Evolution

A. Principles of evolution

This section further develops the basis of the evolutionary and functional types of explanation.

1. Functional explanation, fitness and natural selection

In the present context, ‘function’ is used (in the etho-logical sense) in terms of reproductive success. The term fitness refers to the potential of an animal to reproduce successfully. Fitness is a measure of the animal’s ability to pass on its genes, in terms of the number of viable reproducing offspring that arise. Thus, types of behaviour that increase fitness are favoured in evolution by natural selection. (This sense of fitness should not be confused with the reference simply to bodily health.)

Closely related to the functional level of explanation is the notion of adaptation (Chapter 1). A physical feature or behaviour is adapted to an environment in that it has been tested for its suitability to that environment. Those individuals that provide the best fit survive and pass on genes. However, there are some complications to this account (Buss et al., 1998; Gould and Vrba, 1982), as follows.

A trait (‘characteristic’) that evolved by means of natural selection might no longer serve a useful function in the present environment. A good example of this is our excessive liking for sweet substances, which is associated with contemporary obesity (Power and Schulkin, 2009). It is assumed that, in an early environment, our ancestors were more physically active and an attraction to rare ripe fruits would have been of enormous adaptive value. They provide energy in an environment where the supply of food is uncertain. However, we now have a relatively inactive lifestyle and an abundance of refined sweet items alongside the supermarket checkout, and so the same characteristic leads us into dangerous temptation.

Also, something might now be observed to serve a useful function but it evolved in the service of some different function. Noses and ears did not evolve because of their advantage as mechanical supports to those who wear spectacles! A capacity to read and write is doubtless advantageous in our society and there are identifiable brain mechanisms that underlie it. However, seen in evolutionary time, a written language and reading emerged recently. Reading and writing attach themselves to brain mechanisms that evolved much earlier than the appearance of written language. The combination of reading/writing and its biological bases has not had time yet to be tested by natural selection.

Of course, we do not have access to the environment of an animal’s ancestors. Life on Earth has been around for a very long time! However, psychologists have insight based on extrapolation from the present (Tooby and Cosmides, 1990). They can be certain that (except in, say, the depths of the ocean) the environment was illuminated in an approximately 24 hour cycle of light–dark. They know about the magnitude of gravity that birds had to overcome in flying and the saltiness of seawater. Our species was probably subject to parasites. Psychologists can try to interpret the pressures for survival of present species’ ancestors in terms of what they know about constant features of the environment and then speculate about different and past environments.

What can we expect adaptation to achieve? Suppose that an animal detects a predator and, predictably, responds by fleeing rather than carrying on with what it was doing. It gets ambushed by an unseen fellow ‘gang-member’ predator and is then eaten by both predators. This might not seem beneficial to the fleeing animal’s reproductive success! Natural selection cannot arrive at the perfect solution. It cannot account for every instance of behaviour but can merely favour certain ranges of options (Tooby and Cosmides, 1990). Of course, animals cannot inherit genes that tell them what to do under every different circumstance encountered. Rather, genes help to organize nervous systems that have certain general tendencies. Scientists assume that, in the ancestral history of the animal just described, a nervous system that played a role in the reaction of fleeing was of overall advantage, compared, say, with carrying on regardless. The strategy worked more often than it failed.

A principle of ethology (the study of the behaviour of animals under natural conditions) is that no behaviour can bring pure gain. There is a mixture of costs and benefits involved in anything that an animal does, as is argued next.

2. Costs and benefits

The principle can be illustrated as follows. When a jungle fowl is incubating eggs, it loses weight by staying on its nest and not eating (Hogan, 1980). How could this increase its fitness? Suppose that the mother leaves the eggs to obtain food. This increases the chances of the eggs cooling or being eaten by predators. Thus, in terms of the chances of passing on genes, there is a potential cost attached to leaving the eggs. There is also a potential benefit of doing so, i.e. to gain food and hence replenish reserves and streng then the body. However, it appears that over evolutionary history, the cost of leaving the eggs has outweighed the benefit, and so there is a net advantage in staying. Investigators assume that the ancestors of jungle fowl were confronted with the problem of predation and cooling of eggs. Genes that coded for staying were placed at an advantage. However, rather as with fleeing and getting captured, evolution cannot guarantee that sitting on eggs will work in every instance. Both the sitting bird and its eggs might get eaten at the same time. It is merely that a strategy of staying has, over countless generations, been more successful than not, relative to the alternative of regularly leaving the nest. The example illustrates a number of issues associated with relating causation and function:

