What is Philosophy?

Philo=love, Sophia=knowledge/wisdom – Ancient Greeks

called themselves philosophers, or lovers of knowledge to
distinguish themselves from the sophists of the day.
Sophists were lecture’s and orators that would make
speeches (which paid well) about a variety of topics and
often would speak about any subject for a price.

Socrates and his followers believed that they weren’t so

superficial and wanted to be known as distinct from this
profession so they established themselves as
“Philosophers”, the lovers of knowledge.
 Branches of Philosophy
Metaphysics – The study of the nature of existence, reality
and Being. Includes: ontology, realism, nominalism,
questions of mind-body dualism etc.
Epistemology – The study of theories of knowledge, how
we know things, what is knowable. Includes: Rationalism,
Empiricism, Idealism, Foundationalism, Coherence,
Pragmatism etc.
Logic – The study of arguments.
Ethics – The study of the nature, purposes, justification and
founding principles of moral rules and the systems they
comprise. The study how we ought to act.
Philosophy involves critical thinking and argument analysis:

Knowledge is Power
Power corrupts
Corruption is evil
Molloy gives us knowledge
∴ Molloy is Evil

This is a triangle; a shape with 3 sides and internal angles

that add to 180 degrees

Fact vs. Opinion

Writing TIP: USE ACTIVE VOICE!

Active voice is when the subject of the sentence performs

the action. This leads to concise and clear writing.
For more information and examples:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/539/01/