Asking Philosophy Beneath the Raindrops: The Philosophy of Being and the Ethics of Life

Soyo's Existence Ethics Essay

The Temporality of Being and the Philosophy of Life

Late in the afternoon, raindrops fell, one by one, onto the rippling surface of the water. The waves, creased by the wind, spread slowly, as if the final page of life were quietly folding upon itself. Watching the drops, I felt a sudden resemblance to tears. Yet it was not mere sorrow. Rather, it was the awakening of being, a consciousness that long submerged in time, erupts into its own cry at a certain moment.

In that instant, the names of classical philosophers came to mind: Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Heidegger, Wittgenstein. Their thought was immense, mapping human intellect across millennia. Yet as I followed their maps, I always felt a certain emptiness: “Why does philosophy always look at the world through aged eyes?” “Why must we wait through the passage of years to truly recognize existence and understand life? Why does philosophy fail to accompany us from the very first stirrings of life?”

The Moments Philosophy Missed

I recalled my childhood self. Why, then, did no one ask about life? Why did philosophy always attempt to persuade us through the language of reason alone? Moments that seem to make us most human: love, loss, birth, death, poverty, and tears. Why were they pushed beyond the reach of rational thought?

We learn philosophy as youth, memorizing condensed theories for exams, mapping intellectual lineages in lecture halls. Yet in this way, philosophy does not root itself within us. Philosophy typically comes late, arriving only when we have awakened enough to bear it. But I ask, "Why must this be? Why can't philosophy console us amidst the loves, cries, and failures of our youth?"

Philosophy’s True Place

Philosophy has grown distant from life. It became a discipline, a system, a discourse. Yet its origin was the pain of existence, beginning with the first cry of humanity striving to understand itself. Philosophy was initially sensation, the passing of pain through the body, a cry for meaning. It was a question cast before death itself.

I whispered to the classical philosophers, “Why did you not say life is magnificent?” “Why must the nobility of human existence hide behind logic?” “Why remain silent before the suffering of others and the wonder of life?”

At the end of that questioning, I realized classical philosophy could not quicken the heartbeat of human existence. Philosophy spoke of what comes after death, of moral law, and of the organization of states. But it had no word for a child’s birth, a tear shed watching the setting sun, or a hand lifted in prayer before incurable illness. That silence was philosophy’s error.

Philosophy in the Company of Life

I began writing a new philosophy, not a system to construct, but a record of ethics embracing existence. This is Soyo's Existence Ethics. Across vast, wilderness-like years, I believed philosophy must be rewritten to carry the faith preserved through five brushes with death, through betrayal and neglect.

Philosophy must be a companion of life, not a mere academic pursuit. It must cry and walk alongside us, not merely teach. It must listen, not just speak. I reject philosophy confined to the intellect alone. Philosophy must breathe through the heart. This is my Existence Ethics.

Undying Philosophy

Philosophy has never died. It has always breathed in the depths of human existence, within love and suffering. It is present in a child’s first fearful words, in the silence of an elder’s final farewell. I wish to demonstrate this: philosophy is not a dead language; it is the pulse of a living heart.

The philosophy we need today is not verbose knowledge, but the ethics of silent empathy: the philosophy of being and the ethics of life. One raindrop falling on the rippling water was not a mere drop. It was philosophy within me, a tear, life itself, the pulse of existence.

Soyo’s philosophy is the heartbeat of all my thoughts. This philosophy will survive, for it breathes alongside humanity.

Soyo (逍遙) – Founder of Soyo's Existence Ethics, Author of 'The Silence of Existence' and 'The Flame of Truth'

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