1              In terms of homeostasis, it is not to the female’s individual bodily advantage to stay on the eggs. Individual survival of her body might be best served by leaving them, to obtain food. However, the chances of passing on her genes are increased by incubation. She might have several eggs, each containing copies of her genes.

2              We should not suppose that the jungle fowl has knowledge in terms of function, i.e. she has no conscious intention to pass on genes (or even unconscious intention!). She just acts in such a way that this is achieved. Among her ancestors, jungle fowl that behaved in this way have been successful and their descendants are around today. Their genes have been favoured by natural selection. A gene coding for ‘not incubating’ has tended to perish.

3              Related to 2, in asking how behaviour is organized, we should not confuse causal and functional explanations. Claims that the bird acts this way because she needs to reproduce are misleading and can lead to the implicit assumption that she has conscious intentions. Birds do not read Darwin! On a causal level, in the brain there is an inhibitory link from incubation to feeding. Natural selection will favour such a mechanism for restraining feeding.

4              It is often argued that natural selection acts on individuals via their genes rather than species as a whole, i.e. it acts to the relative advantage or disadvantage of passing on the genes of individuals within a given population. In this sense, the whole process is sometimes described as ‘selfish’, as in the term self-ish gene (Dawkins, 1976). However, although genes are not selected to act for the good of the species as a whole, genes that bias in favour of acting for the immediate social group could prove advantageous (Wilson and Csikszentmihalyi, 2007).

Having described principles of function and evolution, in the next section we focus on the processes that control behaviour, involving the causal and developmental/learning types of explanation. In doing so, we look for links with functional and evolutionary considerations.

B. Evolutionary psychology

1. General principles

A development of evolutionary thought has assumed great importance in suggesting explanations of human mind and behaviour. It is termed evolutionary psychology (EP) and its followers search for integrative principles linking evolution and psychology, in terms mainly of function (Barkow et al., 1992). Evolutionary psychologists argue that, in order to understand mind and behaviour, we need to look way back to consider the environment in which we evolved and the nature of the demands that it imposed on our early ancestors (Workman and Reader, 2008).

EP employs the metaphor of design. For instance, a bird’s wing looks as ifa designer planned it with flight in mind. Similarly, it is as if our brains were designed so that behaviour fitted our early evolutionary environment. The environment in which we evolved was, of course, very different from that of modern London or Oslo. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived very different lives in that early environment, compared with ourselves. Yet we are still adapted for life in this older environment and our nervous systems were, in effect, ‘designed’ for solving the problems of life there. EP argues that it would be absurd to try to explain the workings of a car or a radio, or a heart or lung, without knowing what it was designed to do. By analogy, they argue that psychology also needs an evolutionary ‘design’ perspective. In this way, EP claims to have a unifying theoretical approach for all psychologists, including those concerned with causation and the brain.

Viewed in these terms, we can make sense of fea-tures of behaviour that otherwise might appear bizarre, e.g. our contemporary love of sweet foods even in the midst of an epidemic of diabetes, obesity and dental decay. Our behaviour reflects what was ‘designed’ for a life where there was not an abundance of sugars. For another example discussed by evolutionary psychology, why do symmetrical faces tend to be more attractive than asymmetrical ones (Perrett et al., 1999)? One possible answer is that the symmetrical face is indicative of a younger age and a healthier developmental history. Thus, being attracted to such a stimulus would increase the chances of successful mating and is a factor that would be favoured by natural selection.

