Reflection on Political Philosophy

At the last seminar of this semester, I would like to express my gratitude toward Professor Chen[1]for your encouragement and giving me a chance to read, speak and write so much in this foreign language, and toward all my classmates for your tolerance of my English fluency and my opinions.

And I want to share my general viewpoint on political philosophy.

My interest in political philosophy was inspired by Professor Chen’s introduction lecture for freshmen two years ago. However, as I read some philosophical works and discuss some important social and political issues in Taiwan with my friends, I feel a little frustrated in political philosophy.

First:

Political philosophy looks like the FORBIDDEN FRUIT in Eden Garden. We started to wrongly think that we human beings were able to use our so-called “ration” to distinguish what morals are and what not moral are after our ancestors studied and researched these problems. Then, we despise the absolutely correct ethical standards given by God and try to establish new norms just based on human understanding. I’m not sure whether or not we earthly people are capable of doing that. Anyway, we cannot change our ancestors’ fault.

Second:

“Political philosophy is a normative discipline.” As Jonathan Wolff suggests at the very beginning of our assigned textbook,[2]we, the students of political philosophy, are supposed to learn different thoughts in the past, from Socrates and Plato, to Locke, to Hume, to Rousseau, to Bentham and Mill. Nonetheless, can we get any idea of approaching these ideals?

As the world is deteriorating these years, such as the real return of Hong Kong, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the loss of Afghanistan, et cetera, I doubt that there is any use of political philosophy knowledge when defending freedom, democracy, and universal human dignity, especially in front of Satan’s missiles, machine guns, and tanks. Ironically, philosophers have discussed these values we want to protect for many centuries, but it seems that those exceptional scholars did not provide us with clear guidance.

Despite my depressing understanding of political philosophy, I have set my mind to do something benefiting our forming nation-state since I started thinking about these questions. With continually questioning myself and introspecting about these philosophical problems, again and again, I learned the true value of morals, freedom, civilization, and so on. Those are not only abstract, vague, and monstrous slogans or propaganda broadcasted by the government and party anymore. Instead, we shall fight for what is worth preserving, whatever the cost may be.

At the last, I expect myself to apply my philosophical knowledge to fulfill my duty, honor God and justify the conventional virtue of our society and learn lessons from domestic and foreign Marxists, who are just interested in deconstructing everything we are familiar with.

Thank you!

[1] Professor Chen, Chien-kang is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. https://politics.nccu.edu.tw/PageStaffing/Detail?fid=5227&id=1507.

[2] Wolff, Jonathan. An Introduction to Political Philosophy / Jonathan Wolff. Rev. ed. Oxford, U.K. ;: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.