2021-10-18
# PHILO13
#philosophy
# The Reflection Process
“Philosophy was a mode of existing-in-the-world,which had to be practiced at each instant, and the goal was to transform the whole of the individual’s life.” “Thus, philosophy was a ==way of life==, both in its exercise and effort to achieve wisdom, for real wisdom does not merely cause us to know:it makes us be in a different way.”
Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life
- Knowledge imposes responsibility
- People run away from knowledge because they are afraid of the ==enormous gravity of their own freedom==
- They see freedom us making us liable to freedom rather than ==enabling us to effect renewal==
- so they forfeit it
- Connected to: Cards/The alternative to freedom is unconsciousness
- What is human is ==to face reality, to constantly and actively seek the truth==, because the demand of our humanity is that we be responsible
# Four Moments
- Experience
- our encounter with the moral theory. We approach the theory not as some abstractionism totally removed from our life but ==a truism that addresses us directly==.
- Significance
- The experience is evaluated in terms of its personal significance to us.
- We realize that the experience ==speaks to us directly about our own past incidents.==
- To reflect is to transform a common encounter into a ==personal experience==; ==experience is not what happens to us, it is what we do about what happens to us.==
- The significance of the experience varies for each of us because of our individual differences. Reflection is always personal.
- Insights 2. Reflection enables us to ==look back to a past incident in our life== because of the present experience. This experience provides a new light with which to view our past incident. 3. Through this backward glance, we gain an ==insight into our private life and into life in general== as we get to understand better or appreciate more deeply our past personal incident.
- Response
- Once we have learned a new insight we should strive to respond by way of a resolve.
- The reflection process culminates in the transformation of the insight ==from a lesson in the mind to a power in the will to renew our life. ==
- The last moment of the reflection serves the transformative nature of ethics.
TL;DR 1.Crystallize the experience: Identify a particular idea or teaching in the theory that appeals to you in a special way. 2. Highlight its significance: Recall a personal incident which the idea or teaching brings up. ==Let the experience happen to you, let it become your own.== 3. Draw an insight: Learn a lesson that will apply to your personal incident and which you can profit from. 4. Make a response: Resolve to do something good. Allow the insight to make a difference in your life.
- The story of the tortoise and the hare illustrates the advantages of reflecting after every experience.
- To fail to reflect is to forfeit the chance to learn and benefit from the experience.