Marie May B. Chaves A.B.

Philosophy 3

Mr. Joseph Enerio. Ed.D. August 4, 2011

Family Customs and Traditions Are Not Knowledge There are pages of customs and traditions that I got from my family. Most of these are even from the generation of my great grandparents. My family customs and traditions may also come from cultures of the society which we belong. Some of these emanate from the so called hear says. A few also come from our own convictions and beliefs. But what is belief without justification? How can we know that we traditionally do is true if it has not yet been justified? Are our traditions and customs justified true belief? Knowledge is justified true belief. Most of the traditions that my family follows are from our ancestors. Our ancestors are already long gone from this world. They have not left any reasonable propositions on why we must follow these traditions. What may be true for them may not be true for the others. They may have provided reasons on why we should follow such customs and traditions but they relied on what they think is right. Their reasoning might be logical but these reasons are not enough to qualify or justify such belief. An example with this kind of tradition is that we should never cut our fingernails during nighttime. The reason for this is that a relative or a close person to us might die. But when we transcend to this reason, we can say that it may result to death because in the ancient times there was no access of electricity. Their houses were so dark that they could not see which part of their fingers they were cutting. They might accidentally cut their skins and since there were no hospitals during those times, they might bleed to death. But in our case today, this reasoning is not justifiable. Most of the people

in the city have electricity. We have many hospitals, public and private. This custom or tradition that my family follows is not justifiable and true. It is not knowledge. Another custom that my family follows is that we should bless to our adult relatives and family friends. This tradition is not only evident to my family but it can as well be seen in many Filipino families. To bless is to show respect to the elders. But many of us are dualistic; we bless to our elders but we talk back to them or we do something that is against their will. This is certainly not knowledge because our actions are contradictory to what we have had expressed. For me, this custom is also not knowledge because there are many ways to show honor to the elders and the sages. In my family, if theres a new member of our clan who does not bless an elder, he/she is considered as disrespectful. I personally do not find this justifiable because traditions and customs depend on the culture a person comes from. There are numbers of foreigners who migrated in our country who have different way of showing respect to the elders. To bless to an elder as sign of respect is not true to all people. Another tradition that my whole family follows is celebrating grand reunions every two years, spend Christmas at my grandparents house during Christmas and staying at home every New Year. This has been my familys tradition even before I was brought to life. This tradition comes from the clan where I belong. It is like a requirement to participate in these events. This cannot be considered as knowledge because what is true to my family may not be true to the other families of my clan. We dont agree on every event. We have misunderstandings and bickers. If this tradition were knowledge, then we would agree on these events because it would be justifiable and true to all.

My family also has this tradition of visiting our departed loved ones in the cemetery every once in a while. This is not knowledge because I believe that we can always pray for them, anytime and anywhere. What may be believes as true for my aunts and uncles are different from mine. My prayer can also justify my acknowledgements for them. I can make them feel remembered in a different way. There are no limits in ways of acknowledging and remembering them. Another tradition that my family follows that the males are supposed to do the heavy works at home while the girls are assigned to the chores that do not require brawny bodies. This is justifiable according to the difference of the physique between the sexes. But this tradition is not true to all cultures because in other parts of the country, the females do the heave works and the males do the light ones. There are also families in our country whose manly jobs are given to women. In our generation today, the male and female are seen as equal beings, there is already a move for feminism. By the exampled that I have given, traditions and customs vary from generation to generation, places and families. All the examples are beliefs but they lack justification and truth. Traditions and customs are not knowledge because they are not justified true belief.