EP assumes that many features of human social life (e.g. worship), which might have been thought to be explained purely by cultural influences, are really to be explained at least in part in evolutionary terms (Workman and Reader, 2008). This is sometimes expressed uncritically by those who either promote or condemn a simple EP, as ‘a gene for adultery’ or ‘a gene for religion’ (note the singular ‘a’). However, EP does not rest or fall on an assumption of single-gene effects. A combination of genes might give a bias towards, say, religious worship, since, by so doing, this combination has been placed at an advantage. Indeed, religion might still confer some adaptive advantages: as the cliché would have it ‘families who pray together stay together’.

An immediate and well-worn qualification needs repeating: worship cannot literally be ‘in the genes’. However, given certain genes, together with their social and learning contexts, worship might tend to emerge. By the same token, neither, for example, could physical height be determined simply by genes. Genes are a factor but for height to emerge also requires an appropriate environmental input, e.g. adequate food.

Such discussion has some important social messages. One of the reasons why EP is controversial is that it might at first seem to lend itself to rigid determinism. If something is ‘in the genes’, there appears to be little we can do about it. However, even if certain genes do exert a tendency in favour of, say, adultery, they represent only one contributory factor. The ‘favoured’ outcome is not necessarily inevitable.

The aspect of EP that has most fired the popular imagi-nation and controversy is what it says about differences between the sexes (Workman and Reader, 2008). One point needs to be emphasized here. Though evolutionary theory might give insights into how behaviour has emerged in evolution, it cannot prescribe what humans shoulddo morally. Such an unwarranted extrapolation is termed the ‘naturalistic fallacy’, and is a reason that doubtless turns some against evolutionary approaches.

2. Sex differences

Why do males appear to make more use of prostitutes and pornography and show a wish for greater indiscriminate promiscuity than do females? One might suppose that this reflects cultural norms and prohibitions ingrained in our institutions, i.e. ‘social role theory’ (see Archer, 1996). Change society, give enough time, and behaviour might change correspondingly. On the contrary, EP would suggest that such differences between the sexes reflect evolutionary history and different strategies of mating.

The optimal strategy for a human male (as with many species) to pass on his genes is different from that of a female. An instant and relatively indiscriminate sexual motivation and arousal, accompanied by promiscuity, might be to the advantage of the male since it maximizes his reproductive chances. There is relatively little to lose. The emphasis is on ‘relatively’ since, as always, there is not zero cost. For example, diseases can be caught and, since mating tends to focus the mind, genetic perpetuation might be rudely halted by an approaching tiger or jealous partner. However, for the female there is relatively much to lose. Some female inhibition and reserve (‘coyness’) might be to her genetic advantage, since in this way she can patiently wait to select the optimal male with whom to tie up her reproductive capacity for nine months or so and provide support.

Of course, few if any males visit prostitutes with the intention of passing on genes but no one is supposing that conscious intentions have had much to do with the evolution of sexuality. It is simply claimed that genes tend to code for those strategies that in general have served their own ‘selfish’ interests. In evolutionary history, a combination of genes that tended to promote male promiscuity via sexual motivational processes has been successful. Not all males are promiscuous. EP does not suggest that they should be, just as it does not suggest that all females should show coyness and fidelity. Genes give rise to tendencies not instructions carved in stone. It is simply that one can see a biological rationale in there being a difference between the sexes in this direction.

There is a point here many people misunderstand. Throughout evolution, rather than favouring desire for obtaining children as such, natural selection favoured sexual motivation. Of course, in the absence of a reliable technology of contraception, sexual motivation tends rather frequently to lead to children! This is not to deny that these days some people do desire to produce children as such but sexual desire was doubtless the driver in evolution. A casual glance at society today might suggest that this particular driver has lost none of its momentum over the course of human evolution.

While not denying the possibility that genetic differences might exert different degrees of tendency, explanations need to be framed in the broad gene–environment context discussed earlier. Biology is revealed within a cultural matrix (Barkow et al., 1992).

