TEXTBOOK IN

PHILOSOPHY

GROUP 3:

CASLANGEN, SHEENA MEA M.

MARCOS, SCOTT FRAZER

JIMENEZ, BRYAN
What is Philosophy?
•In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to
understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and
their relationships to the world and to each other.

•This is a way of thinking about the world, the universe, and society. It works by
asking very basic questions about the nature of human thought, the nature of the
universe, and the connections between them. The ideas in philosophy are often
general and abstract.

Divisions of Philosophy
I. Ontology is the philosophical study of being. More broadly, its studies
concepts that directly relate to being, in particular becoming, existence,
reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.
II. Epistemology. Epistemology is a Greek word translated as the theory of
knowledge. Epistemology is a foundational area for other areas of
philosophy. Epistemology involves three main areas: (l) the source or
ways to knowledge. How do we know what we claim to know? How do
we know certain kinds of things? (2) The nature of knowledge. What do
we mean when we say we know something? If I declare I know a pin oak
tree, do I know this directly or indirectly? (3) The validity of knowledge.
In this the matter of truth or falsity is considered. How do I claim to
know that something is true? Why is one statement regarded as true or
false? These three issues will be considered in the next four chapters.
III. Axiology. Axios, the Greek word of worth, is related to two different
areas of worth. There is, first, moral worth, or ethics. Ethics is a
 discipline concerning human moral behavior and raises the questions of
right or wrong. Ethics has generally been the science or discipline of
what human behavior ought to be in contrast to a discipline like
sociology which is the study of what human behavior is. The second area,
aesthetics, is concerned with the beautiful. What is a beautiful work of
art? music? sculpture? What makes a beautiful woman? a handsome
man? an ugly one? Aesthetics seeks to give some answers to these
questions.
IV. Ethics or moral philosophy, which is concerned with human values and
how individuals should act.
V. Aesthetics or esthetics, which deals with the notion of beauty and the
philosophy of art.
VI. Logic. Logic is a term used to describe the various types of reasoning
structures, the relationship of ideas, deduction and inference, and in
modern times. symbolic logic which becomes quite mathematical. Logic
is too technical to consider in the confines of a general introduction to
philosophy. There are many excellent texts that may be consulted for a
general look at logic.
History of Philosophy
Origin
The term philosophy is derived from the Greek words phylos meaning "to love"
and sophie meaning "wisdom". More broadly understood, it is the study of the most basic and the
most profound matters of human existence. Philosophy, in the West, began in the Greek colony
of Miletus with Thales (who, according to ancient sources, was the first to ask “What is the basic
stuff of the universe from which all else comes?”) but spread outward in the works of subsequent
thinkers and writers to reach its heights in the works of Plato and his pupil Aristotle. The
mathematician and mystic Pythagoras (famed for his Pythagorean Theorem today) was the first
to call himself a philosopher. If philosophy is understood simply as the study of metaphysics and
epistemology, of logic and ethics, of aesthetics and politics, or of any of these "branches"
separately, then the onus of tracing her provenience becomes considerably lighter. We know, for
example, that the Milesians, led by Thales, were making important investigations into nature as
early as the seventh century B.C.; eastern teachers and prophets such as Lao-Tse, Confucius, and
the Buddha were contemplating moral ideals and concepts during the sixth century B.C. The pre-
Socratic philosophers (Heraclitus, Empedocles, Parmenides, Zeno) followed with their
formulations and speculations, and in the wings were three of history's most prodigious
philosophical minds (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle).