Test 1 Make up

Marcus Chan
Teresa Welch
Philosophy 1000
5/2/16
Test 1 Make up
Philosophy
1. What are the standard definitions/answers that are given to the questions
"What is philosophy?" "What does philosophy?" and "Who does NOT do
philosophy? Is wisdom the same thing as intelligence? Why or why not?
Philosophy is a field of study which deals with ideas of existence, the existence
of human beings and God, and the reality of this universe. All these are abstract
ideas which can answer the questions to fundamental human problems.
Describing philosophy in a definition is difficult. There are many existing
definitions which define the nature and scope of philosophy. Before we describe
the philosophy, it is necessary to define the word philosophy. The word
philosophy is derived from Greek words Philo and Sophia, which literary means
Love of Wisdom. This means that philosophy is a rational study of human ideas
and things. Philosophy deals with all aspects of human life. In simple words,
philosophical reasoning on any issue is called philosophy.
According to Heidegger, Philosophy receives a scientific foundation in critical
epistemology, upon whose fundamental insights the remaining philosophies
disciplines ethics, philosophy of religion build (pp.14-15). The changing overview
is that scholars are considering philosophy as a scientific study. It deals with the

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metaphysics. The role of philosophy cannot be denied in any field of life.

Philosophy deals with the roots of objects. There are three grounds of knowledge
which philosophy deals: 1) ontology means the existence of God,; 2)
epistemology deals with nature and; 3) the scope of knowledge and axiology
which is related to values and ethics. These three grounds deal with abstract
ideas (Heidegger, 2002).
The reasoning is the general name of a few exercises which are special in
themselves. Case in point, you know how well science is not a particular idea. It
is likewise an umbrella idea under which exercises of physics, botany, chemistry,
herbal science, brain research, etc. A robust and engaging pattern is that theory
is a precise understanding of encounters. Human life is a progression of
encounters, considerations, recollections, trusts and desires. On the off chance
that you precisely think, you can't have anything in your psyche which was not at
some point the experience of you or another person.
Ordinarily, abstract thoughts have an establishment in some encounters. The
possibility of God is a bunch of ideas derived from different battles of force, of
insight, of the generosity of absolution and so forth. The possibility of a brilliant
mountain is combined from the contacts of gold and mountain joined. The
possibility of a pixie is inferred by joining the experience of magnificence, young
lady, wings, and mystical force and so on. The possibility of a square circle is
gotten from joining the encounters of a square and a circle (Gilles Deleuze,
2014).

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Philosophy is that branch of study which deliberately examines the plainly

understood occurrences and events, as well as all encounters prompting ideas,
thoughts, correspondence, which means and such issues. It is taken as a second
request study, not going to things or substances but rather staying restricted to
clarification of ideas. In such a view of the theory, the examination is taken as an
instrument of clarifying the ideas. These ideas are valuable just as constituents of
suggestions or statements. The assertions are those expressions which are
either valid or false, which like this should be grounded in this present reality.
This current reality outside experience can be questioned, yet the marvels that
our psyche develops out of the experience cannot be questioned. In any case,
other people totally trust that theory remains for legitimizing a decent life. It is
good to state that philosophy is a branch of study which gives the answers to
questions in a systematic manner. It is different from intelligence which is an
innate ability of human beings or a mean to collect knowledge (Gilles Deleuze,
2014).
2. Describe "the Tao" according to the Asian Sages Lao-Tzu and Confucius
and how this concept relates to other philosophical ideas/concepts that
they believed in.
A study which examines and looks to comprehend the riddles of presence and
reality will be Philosophy. It tries to find the way of truth and learning and to
discover what is of fundamental worth and significance in life. It likewise looks at
the connections amongst humanity and nature between the individual and

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society. Rationality emerges out of the miracle, interest, and the craving to know
and gets it. The reasoning is along these lines a type of request a procedure of
investigation, feedback, translation, and theory. In this context, Tao and
Confucius are two religious philosphers in ancient China.
Confucianism and Taoism are both old Chinese styles of living. Confucianism has
faith in setting the great case for others to take after, essentially in 5 key
connections: 1) ruler and subject; 2) spouse and husband; 3) more established
and more youthful skin; 4) companion and friend and lastly; 5) father and child.
Taoism concentrates on living agreeably, the balance between yin and yang.
Taoism is also referred as Daoism. These two philosophies are the way of life to
people. It is interesting to see that Confucianism and Taoism have different
pioneers, foundations and teaching but the ultimate purpose is to facilitate the
human life (Weber, 1964).
The term Tao signifies a way or a rule and can be found in Chinese nationalities
and religions other than Taoism. In Taoism, notwithstanding, Tao means
something that is both the wellspring of, and the power behind, everything that
exists. Taoism drew its cosmological ideas from the fundamentals of the School
of Yin Yang and is vigorously affected and educated by the recognized most
established content of antiquated Chinese works of art. The I Ching, which
recommends an arrangement of philosophical thought on the morals of human
practices given articulating cycles of progress in the normal and social universes
by method for hexagrams.

