between life and philosophy through Gabriel Marcel's concepts of primary and secondary reflection. They argue that philosophy doesn't merely explain life but helps to constitute it, using the metaphor of making a baguette to illustrate the idea that life is about experience and not just explanation. The lecture delves into the process of self-discovery through reflection, emphasizing the importance of relationships and communal experiences in truly understanding one's identity. It concludes with the notion that existence is an exclamatory awareness, discoverable through reflection and interaction with others.
Takeaways
- 📚 Philosophy is not about explaining life but about helping to constitute it, as suggested by Maurice Blondell.
- 🥖 An analogy of making a baguette is used to illustrate that life, like a baguette, is more than the sum of its parts and is experienced through the process.
- 🌼 Primary reflection involves breaking down an experience to understand its components, but it is insufficient to capture the essence of what makes something what it is.
- 🔍 Secondary reflection attempts to reassemble the dissected parts to understand the object or experience within a broader context.
- 🤔 The question 'who am I?' is explored through both primary and secondary reflection, emphasizing that identity is not solely defined by categorization.
- 📉 Primary reflection dissects experiences into categories, but these categories often apply to many others and are not unique to the individual.
- 🔑 Secondary reflection reveals that the 'I' or self is discovered through relationships and experiences with others, not just through self-referential categories.
- 💡 Existence is described as an exclamatory awareness, which is heightened during intense experiences and interactions with others.
- 🧘♂️ The 'I' or subject emerges in experiences and relationships, suggesting that the self is a mystery that can only be lived and discovered.
- 🌟 The importance of reflection in living life is emphasized, as it allows for a deeper understanding and thriving in one's existence.
- 📖 The lecture concludes by encouraging students to reflect, dwell, and engage in relationships to truly prosper and understand their identity.
Q & A
What is the main topic of today's lecture?
-The main topic is the concept of philosophizing in Tagalog, using Gabriel Marcel's primary and secondary reflection.
What does Maurice Blondell's quote imply about the relationship between philosophy and life?
-The quote suggests that philosophy does not merely explain life but actively helps to constitute it.
What is the analogy used to explain the limitations of explaining life through description alone?
-The analogy of making a baguette is used to illustrate that experiencing life is more than just understanding its ingredients and instructions.
What is the term used to describe everyday mundane experiences in philosophy?
-The term used is 'kotidium' or 'ordinarium', which refers to the everyday ordinary experiences of life.
What are primary and secondary reflections according to Gabriel Marcel?
-Primary reflection dissolves the unity of an experience to dissect it, while secondary reflection attempts to put it back together within a larger context.
How does the lecturer illustrate the concept of primary reflection?
-The lecturer uses the example of dissecting the concept of 'who am I' into categories like name, education, religion, etc., which are not unique to oneself.
What is the limitation of primary reflection when trying to define one's identity?
-The limitation is that primary reflection breaks down identity into categories that can also apply to many other people, failing to capture the uniqueness of an individual.
What does the lecturer suggest as the way to truly understand oneself beyond categories?
-The lecturer suggests that understanding oneself beyond categories can only be achieved through secondary reflection, which involves relating to others and experiencing life's moments.
What is the 'I' that emerges in experiences according to the lecturer?
-The 'I' that emerges in experiences is the subjective 'I', which is not captured by concepts and categories but is lived and discovered in relationships with others.
What is the final message of the lecture regarding the pursuit of understanding oneself and life?
-The final message is that to truly live and understand life, one must learn to stop, reflect, and dwell, recognizing that the 'I' is a mystery to be discovered through relationships and experiences.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Philosophical Reflection
The lecture begins with an introduction to the relationship between life and philosophy, emphasizing that philosophy is not about explaining life but rather about helping to constitute it. The speaker uses the metaphor of making a baguette to illustrate that life, like a baguette, is more than the sum of its parts and can only be truly understood through experience. The concept of 'kotiinum' or 'ordinarium' is introduced, which refers to the everyday mundane experiences that make up life. The speaker explains that philosophy aids in living life by teaching philosophical reflection, which is divided into primary and secondary reflection.
🔍 Primary and Secondary Reflection Defined
The speaker delves into the concepts of primary and secondary reflection. Primary reflection involves breaking down an experience or thing into its components, such as dissecting what makes a flower a flower. However, this method is insufficient to capture the essence of the experience. Secondary reflection, on the other hand, attempts to reassemble the dissected parts to understand the object within a larger context. The speaker uses the song 'In the Greater Scheme of Things' by Father John Bosco to illustrate this concept and encourages the audience to apply primary and secondary reflection to the question 'Who am I?'
