What is Your Philosophy?
Christopher Robinson
PHL/215
December 12, 2011
Kathleen Ramsey

What is Your Philosophy?

How does one define his or her personal philosophy? A variety of personal, social, political, and economic circumstances help molds one’s philosophy. Using myself, as an example, I will explain how each of these areas has played some part in the molding of my personal philosophical views.
The formation of my views began when I was a young child at around six or seven years old. I didn’t realize at the time of course. Only through growing up and looking back can one realize such things. According to the Performance Aid, I find myself falling into two categories of philosophy: Social and Post-Colonial.
The post-colonial aspect is very easy for me to explain. One of the questions posed by post-colonial Phil osiers is “Can oral history and tradition be preserved for future generations? I believe that it can. This can only happen if we as a capitalistic society stop being so self-involved with money and possessions. We have to realize that history repeats itself in one way or another. Each generation needs to stop and take the time to learn from parents, grandparents, and great grandparents about their lives. The lives of those before you help shaped the ways and methods of thinking for the next. This could be passing along family history or traditions. I have often regretted not hearing more of my father’s stories of his time in the military. He was in, what was then known as, the Army Air Corps. This was also during the time that segregation wasn’t fully integrated into the military system and society as well. My father was also in Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. My grandfather also was in World War II as well. From what I was told my great grandfather was in World War I.

The Second part of my philosophy is the social aspect. In this area a question was posed “Do we as human beings have natural rights?” This question has been debated heavily throughout the Enlightenment and is still very prevalent today. Do we have natural rights? What are these rights? Where did this need arise from? Many of this era felt that we as humans had certain undeniable rights that were given to us. Thomas Hobbes contends that human beings are motivated purely by self-interest, and that the state of nature, which is the state of human beings without civil society, is the war of every person against every other. My interpretation of this is that people are motivated to do things only if we in someway benefit. Being in the military is a prime example of this. In a military setting they focus on individual achievements as being a reflection of team achievement. This directly affects an individual’s award package be it for the quarter, year, etc. This need for self-recognition drives many to go “above and beyond” normal work duties. Upper management likes to see this because they feel as though they in some way had an effect on this individual(s) to go out and do “good things”. I put good things in quotes because what are “good things” really? What makes something good to other people is different to each person. This is something I think about all the time because I see myself as doing “good things” but yet don’t get recognized for it. That could be because my own personal satisfaction is my own reward. I don’t need for others to see just whoever I help.
The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.
This is a very interesting statement because it holds so many truths that are relevant to society. If you stop and think about it nothing really belongs to us. The clothes we own really aren’t ours because we ourselves didn’t make them. The list goes on and on. This holds true to me because I ask these questions of my coworkers every day in one form or another. Many of them don’t have an answer. I myself can’t help but smirk. I believe it is out of pride and vanity that we as people develop a sense of self.

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[ 1 ]. http://www.iep.utm.edu/rousseau/
[ 2 ]. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, 1754