3. Jealousy

EP makes testable predictions concerning sexual jealousy. What is the cost to an individual’s chances of passing on his or her genes if the partner exhibits infidelity? The cost to a male partner could be large since it might be that his female partner produces offspring bearing another male’s genes. Hence, the male partner misses his own opportunity of genetic transmission. The male partner could even unwittingly help with bringing up someone else’s offspring. Thus, male sexual jealousy might involve a strong imperative against the sexual infidelity of his mate.

In terms of the female’s genetic perpetuation, the cost of a partner’s infidelity might seem to be much less. The female can at least be sure that the offspring she produces are in part genetically hers. A male can recover his sexual potency relatively quickly, and with it, his capacity to contribute genes to reproduction with the female partner. However, there is a threat to the partner from other females, which comes from the risk of being abandoned. The danger of this might be signalled by the male showing an abnormally large emotional interest in the well being of another female, i.e. warmth and empathy. If that were to happen, the female might be put at a disadvantage in raising offspring. Therefore, one might expect some asymmetry in the trigger stimuli to jealousy, with males triggered more strongly by sexual infidelity and females by ‘emotional infidelity’.

Working in the USA, Buss et al. (1992) invited people to imagine various scenarios and estimate the magnitude of the negative feelings that were evoked. These scenarios were of your mate (i) having sexual intercourse with another or (ii) forming a deep emotional attachment to another. Eighty-five per cent of the women found the second to arouse more negative emotions, whereas 60% of the males found the first to do so. EP predicts a difference in this direction. A similar effect was found in the Netherlands, a country with a tradition of egalitarianism and more progressive culture.

Some argue that, rather than reflecting evolved differences, such differences are due to different perceptions of the respective roles of men and women in our culture. For example, society suggests that in women, sexual infidelity is not likely to occur without emotional infidelity – the so-called ‘double shot’. By contrast, male sexual infidelity can be dismissed as being without emotional attachment (DeSteno and Salovey, 1996; Harris and Christenfeld, 1996). However, although not denying a cultural/cognitive factor, the EP researchers suggested that these different perceptions of sex roles are themselves to be understood in biological terms and directly capture the biological difference (Buss et al., 1996). Cultural trans-mission of information might be expected to reflect and reinforce genetically determined differences.

4. Critiques of evolutionary psychology

Critiques of EP take many forms. Indeed, there now seems to be a small publishing industry dedicated to the polarities of claim and counter-claim. Few would argue against the notion that looking at evolution is essen-tial for understanding current behaviour. The disputes mainly concern a particular interpretation of EP. This is sometimes termed the ‘Santa Barbara school’, named after the University of California location of its principal disciples (Tooby and Cosmides, 1990).

One point of criticism is that this school of evolu-tionary psychologists put their faith in what they term modules, special-purpose processors, each of which is dedicated to solving a particular problem. For example, the human brain would be described as being made up from such modules as a jealousy module, dedicated to detecting and acting upon threats as in sexual infidelity. Another such module is described as a cheating detec-tion module. EP suggests that our mind is equipped with dedicated processes that alert us when someone is trying to cheat us, as in an unfair exchange of goods. Modules are something like cognitive equivalents of reflexes – fast, automatic and dedicated, with each solving just a single problem.

Tooby and Cosmides use the analogy of a Swiss army knife, a tool equipped with a number of components such as a knife and a can-opener, each serving just one particular function. You would have some difficulty in trying to use the can-opener to pull a cork from a wine bottle.

Critics of EP argue along two lines. First, they deny that we are quite as modularized (‘compartmentalized’) as EP suggests. Second, they suggest that, although some modularization of the brain does occur, EP has misunderstood its determinants. EP is said to put too much weight upon genetic factors and insufficient upon development. In fact, we turn out as we do as a result of the subtle dance between genes and environment. As noted earlier, a skill at riding a bicycle does not arise from genes producing a particular ‘cycling module’ – as one critic memorably expressed it, there were surely rather few bicycles around in our early evolution for this skill to be genetically encoded as a module! In reality, it emerges as the result of a combination of genes encod-ing for a brain with a broad capacity for controlling balance and early learning of the particular motor skills involved in balancing a bicycle. The behaviour becomes automatic (‘modularized’) with practice.