🤔 The Search for Self Beyond Categories
The speaker discusses the limitations of using categories to define oneself, such as gender, religion, or family status. These categories, while meaningful, are not unique to any individual and can apply to many others. The speaker points out the irony that attempts to establish a unique identity through these categories actually end up being references to others. The realization that one is more than these categories leads to the question of how to differentiate oneself beyond them. The speaker introduces the idea that the 'I' or self emerges not in concepts and categories but in experiences and relationships with others.
🌟 Existence and the 'I' in Relationships
The speaker concludes by emphasizing that the true sense of self, or the 'I', can only be discovered through intense communion with others and experiences that cannot be captured in categories or concepts. The 'I' is a mystery that emerges in moments of strong self-awareness, such as being loved, affirmed by family, or experiencing peace after a crisis. These moments are exclamatory awareness of existence, made possible through relationships with others. The speaker advises students to live life by stopping, reflecting, and dwelling on these experiences, as this is the way to truly prosper and thrive, according to both Mr. Spock and the philosopher Aristotle.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Philosophy
💡Primary Reflection
💡Secondary Reflection
💡Ordinarium
💡Existence
💡I-Subject
💡Relationships
💡Categorization
💡Self-Realization
💡Dwelling
💡Aristotle
Highlights
Introduction to the lecture on the relationship between life and philosophy using Gabriel Marcel's concepts of primary and secondary reflection.
Philosophy's role in constituting life rather than merely explaining it, as quoted from Maurice Blondel.
The analogy of making a baguette to illustrate the experiential aspect of life beyond mere explanation.
Life as a combination of everyday mundane experiences, or 'kotidium, ordinarium', as opposed to clichéd stages and decisions.
Definition and explanation of primary reflection, which involves dissecting an experience to understand its components.
The limitations of primary reflection in capturing the essence of an experience or object.
Introduction to secondary reflection, which attempts to understand the broader context and significance of an experience.
The application of primary and secondary reflection to the question 'Who am I?', highlighting the limitations of categorization.
The realization that categories used to define oneself also apply to others, leading to a deeper existential inquiry.
The concept of 'I' as an object and subject, and the difficulty in capturing the self through categories.
Moments of strong sense of self as experiences that cannot be fully captured or categorized.
The role of relationships with others in the discovery and understanding of one's self.
Existence as an exclamatory awareness, which is heightened through intense experiences with others.
The irony that the 'I' is more aware of its existence in relation to others, as explained by secondary reflection.
The importance of stopping, reflecting, and dwelling in life to truly prosper, as suggested by Mr. Spock and Aristotle.
The conclusion that the 'I' is a mystery, discoverable through a network of relationships over time.
Final thoughts on the necessity of reflection for a thriving life, as emphasized by the lecture's conclusion.
Transcripts
[Music]
good day
and welcome to today's lecture the topic
for today is something your teacher may
have already introduced to you
but i'd like to take it up using gabriel
marcel's primary and secondary
reflection
so the question we're going to answer is
how do we philosophize tagalog
so this is the outline we will follow we
will have a very brief introduction
about the relationship of life and
philosophy and then we go right into
doing philosophy
i'd like to start with a quote from
a french philosopher maurice blondell
and the quote is
philosophy doesn't explain life but
helps constitute it
so obviously there are two very
important concepts here
the first one is explain and the second
one
is constitutes so philosophy does not
explain life
but constitute it what does that mean
let me start with an example
how do you make a baguette
french bread okay
flower yeast eggs and then you knead and
you
let it rise for a long time and then you
bake
a baguette is more than its ingredients
and baking instructions
no matter how much i describe it to you
no matter how i show you pictures
you cannot enjoy savor
what a baguette is a baguette is about
baking it making a lot of mistakes until
finally you get the perfect combination
and most of all a baguette is about
eating it
letting it dwell in your mouth enjoying
the sensation
okay so what did i just do here okay
let's compare it to life what is life we
have all of these cliches you know
ups and downs stages it's about career
religion
making the right decision in these areas
but have we captured life okay
what is life really the truth of the
matter
is life is about our everyday
mundane experiences and like
philosophers who love to
say it in a more profound way they call
it kotidium
ordinarium
in other words as father prayers love to
say it
father failure says his famous
expression lundagenmo baby narada
just live it okay so this is philosophy
this is what it does for you
it helps you live your life okay
but how can it do it we do it by
teaching you
what is famously known as philosophical
reflection
pagnila nilay
how do we philosophize so let me now
give you
mars cells primary and secondary
reflection
so let's define terms what is primary
reflection
primary reflection dissolves the unity
of an experience an event or a thing
in other words for you to find out what
a flower is what do you do with a flower
in primary reflection you break it up
very
so primary reflection however tells you
there are petals whatever and whatever
