This bestseller
book was published years and years ago, became an ‘it’ book which everyone seemed to know and talked about. Ol’ big bro eventually brought it upon us to ‘educate’ us on this subject I guess. Haha. Remembered read it through Plato, could not grasp the idea, got bored, skipped the education part and only read the story (which of course did not make any sense whatsoever). Doing what I’m doing at the present, I wonder whether this book will eventually make sense for me. I’ve read tons of articles rooted waaay back to Plato’s concepts, some refuted them, some approved. Thus the curiosity: will this book help me understand my work without having to read through Plato’s original works? (ergh…. just the thought send chills through my bones! Old super said its not necessary anyway. Heheheh) And what is all the fuss about philosophy? Why is it that some people are so interested in daydreaming and asking such questions that sound so crappy but hard to answer? How did they come up with those questions?
Well, anyway, this book was on my reading list a couple of years back, after I read this, linking philosophy to our day-to-day life as opposed to finding the glorified mumbo jumbo of the ‘real truth’ through wisdom whatchamacallit thing. So, I searched the library, found it, and read it through. Got stuck in the first chapters (unlearning is so damn hard!!!), but once I got over them, the rest is not so mind tangling.
I’m not going to review this book (tons of people already done so) and will be selfishly assume that it is so well known and read that I don’t have to write about it further. It’s ancient book anyway!!! What I’m going to do is writing about this book’s relevancy to what I’m doing right now: philosopher in training (this is also what my old super, who has a bachelor degree in philosophy, said regarding the title that hopefully will be bestowed upon yours truly if there is no personal calamities ensued) I read this while waiting for the verdict about my confirmation, the memories of the (crazy-tumultuous-whirlwindy) days of literature review and writing proposal is still fresh. Hence, I will relate it to this reviewing and writing experience and not further down the road.
The tumultuous first year. The notorious year full of confusion and getting lost trying to find the particular project no one has done before. Sort of trying to find not just
A needle in a haystack, but
THE one special needle one never thought to exist. To make things even more complicated, there are several haystacks that looks equally compelling that one try to mix these haystacks in search of a more special needle. I might be exaggerating, but that’s how I often felt: I am such a stupid cow!
Anyway.
What one has to do in the first year is finding a gap, one special topic that no one has ever thought of looking at through a certain way. One has to be able to find the question(s) or problem(s) that has not been much discussed and convince others that this topic is important enough other than to gain a certain degree. Then, one has to propose a project to answer the question or solve the problem. Again, convincing others that one has chosen the right way to do it. The ‘others’ are not simply anyone you meet or like, but certain people who knows how to do your stuff better because they have more experience than you in this vocation. And convince them means that you don’t invent stuff out of thin air. It means that previous respectable people have done slightly different thing but still relevant to what you are doing, that you have a solid foundations because others have done a similar thing. Similar, but not the same.
Convince the expert cows that there is THE special needle in the special haystack one did not know exist.
I think that the skill that one suppose to master are….
This is where I stopped A YEAR AGO. *sheepish grin*
Hmm… lemme think. What was it that I want to write anyway?
In relation to my work, what have I learned from the book (which I vaguely remember right now)?
What I’m doing is part of thousands of years of tradition in western civilization. I did (well, actually still do. This is a process that ends only at submission of work. Sigh….) a literature review. I had to categorise what have been done by others: previous approaches and theories used, previous methodologies, previous findings. How others investigate and explain phenomena. The result would be to find something that has not been discussed before. It can be new approaches to explain the same phenomenon, new factors that might influence examined relationship etc. To do all these, I have to question others’ work. To critisize, find the hole in others’ thoughts. Arguing that my criticism was just, based on other ‘philosophers’ thoughts. I have to deconstruct concepts into its simplest parts, then reconstruct it using my new approaches/theories/concepts. Simplify complex relationship to be able to make things more complex. That, I learned from the book, is what philosophers do.
According to the book, philosophers are trying to find the ‘truth’. They try to find it by asking questions and arguing about the justification of the answers (thanks to Socrates!!!). They try to deconstruct previous concepts and reconstruct them to better understand relationships between parts (thanks to Decartes!!!). Better understandings leads to new questions, which leads to answers that needs to be justified, which leads to another set of questions, and so on. The ‘truth’, then, only stands for a limited time until somebody else prove it otherwise. It is not the utmost importance. What matters is your journey to find it.
So that is what I learned from sophie’s world. It helps me to better understand my own adventure. I am a philosopher in training. I do not learn about the ‘truth’, I learn methodologies to find it. How to ask question that will lead me to better understand about particular problems, how to find the simplest part in a relationship, how to deconstruct and reconstruct, how to find reference to justify my argument. This journey has been established by previous philosophers and that is what I have to go through.
Wish me luck.
