Name: Karell Shieka T.

Ang Strand and Section: STEM 2B-11 Wisdom

Etymologically, the word philosophy comes from the Greek words philia, meaning
“love” and sophia, meaning “wisdom”. Thus, philosophy is the love of wisdom. In its
Thomistic-Aristotelian definition, philosophy is defined as the science of the ultimate
reasons, causes, and principles of being as acquired by the aid of human intellect
alone. The love in philosophy is described as philia, which means, the love of friendship
or brotherly love. The one that studies and love wisdom is a Philosopher. There’s also
something that is somehow the same with philosophy but does not deal “wisdom” with
love, which is, Sophist.

A Sophist is someone who’s wise but without love. A sophist can bear three
characteristics which is exemplified by the 3R’s, namely, Relativism, Rhetoric, and
Recompense. Relativism is that there is no absolute truth, that for all, everything’s
subjective. For example, one describes a dog as cute and lovely, but the other
describes it as a dirty, loud beast. There’s no absolute truth on how a person perceives
something, but one can persuade anyone to believe on your belief. Rhetoric is the art of
persuasion or in simpler words, it is the art of using language to persuade and influence
somebody to believe in something they stand for. It is based on the three modes of
persuasion: logos, ethos, and pathos. Recompense describes that the person is a
Sophist when he or she is paid to teach.

The video described philosophy and it leans more on providing significant

difference between Sophistry and Philosophy. The two revolves around wisdom. There
are several keys that denotes their difference and these are: love and method of
reasoning. Love draws the line between the difference between a sophist and a
philosopher; one has love and the other doesn’t. In Sophistry, they win their argument
by fallacious arguments, while philosophy deals on seeking the truth with logical
explanation and that, it should be sought. The whole objective of the lecture was to
create a contrast between the Sophists and Philosophers. This includes on how the “big
three” in philosophy were against the Sophist, for the study of rhetoric was just based
on arguments and persuasion. The three believed on logic and that, it is enough to
make a solid argument.