Encyclopedia of Opinion
Question
Can all philosophy questions be answered?
Position2 of 2
No, all philosophy questions cannot be answered
Argument2 of 2

Philosophy questions are only answered through personal experience

Personal experience brings a lot of revelations. Experience is always a good way to improve one's life. Philosophy started by being questions asked and answered because of an individual's experience in life.

The argument

Philosophy, from the beginning, was made by rich men who decided to ask interesting questions about reality. There weren’t any books or beliefs at that time that made them ask whether reality existed outside of humankind’s reality. Therefore, they wanted to know these things for themselves. They then answered these questions with the current knowledge they had and gained fame by being the first people to record these questions and their answers. But their answers were imperfect and incomplete. Even though reality is what we can see, other people believe that there are multiple realities and even dimensions. Others believe in the afterlife. Some people believe that life started in the sea, while others believe humans came from space. There are no concrete answers to these questions because they’re not based on the main ideas of philosophy. Instead, they rely on personal belief. Today, society has corrected the flaws in the first philosophers’ way of thinking. Aristotle believed the earth was the center of the universe, which affected his philosophy. Through refinement, philosophy has main ideas that can solve universal questions. But at the end of the day, certain questions can only be answered by the person asking them.

Context

Philosophy has main ideas created by men during ancient Greece. But the idea of philosophy has always been universal. Each culture and individual have a different philosophy. This makes philosophy dynamic and changing regularly.

Premises

[P1]The first philosophers answered questions about reality with their own imperfect, incomplete knowledge, sometimes wrongly, as Aristotle did in thinking Earth the centre of the universe. [P2] Questions like whether there are multiple realities, an afterlife, or where life began have no concrete answers because they rest on personal belief rather than philosophy's main ideas. [P3] Even after refinement, such questions can only be answered by the person asking them. [C] Therefore, because some philosophy questions are answered only through personal experience, not all philosophy questions can be answered.

Counter-arguments

Although philosophy was made by men from long ago, it shouldn’t disregard their validity of being the foundations of philosophy. Anyone could’ve asked questions about how reality works. But no one bothered to really think about these questions till Aristotle and Plato started asking them. If it wasn’t for them, current society wouldn’t have an in-depth understanding of philosophy. Some of the foundational ideas behind philosophy are that everything in the world operates according to its design. Plants make oxygen for living things, animals help keep the environment healthy, and humans cultivate and manage the earth. These are the things that people around the world accept as true despite its age. The philosophy made in the past is valid according to current society. Asking questions about philosophy might not always be unanimous. Some religions believe there’s an afterlife while others believe life ends at death. Other people believe that there are other realities that exist while others believe only one exists. The truth is that these questions just haven’t been given a universal answer yet. There’s an answer somewhere, it just takes one individual to find it.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Philosophy is supported by the validity of society. [Rejecting P2] Some philosophy questions just haven’t been answered yet.