EP and the critiques of it are a particularly good demonstration of the need to bring together different types of explanation. EP is based firmly in the tradition of functional and evolutionary explanation. However, its conclusions need to match an understanding of the possibilities arising from the brain and its development. Later chapters will explore the relevance of EP to such topics as emotion, feeding and sexual motivation. We now turn to a case study that will serve to bring together the different types of explanation.

Reference:
Toates, Frederick. 2011. Biological Psychology 3rd edition. England: Pearson Education.

Menabung Air Untuk Menyiasati Kekeringan

       Krisis air bersih akibat perubahan iklim kian dirasakan masyarakat khususnya di perkotaan. Sudah saatnya kita lakukan gerakan massal menabung air serta memanfaatkan air secara efisien. Perubahan iklim merupakan sesuatu yang dampaknya sulit untuk dihindari terhadap berbagai segi kehidupan. Dampak ekstrem dari perubahan iklim adalah terjadinya kenaikan temperatur serta pergeseran musim. Perubahan iklim bukan lagi wacana, namun sudah dapat kita rasakan dampaknya, seperti banjir, gelombang pasang, dan kekeringan. Kota-kota pesisir kita merupakan kawasan yang paling rentan terhadap dampak perubahan iklim ini.

       Salah satu dampak perubahan iklim yaitu isu krisis air bersih. Yang merupakan potret kondisi air kita yang semakin suram saja. Secara relatif, siring meningkatnya populasi manusia, ketersediaan air bersih berkurang akibat semakin besarnya kebutuhan akan air. Dan mungkin hingga akhirnya nanti akan terjadi "perang perebutan" yang tak sehat untuk mendapatkan sumber daya air ini.

       Kebutuhan air yang akan terus meningkat, jika tidak dilakukan upaya alternatif atau pendaur ulangan terhadap penyediaan sumber air baku, maka di masa yang akan datang warga Indonesia diperkirakan akan benar-benar kesulitan mendapatkan air bersih. Kondisi ini semakin lengkap dengan masih lemahnya proteksi sumber air baku, tingginya kepadatan penduduk, kurangnya kepedulian terhadap lingkungan dan perubahan yang begitu cepat, yang secara keseluruhan tidak sebanding dengan kemampuan ekosistem alam untuk mencapai keseimbangan baru.

      Indonesia memiliki banyak sungai dan perairan yang sangat luas. Sungai dengan air melimpah yang mengalir begitu saja ke laut tanpa termanfaatkan dan parahnya sungai-sungai tersebut justru seperti menjadi tong sampah. Cadangan air tanah dan danau juga habis disedot untuk keperluan rumah tangga dan industri. Air hujan yang seharusnya bisa ditampung dan diolah justru terbuang percuma dan malah menjadi banjir.

      Tidak bisa dipungkiri lagi, krisis air bersih dirasakan masyarakat di banyak tempat, terlebih di perkotaan. Efisiensi pemanfaatan air tanah adalah hal yang mutlak harus dilakukan warga Indonesia, mengingat bahwa Indonesia merupakan kawasan yang dikelilingi oleh daerah pegunungan di mana begitu banyak sungai mengalir disitu. Pada musim hujan, banyak air sungai yang mengalir begitu saja ke laut tanpa dimanfaatkan atau ditampung terlebih dahulu hingga pada saat kemarau sungai menjadi kering dan tak ada lagi air yang dapat diambil.

      Diperlukan gerakan massal menabung air guna menyiasati kekeringan. Menabung air dapat dilakukan dengan pembuatan sumur-sumur resapan berupa sumur gali yang berfungsi menampung, meresapkan, dan mengalirkan air hujan yang jatuh di permukaan tanah, bangunan, juga atap rumah.

     Dengan adanya sumur resapan, air hujan bisa lebih efektif terserap ke dalam tanah dan melakukan proses water purifier. Diperlukan pula sumur-sumur resapan yang mampu memberikan dampak penampungan dan pengendalian, selain juga kegiatan rehabilitasi dan reboisasi dari hutan yang ada. Dengan adanya embung-embung penampungan air dan menjadi pure it, kita dapat memanen air pada saat datang musim hujan, dan menyimpannya di embung tersebut untuk selanjutnya dapat dimanfaatkan pada musim kemarau.

