MAMARIL, Shaira Mae A.

PHL 308
4PHL2 Thought Piece #2

Mamaril on: The Social Function of Philosophy

The social function of philosophy pertains to the intellectual critique of the social
perspectives of our society. In so far as critiques could reach, free capitalism and
authoritarian communism are both systems based on industrialization, their goal is ever-
increasing economic efficiently and wealth. They are societies run by a managerial class,
and by professional politicians. It is evident in our society that it is being run by these
systems. These systems have become the center of attention realizing the main problem on
humanity – whether it is a flaw or just natural course to embark on. Capitalism uses the
weakness of the people for their own gain inasmuch as manifesting that their highest
concern is our well-being. For example, the rise of technology gave way to companies like
Apple to manipulate people into thinking that if they do not have the latest version of their
iPhone(Apple Phone), he or she is not fit into the status quo set by this company. Another
example is the relation of rich people to politicians: politicians bow their head to these rich
people to gain support from them; and rich people request for their security in exchange of
this support. We have become the robots of society which directed us to alienation and
automatization to an ever-increasing insanity. We became numb to give meaning to life.

Is there an alternative for this? Or this is just the reality and we are having a hard
time in accepting it? Judging whether our society is sane or insane would be pointless if we
embraced its nature already as a part of our own. Whatever you do corresponds to an
implication regarding your state in our society. The nature of difficulties is that it is always-
already present. However, in whatever undertaking you ought to embark on, it is ‘you’ who
naturally and personally imposes them as the foremost obstacle, which will further fuel the
zeal that guides your intentions. But do we really understand the “I” in ourselves? We
question too much and the answers seem to be far enough to reach.

Although philosophy offers a lot of values, the problem with most people nowadays
is that they tend to favor practical thinking than critical thinking. With the emergence of
science and technology, people prefer their queries to be answered with less effort. Who on
earth would want to contemplate about the ‘chairness’ of a chair? Philosophy gradually
becomes insignificant and useless today than the past periods. People would become
dependent to practicality and would become ignorant of the world that doesn’t only appear
in front of them and what lies beyond. We may have encountered indefinite, puzzling and
sometimes remarkable answers in philosophy and would seem like we’re just going around
different ideas but let’s keep in mind that philosophy will always take us to different levels
of knowledge that mankind would never imagine. It will never box us in and limit us;
instead it will give us different and infinite opportunities to explore life and what lies
beyond with the use of our critical thinking and experience. There is always truth to be
uncovered. You can think that we are just fragments of someone's imagination and so on
and so forth -the possibilities are just endless.