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In Daoism, the most crucial idea is that of the dao. We can comprehend the dao
in three ways. To start with, dao is a definitive reality - it is so substantial and
confused it cannot be caught on. It is otherworldly. Also, dao can be depicted as
the method for the universe. It is the way the universe and the laws of nature act.
Lastly, dao is the method for human life. It is this part of dao that has the best
affect on the Chinese society, yet it cannot be. Confucius' humanistic thought that
man can make the Way (Tao) extraordinary was a radical takeoff from the
conventional Chinese accentuation on nature spirits.
He accentuated the significance of taking in the Golden Mean or Chung-young.
Chung-Yung implies centrality and all-inclusiveness, despite the fact that it is
differently interpreted as balance, typicality, and all good general law. Confucius
trusted that by restoring balance to the individual, the request would be restored
to the family, to different connections, to the state, to the world, and to the
universe. Developing the Way is called instruction. The Way can't be isolated
from us. Balance is the establishment of the world, and congruity its all whole
way. Whenever balance and amicability are acknowledged to the most
astounding degree, paradise and earth will achieve legitimate request and all
things will thrive (Confucius, 2007).
Confucius' emphasis on the natural connection of Tao and social, ethical news
(te) denoted the first run through those ideas came to unmistakable quality in
Chinese theory. Customarily, te (goodness) implied strength, or, the ability to
influence others without utilizing physical power. Despite the differences and
similarities between two philosophies, it is good to state that both theories aim to

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serve human beings. Their ultimate purpose is to teach the lesson of ethics and
humanities which also prevails in Buddhism (Confucius, 2007).
3. Who were the Sophists, and what did they teach?
Sophists were religious teachers who aim to teach people both in Greek and
Roman empires. The main purpose of the Sophist in every age is to teach virtue
and morality among people. The tradition of Sophist could be found in ancient
times as declared above. The expression Sophism originates from the Greek
"Sophos" or "Sophia" and initially indicated to any skill in a particular space of
information or specialty. After a period where it predominantly mentioned to
writers, the word came to depict general insight and, particularly, knowledge
about human undertakings.
After some time, it came to signify a class of intelligent nomad people who taught
courses in incredibleness or righteousness, who theorized about the way of
dialect and society, and who utilized talk to accomplish their motivations.
Sophists held relativistic perspectives on discernment and learning, theoretical
perspectives on truth and profound quality, and their logic frequently contained
reactions of religion, law and morals. Numerous Sophists were nearly as
religious as the vast majority of their counterparts, yet some held skeptical or
rationalist perspectives (McNeese, 1999).
Sophists had an extensive impact in their time and were to a great extent very
much respected. They were by and large vagrant instructors who acknowledged
charges consequently for the guideline in speech and talk, and they stressed the

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commonsense utilization of discussion toward community and political life. Their

social and mental commitments assumed a critical part in the development of
vote based system in Athens, not slightest through their expository educating,
their reception of Relativism and their liberal and pluralistic acknowledgment of
different perspectives (McNeese, 1999).
Additionally, Sophists were a percentage of the world's first legal advisors,
making full utilization of their much-created argumentation aptitude. The early
Sophists guaranteed that they could discover the responses to all inquiries,
which, alongside their routine of taking expenses and their scrutinizing of the
presence and parts of customary divinities, prompted well-obvious disdain
against Sophist specialists, thoughts and compositions. A few authors have
included Socrates as a Sophist, in spite of the fact that he was trustworthy in
tolerating no charges and making no cases of predominant astuteness, and his
most famous understudy, Plato, portrays Socrates as negating the Sophists in a
few of his discoursed.
It is Plato who is to a great extent in charge of the cutting edge perspective of
the Sophist as an acquisitive and forces looking for an educator who utilizes
explanatory sleight-of-hand and ambiguities of idiom keeping in mind the end
goal to mislead, or to strengthen fraudulent thinking. Plato is especially cavalier
of Gorgias, a standout amongst the best known and fruitful of the early Sophists.
The myth was considered skilled debasing reality since it stressed reasonable
talk as opposed to goodness, and taught understudies to contend any side of an
issue. As a rule, our insight into Sophist thought comes down to us from