       Banyak kota yang memiliki kebijakan bahwa semua air limbah harus diolah sebelum dibuang. Air hasil olahan tersebut kalau bisa digunakan kembali, sayang jika dibuang begitu saja. Daripada dibuang, lebih baik diolah lebih lanjut sehingga dapat menghasilkan kualitas yang sama dengan air bersih.

     Ada banyak hal yang dapat kita lakukan untuk menghemat air bila berada di rumah, perkantoran, sekolah, dan tempat-tempat umum publik lainnya. Seperti saat mencuci tangan, mencuci sayur-sayuran atau buah-buahan jangan biarkan airnya terus mengalir, sebaiknya ditampung menggunakan wadah dan digunakan kembali untuk menyirami tanaman. Matikan kran saat menggosok gigi dan mencuci piring, gunakan kembali saat berkumur dan membilas saja. Jangan sering mengganti gelas, hal ini akan menghemat air dan tak perlu mencuci banyak gelas. Mandilah dengan shower, daripada dengan gayung atau bathtub.

      Gerakan efisiensi menghemat air ini perlu dimasyarakatkan untuk menjaga agar kebutuhan air generasi berikutnya dapat tetap terpelihara. Pilihan ada di tangan kita, apakah air yang ada di bumi ini akan kita habiskan untuk diri kita sendiri, ataukah mau kita simpan untuk generasi penerus bangsa ini?

Referensi:

Syaiful, Ade. 2011. KIPRAH (hal. 22). Jakarta: Kementerian Pekerja Umum.

Quote 12

"Keep your fears to yourself but share your courage with others" - Robert Louis Stevenson.

Pict 9

Cabang-Cabang Filsafat Dan Perbandingan Dengan Ilmu-Ilmu Lain

Cabang-cabang Filsafat

Filsafat mempunyai banyak cabang. Berikut diberikan pembagian secara umum, menurut Aristoteles, Thomas Aquinas, Christian Wolff, dan Jonathan Dolhenty.   

Manfaat Belajar Filsafat

Dalam buku Politics karya Aristoteles, diceritakan tentang orang-orang yang mengolok Thales, filsuf dan ahli astronomi dari Miletus (Yunani), karena ia miskin. Filsafat, kata mereka, tidak bermanfaat bagi Thales. Buktinya, dia miskin. Tetapi Thales tak terpengaruh dengan ejekan tersebut, karena bagi dia, filsafat jelas-jelas bermanfaat. Dia menunggu waktu yang baik untuk membuktikannya.

Sebagai ahli astronomi, Thales mengetahui bahwa tahun berikutnya panen zaitun melimpah. Ketika musim dingin masih berlangsung, dia menggunakan sebagian uangnya untuk memborong semua mesin press zaitun di kota Miletus dan Chios. Tentu saja mesin-mesin itu dibeli dengan harga murah. Begitu panen raya zaitun tiba, permintaan akan mesin press zaitun melonjak. Tapi stok di toko-toko habis, sudah diborong Thales.  Thales menyewakan mesin-mesin press itu dengan tarif tinggi dan meraup keuntungan berlipat-lipat. Dengan itu dia mau membuktikan bahwa filsuf pun bisa jadi kaya raya kalau dia mau. Kalau selama ini dia kelihatan miskin, itu karena dia memang mau begitu. 

Definisi, Titik Anjak, Objek, Dan Ciri-Ciri Pemikiran Filsafat

Definisi Filsafat

Ada dua macam definisi: etimologis dan substansial. Definisi etimologis memberikan penjelasan berdasarkan asal usul kata. Definisi substansial mendeskripsikan hakikat sesuatu. Definisi yang sebenarnya ialah definisi substansial.

