CHAPTER 1: Philosophy and Ethics

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this lesson you shall be able to:
a) to appreciate ethics as branch of philosophy
b) to determine its meaning and identify its division
c) to articulate the importance and uses of philosophy in actual life.

A. What is PHILOSOPHY?
The word PHILOSOPHY originates from the Greek words “philos” meaning
love and “sophia” meaning wisdom. Philosophy literally means “love of
wisdom.” Philosophy is an intellectual activity that engages the self to
comprehend life’s conditions and events. In a broad sense, philosophers
“seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in
which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. As
an academic discipline philosophy is much the same. Those who study
philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for
their answers to life’s most basic questions.”
There are also various understandings of philosophy. These are:
a. Philosophy is a search for meaning or a quest for
understanding.

b. Philosophy is a reflective analysis of the essential truths.

c. Philosophy is the study of moral values.

d. Philosophy seeks to establish standards of evidence to

provide rational methods for conflict resolution, and to
create techniques for the assessment of ideas and
arguments.

e. Philosophy explores the ability to see the world from

another person's viewpoint and from other cultures.

f. Philosophy enhances one's ability to perceive relations

between the different fields of study.

g. Philosophy deepens one's understanding of the nature of

human life and its variety.

As life is experienced, one cannot but just ask questions about its mysteries and how to make
it better. A philosopher tries to answer these questions based upon the methods and
assumptions he came upon through philosophical reflections and systematic thinking. This is to
develop a test bed for ideas for the improvement of effectively solving life’s problems and to
understand life in its fullness. Philosophy is applicable to everything and to everyone, it is limitless
since it provides endless possibilities.
 Philosophy, in general, guarantees wisdom, leadership, an excellent guide for our
genuine existence. Philosophy will never become obsolete as long as there is life. People as life
goes on keep on asking many questions about life.

B. The Branches of Philosophy

There are five (5) major branches of philosophy. These are Metaphysics, Epistemology,
Logic, Aesthetics and Ethics.

PHILOSOPHY

Ethics Aesthetics

Epistemology Logic

Metaphysics
A. Metaphysics

At its core the study of metaphysics is the study of the nature of

reality, of what exists in the world, what it is like, and how it is ordered. In
metaphysics philosophers wrestle with such questions as:

Is there a God?
What is truth?
What is a person? What makes a person the same through time?
Is the world strictly composed of matter?
Do people have minds? If so, how is the mind related to the body?
Do people have free wills?
What is it for one event to cause another?

B. Epistemology
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. It is primarily concerned with what we can
know about the world and how we can know it. Typical questions of concern in epistemology
are:
 What is knowledge?
Do we know anything at all?
How do we know what we know?
Can we be justified in claiming to know certain things?

C. Logic
Another important aspect of the study of philosophy is the arguments or reasons given
for people’s answers to these questions. To this end philosophers employ logic to study the
nature and structure of arguments. Logicians ask such questions as:

What constitutes "good" or "bad" reasoning?

How do we determine whether a given piece of reasoning is good or bad?

D. Aesthetics

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and appreciation of
art, beauty and good taste. It has also been defined as "critical reflection on art, culture and
nature". In practice, we distinguish between aesthetic judgments (the appreciation of any
object, not necessarily an art object) and artistic judgments (the appreciation or criticism of a
work of art).

Aestheticians ask questions like

What is a work of art?
What makes a work of art successful?
Why do we find certain things beautiful?
How can things of very different categories be
considered equally beautiful?

E. Ethics
The study of ethics often concerns what we ought to do and what it would be best to
do. In struggling with this issue, larger questions about what is good and right arise. So, the
ethicist attempts to answer such questions as:

What is good? What makes actions or people good?

What is right? What makes actions right?
Is morality objective or subjective?
How should I treat others?
C. The Importance of Philosophy to Everyday Life
The study of philosophy helps us to enhance our ability to solve problems, our
communication skills, our persuasive powers, and our writing skills. Below is a description of
how philosophy helps us develop these various important skills.

A. General Problem Solving Skills

The study of philosophy enhances a person's problem-solving capacities. It helps us to
analyze concepts, definitions, arguments, and problems. It contributes to our capacity to
organize ideas and issues, to deal with questions of value, and to extract what is essential from
large quantities of information. It helps us, on the one hand, to distinguish fine and subtle
differences between views and, on the other hand, to discover common ground between
opposing positions. It also helps us to synthesize a variety of views or perspectives into one
unified whole.

B. Communication Skills
Philosophy contributes uniquely to the development of expressive and communicative
powers. It provides some of the basic tools of self-expression - for instance, skills in presenting
ideas through well-constructed, systematic arguments - that other fields either do not use or
use less extensively. Philosophy helps us express what is distinctive in our views, it enhances
our ability to explain difficult material, and it helps us to eliminate ambiguities and vagueness
from our writing and speech.

C. Persuasive Powers
Philosophy provides training in the construction of clear formulations, good arguments,
and appropriate examples. It, thereby, helps us to develop our ability to be convincing. We
learn to build and defend our own views, to appreciate competing positions, and to indicate
forcefully why we consider our own views preferable to alternatives. These capacities can be
developed not only through reading and writing in philosophy, but also through the
philosophical dialogue, both within and outside the classroom, that is so much a part of a
thorough philosophical education.

D. Writing Skills
Writing is taught intensively in many philosophy courses, and many regularly assigned
philosophical texts are also excellent as literary essays. Philosophy teaches interpretive writing
through its examination of challenging texts, comparative writing through emphasis on fairness
to alternative positions, argumentative writing through developing students' ability to establish
their own views, and descriptive writing through detailed portrayal of concrete examples.
Concrete examples serve as the anchors to which generalizations must be tied. Structure and
technique, then, are emphasized in philosophical writing. Originality is also encouraged, and
students are generally urged to use their imagination to develop their own ideas.

E. For personal development

Philosophy helps one to gain better self-knowledge, better foresight, and a better sense
of direction in life. Philosophy broadens the range of things one can understand and enjoy. It
can provide, to one's readings and conversations, special pleasures of insight. It can lead to self-
discovery, expansion of consciousness, and self-renewal for one’s development. Through its
contribution to one's expressive powers, it nurtures individuality and self-esteem.

The general uses of philosophy just described are obviously of great academic value. It should
be clear that the study of philosophy has intrinsic rewards as an unlimited quest for
understanding of important, challenging problems.

E. ETHICS in relation to PHILOSOPHY

The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves
systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of
right and wrong behavior. It should be noted that
Philosophy, in general, considers reflection as an
indispensable method of philosophizing. Without
undergoing reflection, any philosophical endeavor would be
considered as lame and blind. In Ethics, as an important part
of Philosophy, we are invited and challenged to reflect on
how we ought to make our existence meaningful guided by
various ethical theories and principles.

Ethics, then, as Philosophy, can deepen our reflection on the ultimate questions about
life: its main purpose, its proper importance, its real value, and its right direction. When we
engage in Philosophy, we learn proper and important intellectual skills. We develop how to
think rigorously about fundamental questions; understand and evaluate conflicting views;
express ideas clearly and consistently; and reason out in the proper way. Ethics also offers us
better perspectives for thinking, expressing and acting especially when we are confronted with
ethical issues and moral dilemma.