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fragmentary citations that need setting, a significant number of these from

Aristotle (Plato, 2014).
Aristotle, who, similar to his educator Plato, held the Sophists in slight respect.
Owing to a great extent to the impact of Plato and Aristotle, rationality came to be
viewed as particular from Sophism, which was slowly became identical to the
commonsense control of talk, so that, in the Roman Empire, a Sophist was
essentially an instructor of speech or a prevalent open speaker. For a period of
time, Sophists began to endure oppression, dangers, and even death. In its
deprecatory current use, deception has come to mean a confusing or unusual
contention used to mislead somebody, or only theory or claim for its purpose,
unfilled of genuine substance or quality.
4. What did Socrates mean when he said "The unexamined life is not worth
living," and how does this relate to the fact that he considered himself to be
a "Physician of the Soul"? Why was Socrates put to death for these
beliefs?
Socrates is one of only a handful of people whom one could say has molded the
social and scholarly advancement of the world that, without him, history would be
significantly different. He is best known for his relationship with the Socratic
strategy for inquiry and answer, his claim that he was oblivious, and his assertion
that the unexamined life is not worth living, for people. He was the motivation for
Plato; the mastermind broadly held to be the originator of the Western
philosophical convention. Plato like this served as the instructor of Aristotle, in

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this way setting up the celebrated triad of old savants: Socrates, Plato, and
Aristotle.
Dissimilar to different rationalists of his time and our own, Socrates never
recorded anything on living permanently and to questioning the regular
perspectives and well known assessments of those in his home city of Athens. At
70 years old, he was executed on account of his kindred residents on charges of
irreverence and debasement of the adolescent. His trial, alongside the social and
political connection in which happened, has justified as much treatment from
history specialists and classicists as his contentions and techniques have from
rationalists (McNeill, 2009).
We can find a conflict between saying of Socrates, "The unexamined life is not
worth living," and his philosophy which is Physician of Soul. The first quote
declares his optimistic and hopeful attitude towards the world. He seemed not to
give any worth to trial of this world. In a clear sense, he had to make the point
clear that human do not waste their energies and time to solve the issues of this
broken world. Human Soul is the priority, for him, it is against the integrity of
human to lend their energies and strength to this mortal world. Socrates'
accentuation on human instinct here, and contend that the call to live inspected
lives takes after from our inclination as people.
Joy and agony actually coordinate us. We are attracted to influence, riches and
notoriety, the sorts of qualities to which Athenians were also drawn to. Socrates'
call to live analyzed lives is not as a matter, of course, a request to reject every
single such inspiration and slants yet rather an order to evaluate their actual

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worth for the human soul. The reason for the inspected life is to reflect upon our
ordinary inspirations and values and to along these lines ask into what genuine
worth, assuming any, they have. On the off chance that they have no quality or in
fact are even hurtful, it is upon us to seek after those things that are genuinely
profitable (Klein, 2007).
Obviously, as Socrates showed in his particular life being completely human can
be amazingly testing. In a universe of withstanding instability and many-sided
quality, one can perceive a definite fascination in not inspecting excessively, for a
long time in life. In this manner the charm of the individuals who offer to give
clear replies, straightforward bearings, and exact guidelines so you may set
aside examination and just agree, or negligently take after custom and practice
may be carrying on with a customarily moral life as opposed to an inspected
moral life. One can do without much of a stretch envision how beautiful an
unexamined life may be. Furthermore, it is hence that I think Socrates makes his
case so uncompromising.

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References

Confucius, B. W. (2007). The Analects of Confucius. Columbia: Columbia University

Press.
Gilles Deleuze, F. l. (2014). What Is Philosophy? Columbia: Columbia University Press.
Heidegger, M. (2002). Towards the Definition of Philosophy. London: A&C Black.
Klein, J. T. (2007). Body-Soul-Spirit: Journey with Sages Across Stages Through the
Ages Into Holistic Therapy. iUniverse.
McNeese, T. (1999). Ancient Greece II: The Golden Age to the Hellenistic Era. Milliken
Publishing Company.
McNeill, D. N. (2009). An Image of the Soul in Speech: Plato and the Problem of
Socrates. New Jersey: Penn State Press,.
Plato. (2014). Sophist. Trajectory Inc.
Weber, M. (1964). The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism. Free Press.