Philosophy Applications
...ll also be discussing the epistemic obligation or one’s obligation as a critical thinker. This paper aims to account for the applications of philosophy in one’s life. It also intends to be an inspiration to anyone to be familiar with the concepts in philosophy. II. BODY Regarding playing the same language game at a particular conversation, I have recalled some of my past experiences. Just like what I’ve read in a regular section of a recent issue of a magazine, Candy specifically, “Oops!”. A “fighting maroon” confessed that when he appeared in a TV show in the previous year, the host asked him, “Sa tingin mo, may laban ba ang UP this year?”. He answered, “Sa July 12 po.” Everyone, including the host, burst out laughing. In this case, he might just have misinterpreted the question. He probably understood the question, but he played a language game different from the language game of the host and, most likely, the rest of the people there, that’s why they all laughed. While some can also view this question in the same way this player did, what the host really meant when she asked the question was if UP has a chance of winning this year. Another instance was when I posted a proverb of my own handwriting on the wall of my room. A friend of mine asked me, “Ikaw ba ang nagsulat niyan?” I was hesitant to answer the question because I’m confused of what she really intend to convey. Nevertheless, I answered yes! I wanted to ask her what she really meant by that question, is it if I wrote it as in wrote it with my own handwriting or wrote it as in I’m the one who conceptualized that proverb. But I didn’t bother to ask. Until now, I still don’t know what was instilled in her. Is it my capacity as a maker of proverbs or just my capacity to write legibly? Maybe I’ll find time to ask her. Simpler examples are the Spanish words leche and ponyeta. According to my teacher in high school, leche means milk, just as it is used in leche flan, and ponyeta means pony or a baby horse. In the course of time, these wholesome meanings of words were transformed into indecent ones, as they are often used today in some of the Filipinos’ dialogues. People really have different ways of thinking. Philosophers tend to use terms with their own specialized meaning of the term which can cause havoc for the reader. And so it may seem that as reader reads that particular statement and assumes that the term was used in its usual sense, then the text will seem strange and inconsistent. This is of course true if you’re not playing the same language game. And now we know that it really pays to always be reminded of the concept of using the same language game at particular discourse with anyone. Unawareness of this can often lead to much misapprehension. On other grounds, if you’re in doubt of you’re beliefs, the intra and inter subjectivity tests are used. For instance, if you believe in the statement At the end of a rainbow, there is a pot of gold, it will probably pass the intra subjectivity test supposing you strongly believe in it that you might see it in your own way, but not the inter subjectivity test. In this case, the statement becomes fictitious. On the other hand, the concept of Atlantis most likely fails both the intra- and inter-subjectivity tests since no one can take a glimpse of that so-called thing, but it is also fictitious. And supposing the statement There is one coconut tree at the sunken garden, you can see it and anyone else can. It passed the two tests and is, therefore, an empirical concept. Through these tests, we can now easily identify a fictitious concept from an empirical one even through arguing with ourselves. On the concept of our epistemic obligation as critical thinkers, I just thought of some common stuff most people are fond of. A good example is the horoscope, so to speak, different versions from different sources newspapers, magazines, text messaging, etc. In my own perspective, I can’t sense any probable or reasonable evidence for it. Although sometimes it may be true, this is just because you have conditioned your mind that what’s stated there should suppose to be true for you so you find and thin...