TT 1103 & TT1072 Falsafah

Pendidikan di Malaysia

Why Philosophy?
Prof Madya Dr. Zulkifli B. Mohamed
Sekolah Pendidikan dan Pembangunan Sosial
Univresiti Malaysia Sabah

Building Rationale
All humans engage in philosophy in one form or
another because we are philosophizing creatures.
Philosophy is about gaining a better
understanding of ourselves and our world - and
since that is what humans naturally desire, humans
quite readily engage in philosophical speculation
and questioning.

Background in Philosophy
It is true that remaining with philosophy does not
afford an especially wide range of career options,
but skill with philosophy is something which can
be readily transferred to fields like law, public
policy and more.
Basically, anything which requires careful
thinking, systematic reasoning, and an ability
to ask and address difficult questions will
benefit from a background in philosophy.

What are some of the benefits of

studying philosophy?

Problem Solving Skills

Communication Skills
Self-Knowledge
Persuasive Skills

Basics & important

skills for teachers

Problem Solving Skills

Philosophy is all about asking difficult questions and
developing answers which can be reasonably and
rationally defended against hard, skeptical
questioning.
Philosophers need to learn how to analyze concepts,
definitions and arguments in a way conducive
towards developing solutions for particular problems.
Because of this, you can also have an increased
assurance that your beliefs may be reasonable,
consistent and well-founded because you have
examined them systematically and carefully.

Communication Skills
A person who excels at communicating in the field
of philosophy can also excel at communication in
other areas.
Philosophers are expected to express their ideas
clearly and precisely, both in speaking and in
writing.
While those ideas may seem incomprehensible to
those who are unfamiliar with the topic or jargon,
this also tends to be the case with the physical
sciences.

Self-Knowledge
It is also worth noting that it isn't just a matter of
better communication with others that is helped
by the study of philosophy understanding
yourself is improved.
The very nature of philosophy is such that you get
a better picture of what you yourself believe
simply through working through those beliefs in a
careful and systematic fashion.

Persuasive Skills
The whole purpose in philosophy of developing
problem solving and communication skills is not
simply to gain a better understanding of the world,
but also to get others to agree with that
understanding.
Good persuasive skills are thus important in the
field of philosophy because a person needs to
defend her own views and to offer insightful
critiques of the views of others.

In short
Everyone already has a philosophy and
already does philosophy when they think
about and address issues which are
fundamental to questions about life,
meaning, society and morality.
Thus, the question is not really "Who cares
about doing philosophy," but rather "Who
cares about doing philosophy well?"

Who Cares about doing Philosophy well?

The answer to that is: everyone who cares about
whether or not their answers are reasonable, wellfounded, well-developed and coherent.
Those are the qualities which the study of
philosophy can bring to a person's questioning and
curiosity, and that is why the subject is so important.
We may never arrive at any final answers, but in
many ways it is the journey which is most
important, not the destination