Philosophy

Philosophy in DNC - Sch. Pradeep Crasta
When I meet people at non-religious circles –in colleges, schools, functions, or through friends, they ask me what you do, and I tell them that I study philosophy. There is always an awkward pause to that response of mine. Sometimes people say, “How nice”, and change the subject. They don’t know what to say. Hardly anyone knows what philosophy is or what philosophers do. Most people don’t know why anyone would spend time on philosophy. Sometimes I feel a little envious of those who pursue their studies inorder to become engineers, doctors, nurses and insurance sales people, because everyone understands their orientation towards. To tell you about my study of philosophy, where should I begin? The perhaps the best way to start is with the word “Philosophy”. The word comes from two Greek words, philo which means love, and sophia which means wisdom. Etymologically speaking” Philosophy means the love of wisdom. A philosopher is one who loves wisdom or wants to be wise. To achieve this dream, Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth is one such philosophical institution in Pune which prepares and moulds the young minds to become the heralds of our times in responding to the challenges we face today.

As philosophers of De Nobili College we engage ourselves with variety of activities which moulds us to build a coherent and adequate world-view. Since this formation house prepares future priests and leaders of the church, the overall development of the philosopher’s growth is well taken care in terms of their spiritual, emotional, social and psychological needs. Apart from our philosophical studies one is able to grow in genuine friendship through community life. A blending of cultures is seen in our life styles as we come from different parts of our country India. As philosophy calls us to respond to the challenges, one is encouraged to participate in the philosophical seminars, conferences and debates where philosophers make philosophical enquiry into philosophical dilemmas. De Nobili College as a Jesuit formation house gives ample opportunities to grow in our personality development and intellectual caliber. I disagree with some people who say that philosophy is not a practical subject. The reason I can give that philosophy calls us to overall development of the person. As a philosopher one is called to have a philosophy which can liberate.  On this search philosophers of De Nobili College render their services through a variety of ministries like SSU, teaching the children of construction workers’, working among sex workers through Sahara and Saheli NGO’s, animating pune youth, teaching in the orphanage and various apostolates in the parishes of the Pune Diocese. Here they come to know the reality of the world outside and try to find meaning in one’s life; hence philosophy is a process within and without. 
Today we are living in a broken world. Chaos and confusion are the order of the day. Fragmentation and alienation are spreading fast everywhere. As a student of philosophy, I strongly believe that philosophy is very much relevant and I see the reason to build a worldview is that people have a strong desire to define themselves and to know themselves. Everyone needs a sense of identity. People are curious. We all want to know more about the world and ourselves. In this search philosophy is an attempt to find credible answers to the basic questions about life, and the answers a person accepts will have a tremendous impact on his or her life. Studying philosophy is very rewarding and often it may change a person.
I feel that philosophy helps, one to achieve success in one’s life as a whole, not necessarily in one’s pursuit of money. It is a very rewarding activity, and it may give you peace of mind, or inner strength and confidence. On the other hand may not affect your feelings at all. The purpose of philosophy is not to make anyone feel better. The goal of philosophy is wisdom. It is motivated by curiosity and the desire to understand, not the desire to be happy. Sometimes knowledge is actually painful, but philosophers want to know the truth anyway. For my part, I would not hesitate to say that philosophy has no weight and no interest whatever unless it sounds like an echo in our life, a life which is today so threatened at every level. Understanding philosophy is like understanding to play tennis, cooking, mountain climbing, or anything else: one has to try it oneself before one can understand it. To understand philosophy one must get involved with philosophical problems, one must weigh different solutions or theories, and decide which are convincing. One must do the same things that philosophers do. Reading about it isn’t enough. The only way to understand philosophy is to practice it in our day today life. Thus one builds his philosophy of life. That is the crux of the search called…Philosophy.