In the Diagnosis of the Times column of the Catholic Peace Weekly a Catholic University professor gives us some thoughts to mell over on the Philosophy of Life.
The perplexity experienced by many Christian believers when Darwin published his theory of evolution in 1859 is well known. This book, first published under the title: "On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection", clearly confused Christians at the time who believed that life was created in its current form. But no serious Christian today would renounce faith in God or the relationship between God and humanity because of knowledge of evolution. What is the reason?
Pope Saint John Paul II also declared that the Church has no opposition to any knowledge revealed about life by natural science. Nevertheless, the Pope went beyond such knowledge and clearly stated that the fact that God is the owner of life is the firm foundation of our faith.
Are these two declarations contradictory? Not at all. This is because scientific knowledge and the truth of faith have distinct hermeneutical horizons and diverse realities.
First, the truth of faith is related to the area of trust and commitment to the source of existence and its meaning. The source of life and its meaning is based on the relationship with God, the source of all existence. The confusion arises when we cannot distinguish between an object and its existence.
Natural scientific knowledge reveals coherent facts about objective reality. Natural science presents this as scientific knowledge. The ontological meaning and interpretive truth of that knowledge lie outside the realm of science. The philosophy of life is the study of thinking about these truths about life. Life philosophy does not elucidate coherent knowledge of life sciences or is overly concerned with knowledge in such areas. Rather, we work to understand and explain the meaning of life and its ontological context, which is not the object of Science. Philosophy is not separate from objective knowledge, but it also does not remain within it.
Today, the idea that knowledge in life science appropriates the truth about life is widespread. This is nothing more than narrow scientific thinking that does not truly understand the meaning of life. Human thinking does not just remain in objective knowledge. Rather, the essence of thinking lies in going beyond this factual realm and revealing its ontological meaning. This is why philosophy is essentially transcendental.
Hannah Arendt's book "Eichmann in Jerusalem" (1963), which covered and analyzed the trial of Eichmann, who drove countless innocent lives to execution in Nazi extermination camps, is commonly known to speak about the banality of evil. However, the banality mentioned here does not mean that evil is widespread but exposes the problem of not thinking about it.
Sensitivity to life and existence, loss of respect for human life, and obsession with the unimportant issues in daily life blind our eyes to evil. When we lose the wonder of existence and become immersed in the banality of everyday life, when we do not go beyond this, even our goodness can flow into evil.
The philosophy of life contains a transcendence that goes beyond this banality of life, the everyday buried life. When the sense of wonder and beauty in life disappears, and the respect for life becomes a mere formality, the philosophy of life tries to overcome this banality through reflective thinking. Life is inherently transcendent, and this philosophy of life speaks of this transcendence.
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