A Philosophy That Cannot Save Even a Single Soul Is No Philosophy

The Final Ethical Interrogation of Philosophy

Soyo's Existence Ethics – Chapter 24:

The Tears of Existence: Before Philosophy

A person dies. The world calls it politics; the era, a tragedy.

For thousands of years, philosophy has claimed to ask about existence, to pursue knowledge, to distinguish values and establish ethics. Yet, I ask, “why has all that philosophy not been able to save even a single soul?” This question is not an emotional sneer. It is an ethical summons to those times when philosophy stood silent before war, and a thorough indictment of the reality that, over the graves of the dead, philosophers still tidy their desks.

Philosophy Spoke of Death but Could Not Embrace Life

Philosophy has spoken of death, yet it could not embrace life. Countless classical philosophers spoke of human existence, but to the suffering human being, philosophy spoke no words.

Socrates died for justice, but did not weep for the suffering. Plato designed the ideal state, but did not carry the cries of the streets. Hegel proclaimed the dialectic of Spirit, but did not listen to the gestures of the hungry. They analyzed existence, but did not embrace life. They cried out for justice, but did not kneel before suffering.

The Death of Philosophy as It Became an Academic Discipline

The moment philosophy became an academic discipline, it died. Today, philosophy has become a university curriculum, a doctoral dissertation, a topic for receiving research funds. But true philosophy is found in none of these places. True philosophy is hidden in the tears of existence, in the depths of pain, where despair is endured.

Philosophy is not something to be taught, but something to be endured. Philosophy is not something to be memorized, but something to be breathed. Philosophy is not something to be researched, but something to be lived as existence.

Can Philosophy Without God Bear Life?

Why did they ignore the God within existence? I was dismayed to discover that, for thousands of years, philosophers tried to explain the roots of human existence cut off from God. Existence was born in the breath of God, and human suffering deepens most in the place where God’s will has been denied. And yet, modern philosophy seeks to exclude God and treat humanity merely as a desk bound concept.

I ask them, can philosophy without God carry the weight of life? When philosophy denies God, is it not reduced to human-centered arrogance? The truth of existence lies within the human interior, and that interior cannot be explained apart from its relation to God.

Existence is Not a Question But a Response

I believe that a single tear from a single life is heavier than all the questions philosophy has ever posed. Knowledge, existence, value, ethics, reason, language and perception must all ultimately be tools to embrace living existence. Thus, the philosophy I proclaim, existential ethics, is not a philosophy of questioning, but a philosophy of responding. The ethics of existence is not born on the desk, but on the knee. Philosophy must not be a deduction, but the cry of love. Philosophy must not be tidy sentences, but the words of endured memory.

Philosophy Must Return to the Knee

The philosopher needed in this age is not one who writes polished papers, but one who can remain silent before a weeping existence. Philosophy must again become a language that kneels before suffering. Philosophy must again become an ethics that preserves a single life.

Philosophy must again become a humble meditation that bows before the name of God.

Soyo’s Declaration

I now leave the philosophers’ libraries and turn to speak to the souls standing in the alleyways of pain. When you were weeping, where was philosophy? When you were about to give up, philosophy spoke no words. But I, in that silence, rewrite philosophy.

Philosophy is existence, existence is weeping, weeping is life. If that life cannot be preserved, then that philosophy is no longer philosophy. Return to the philosophy of existence! Even now, in this very moment, philosophy fails to understand the weight of existence, saves not a single soul, and remains only as the language of the “high gates.”

"And so, I cry out, philosophy must return to suffering; philosophy must learn to look at existence on its knees'.

This is Soyo’s philosophy. The philosophy that saves

the ethics of existence.

Soyo (逍遙) – Founder of Soyo Existence Ethics. Author of The Silence of Existence, The Flame of Truth

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