What is Philosophy?

Philosophy is, as the ancient Greek philosopher Plato had defined it, the love of
wisdom and the knowledge of the truth. A philosopher, according to him, loves not a
part of wisdom but rather cherishes all of it. Socrates showed us how the
philosopher bases the truth on hard, empirical evidence, yet Marcel shows us that
using facts alone are inadequate to grasp the whole truth, and instead, proposes
secondary reflection to show how one can get the truth. By examining the
methods used by Socrates and Marcel, we will try to have a more thorough
understanding of what a philosopher is.

Socrates, on his apology to the Athenian court, showed us how to use facts to come
closer to truth. Unlike his accusers which relied on the credibility of the speaker and
their ability to persuade others, Socrates used logic and empirical information to
show us that he was in fact not clever and wise. After coming up to his conclusions,
however, Socrates failed to challenge and build from his conclusions to create a
more thorough picture of the truth. His conclusions broke down the empirical data
he had collected into a singular thought, yet Socrates was unable to build from his
conclusions a complete understanding of the truth, the very thing a philosopher
strives for the most. By failing to work with his conclusions to create a fuller picture
of the truth, Socrates failed to do philosophy.

Marcel, on the other hand, shows us that philosophy does not merely stop when one
gets a conclusion but rather continues to work on it to have a more thorough
understanding of the truth. In his The Mystery of Human Being, Marcel shows us
that by solely using facts and hard evidence, or primary reflection, we will come up
to the conclusion that I am separate from my body. However, by logically
connecting his personal experiences and commonplace happenings, Marcel was
able to debunk the conclusion our primary reflection was able to derive. Marcel
knew that the truth did not only comprise of the facts but also by how these facts
applied towards each other and towards himself. As a lover of all wisdom, Marcel did
not merely settle for the facts but instead used secondary reflection to get a
broader view of the whole truth.

By not settling for a partial view of the truth but rather seeking to see it in its fullest
form, Marcel shows us how a philosopher can express his love for all wisdom. Unlike
Socrates, who simply used his collected empirical data to define truth, Marcel saw
that the truth also included the ways these facts interacted with him and with each
other. Secondary reflection and the way Marcel used it to come up with the truth
shows us the way a philosopher must view life: as a constant pursuit of truth as a
whole.