Definisi Etimologis

Kata filsafat (bahasa Indonesia, diambil dari bahasa Sanskerta) berasal dari bahasa Yunani philosophia (philo = mencari, mencinta  dan sophia = pengetahuan, kebijaksanaan). Jadi, filsafat berarti mencari pengetahuan atau kebijaksanaan. Orang yang mencari kebijaksanaan dinamakan philosophos.

Kata philosophos dipakai pertama kali oleh Pythagoras, seorang filsuf Yunani klasik. Dia menyebut diri philosophos (pencinta kebijaksanaan). Menurut Pythagoras, manusia bertugas mencari kebijaksanaan atau pengetahuan. Tuhan merupakan kebijaksanaan yang sesungguhnya. Pythagoras dan Plato menggunakan kata philosophos untuk mengejek kaum sofis yang menganggap diri mampu menjawab semua macam pertanyaan.

Istilah philosophia sudah terdapat dalam sastra klasik Yunani. Pada mulanya philosophia berarti memandang benda-benda di sekitar dengan penuh perhatian. Kemudian berarti merenung tentang benda-benda itu. Heraclitus (sekitar tahun 500 SM) menggunakan kata philosophos untuk manusia yang selalu mendambakan kebijaksanaan karena tak dapat meraihnya dengan sempurna. Menurut dia hanya Tuhanlah yang  bijaksana dan pandai. Plato kemudian menandaskan bahwa para dewa tak dapat disebut philosophos sebab mereka sudah memiliki kebijaksanaan.

Definisi Substansial

Filsafat didefinisikan adalah ilmu yang mempelajari semua realitas sampai sebab-sebab paling dalam (inti hakikat) dengan menggunakan rasio (refleksi).

Bandingkanlah dengan ilmu-ilmu lain (seperti psikologi, sosiologi, antropologi) yang hanya menyelidiki  sebagian dari realitas (yaitu manusia) dengan pancaindera. Filsafat menyelidiki semua realitas (benda mati, tumbuhan, hewan, manusia, Tuhan) sampai ke hakikatnya dengan sinar akal budi.

Cerita Pengantar Filsafat

Suatu siang di bulan Mei sepulang sekolah, Sophie, seorang gadis remaja berumur 14 tahun, melihat dua amplop dan satu kartu pos di kotak surat rumahnya di 3 Clover Close. Kedua amplop surat itu tidak berperangko dan tanpa nama pengirimnya. Didorong rasa ingin tahu, dia segera membuka kedua amplop itu. Didapatinya selembar kertas di setiap amplop. Tiap lembar hanya berisi satu pertanyaan. Pertanyaan di amplop pertama berbunyi: siapakah kamu? Pertanyaan dalam surat kedua berbunyi: dari mana datangnya dunia?

Kisah ini terdapat dalam novel berjudul Dunia Sophie  karangan Jostein Gaarder, seorang penulis produktif dan pengajar filsafat asal Norwegia. Buku aslinya berjudul Sofies Verden terbit tahun1991, kini sudah diterjemahkan ke dalam 53 bahasa, termasuk bahasa Indonesia, dan terjual 30 juta eksemplar di seluruh dunia.

Di kartu pos ada perangko Norwegia, dengan cap pos Batalyon PBB. Kartu itu dialamatkan kepada Hilde Moller Knag, d/a Sophie Amundsen, 3 Clover Close. Di dalamnya terdapat ucapan selamat ulang tahun ke-15 untuk Hilde dari sang ayah. Tidak disebutkan kota asal kartu itu. Sophie sangat pusing menghadapi misteri di balik surat-surat dan kartu pos itu. Ucapan selamat ulang tahun ditujukan bagi Hilde, bukan dirinya sendiri yang  juga akan berulangtahun ke-15 sebulan sesudahnya.

Kata Perenungan 11

Ekspresi wajah seseorang merupakan cerminan dari kondisi batinnya.

What Is Beautiful Is Good?

What Is Beauty? "Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beerholder"

• Socrates concludes in the Greater Hippias that beauty is difficult to define.
• Voltaire goes further to argue that beauty, due to is relativist nature, is not just difficult but impossible to define.
• Darwin thought that there were few universals of physical beauty because there was much variance in appearance and preference across human groups.