PHILOSOPHY philos+sophia (love of METAPHYSICS meta+physika (beyond

wisdom) physics)
• study of everything and its ultimate cause • deals with the true nature of reality
under the light of reason • study of existence
• a practice of people who never stopped to • What is? Is the world real? Or is it just an
wonder “thaumazein” illusion?

PYTHAGORAS OF SAMOS GENERAL METAPHYSICS / ONTOLOGY

• coined the term philosopher • study of being
• kinds of being:
MANLY P. HALL • actual real being – exists at present
• a freemason philosopher moment
• wrote “The Secret Teachings of All Ages” • real being – has/can have
existence by man’s knowing
NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF • potential real being –
PHILOSOPHY • substantial real being – exists by
• Philosophy integrates itself with other itself; free
disciplines to achieve a comprehensive and • accidental real being – does not
coherent world view exist itself but need another being to
• Philosophy analyzes the very foundations exist (color, shape, and movement)
of other disciplines • necessary real being –
• Philosophy analyzes and criticizes nonexistence is impossible, that
treasured beliefs and traditions which cannot but exist
• absolute necessary – has never
CORE BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY been produced
• Metaphysics • conditional necessary –
• Epistemology nonexistence is impossible
• Ethics • contingent real being – does not
• Aesthetics have to exist all the time

SPECIAL METAPHYSICS
PHILOSOPHY
• focuses on freedom of will, immortality,
and mind-body problem
• cosmology, rational psychology, natural
METAPHYSICS EPISTEMOLOGY ETHICS AESTHETICS psychology
• act – principle of perfection (unity)
GENERAL
RATIONALISM METAETHICS
• potency – principle of change (diversity)
METAPHYSICS

SPECIAL NORMATIVE
EPISTEMOLOGY episteme logos
EMPIRICISM
METAPHYSICS ETHICS (knowledge to study)
• study of knowledge, nature, and justified
APPLIED ETHICS belief
RATIONALISM
• logical, reason is the chief source of
knowledge
• source of knowledge
• Rene Descartes, “Cogito, ergo sum”
I think therefore I am

EMPIRICISM
• experiences, 5 senses, perception
• John Locke, conceived the concept of
mind being a tabula rasa (empty tablet)
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
(1689)
• forms of experience: sensation, reflection

ETHICS ethos (custom or habit)

• moral philosophy
• aims to synthesize the concepts of right
and wrong behavior

METAETHICS
• deals with the origin and meaning of
ethical concepts

NORMATIVE ETHICS
• setting a certain standard of what is right
or wrong

APPLIED ETHICS
• to apply theories to situation in real life

AESTHETICS aisthetikos (sense if

perception)
• deals with nature and appreciation of art,
beauty, and good taste
• the judgement made by us
• Immanuel Kant, one of the most important
thinkers of Europe, contended that beauty
and art were both objective and universal
• judgement of art’s aesthetic value can also
be tied up with one’s political, economic, or
moral values