so primary reflection obviously is not
enough
to capture what makes a flower a flower
so what do you do you do secondary
fraction
secondary reflection not tries to put
together
what you have broken apart so that you
locate
this object this experience within a
bigger
scheme of things you know father johnny
gore wrote a beautiful
song it's called in the greater scheme
of things
and many times that's how we understand
something
by putting it in the greater scheme of
that is not primary reflection that is
secondary reflection
so let's try to do primary reflection on
a question
which every college sophomore
college junior is wrestling with and for
some of us
who am i so let's use ourselves primary
and secondary reflection on this
pesky question that never goes away
so remember i said primary reflection
dissects an experience a thing and so on
and so forth so how do we do this
let's ask the question who am i i'm
sorry i use my picture
okay so instinctively when you ask me
who am i
i would say my name is antonette palmer
angeles i'm bach seven seven per first
batch of coins i have three children
catholic
so i ask you now
the answer is score of course is no
we cannot capture who we are
with these categories singly or even
putting them all together
because in fact and this is the
irony of these categories i try to
enumerate
as many as i can but you can be sure
that any one of those categories
will apply to a million other people
i say i am about 77 there were about 300
of us
i say i'm a koi there were about 100 of
us
i say i'm catholic i don't know i don't
know how many millions there are of us
i say i have three children there are so
many people who have children and then
the other thing is
all of these categories are meaningful
only in relation to other people let me
explain
when i'm saying female your femaleness
is defined only
in other words all of these attempts at
categorizing and putting categories to
who i am
is supposed to be self-referential but
in the end what did you do
you actually were other referential
you define yourself only in relation to
others
and so i tried to establish myself as a
somebody what did i do
i used categories that were supposed to
be unique to me and what did i find out
in the end
i found out that those categories apply
to other people
so okay i realize that
that i am more than those categories
i am more than those categories so
the question is how am i different
okay
who am i beyond these categories and
what can i say
about myself but this is the problem
what's happening here
if you look at your slide you'll see
that what's happening here
is i am looking at myself
i object i subject the word
object means in fro in fact it really
means
what is in front of me
what can i say about this i the subject
this eye subject when i can't go behind
it
i want you to look at some experiences
which many of you probably went through
and this experience is
a boy loves me really loves me
and i have this wonderful feeling
i am on top of the world i love life
everything becomes beautiful because a
boy loves me
and then have you ever been to a family
reunion where you meet
cousins aunts uncles everyone
and you just sit in a corner and you say
why do i have this warm feeling where is
it coming from i feel
so affirmed i'm so happy and then there
are also instances
when after a personal crisis has finally
been resolved
you feel this sense of peace which you
cannot get anywhere else
and then there is this
experience of having disliked a person
immensely
and then one time back inside
again the feeling is not replicable
i call these moments moments of strong
sense of self i
realize who i am during these moments
okay
but i cannot capture these moments i
cannot capture the love
feeling i feel i cannot capture my
warm feeling i cannot capture my feeling
of
peace during those times
i cannot categorize them as father
rocket always says
hindi wedding
i cannot capture them in the way i
capture myself as gender
religion
and so in tagalog it's a beautiful
phrase
that is the time i really feel that
there is an eye that
is out there okay but
this i subject emerges
not in concepts and categories i used to
describe myself
it emerges only in the experiences
only in my relationship with others so
what's the irony here
what does secondary reflection tell us
secondary reflection tells us that only
in relation
do i in fact aware that i exist
the i here being not just the
objective eye but the i that i'm trying
to capture
the dissatisfied eye marcel says
i exist
so that then it becomes very clear
that existence is an exclamatory
awareness
and some experiences are more intense
but this is an exclamatory awareness of
existence made possible
only because of other people but
i cannot go behind these experiences
i cannot capture them in categories not
in any
explanatory way so
let's go back to where we started who am
i
primary reflection dissects an
experience
so what do i do i dissect myself into
speakable
categories which apply to other people
that's what primary reflection does
but what does secondary reflection do
primary reflection if it dissents
secondary reflection
brings you back into a hole that is
bigger than yourself
and what do you realize here you realize
that the i in fact is going to
be discoverable only as
it communes with other people as
intensely as it can
so that the eye is a mystery
to treat the eyes as a problem is a
disservice to the eye
because my sense of eye polaga
so i object i can talk about eye object
but i subject that can only be lived
and discovered in a network of
relationships with other people
over time so my young students
it's very important that if you want to
live life you have to learn
to stop to reflect and to dwell
and as mr spock says
if you reflect this is the only way you
can really prosper
or if we talk about a philosopher
aristotle will say
go and thrive only because you reflect
[Music]
you
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