Ralph Waldo Emerson is a famous poet, essayist, philosopher, and influencer of his time for the transcendentalist movement. While I don’t understand transcendentalism to its full degree, I’ve enjoyed Emerson’s poems and recently found myself reading the first chapter of his ‘Nature’ essay. To my surprise, I enjoyed reading it. There were parts that I found myself understanding and wanting to read more and parts that still have me asking ‘What do you mean?’ Bringing up Emerson to convey the emerging and colliding of knowledge being learned about theory and philosophy is to assert that while they are different, there is a connection between knowledge, wisdom, and learning to influence and shape who we are. Since I’m doing more and more literature reviews on scholarly articles, learning about different theories, and now not one piece of research can prove a theory or starting to understand that theories are so well thought out and based on evidence-based research, it is a collision of not knowing, gaining new knowledge and experience education to go beyond curiosity and scratching my head to really digging deep to understand.
This brings the concept of philosophy. This discipline is complex to me. Complex because people of the past and present are trying to explain questions that can appear abstract. The good news is my knowledge of epistemology, logic, ethics, and metaphysics is increasing. Explaining further, I would assert that philosophy being the love of wisdom happens by asking various questions to understand what is stated as true and if you believe it. Also, in asking questions of the philosophical truth does it align with the practical application of what is being stated – fallacies are a real thing. When I’m now researching scholarly writings, I find myself saying what is the point? Or Are your points of view valid to your research topic and thesis statement- previous knowledge but now opening my eyes with a new lens. My expectations are changing to want to understand the points of the study and if it truly is valuable information. My arguments spoken and written are questioning points. I do think that theories are complicated but easier to absorb when it’s presented plainly for people to understand and are not as complex as philosophical constructs. Learning about different theories and philosophers’ points of view is interesting and it is a continuum on my quest because of the importance of adding new knowledge to what has been written in scholarly writings to this point. I am attempting to make sure they are clear; however, I am unsure if I am hitting the mark. Is questioning and not having all the answers correct thought of mind on the journey of learning and knowledge? As Plato wrote in his work “The Republic”, “the object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful”, I am trying to learn just that- beauty in thinking, knowing, being, and becoming. References The Republic. (1925). United Kingdom: Clarendon Press. Image from Adobe Stock
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