A Brief Introduction to Philosophy

Learning Objectives:

1.   To know the meaning of philosophy

2.   To trace the beginning of philosophy
3.   To understand the historical development of philosophy
4.   To figure out the problem of philosophy
5.   To know the necessity of the study of philosophy
6.   To know why philosophy is a human activity
7.   To know the nature of philosophy
8.   To know the different branches of philosophy

ü   In a world that is beset with a multitude of important issues, there is a great need
for the students to have a critical mind in order to prevent them from adopting
opinions that are uninformed, poorly analyzed, biased, or simple minded.
ü   There is a need for students to develop critical thinking so as not to act on a
poorly-thought opinion as this may have a disastrous result.

Literal Definition of Philosophy

ü   “love of wisdom”
o   Greek words (philein) –means to love
o   Sophia – means wisdom
ü   Consequently philosophers are called “lovers of wisdom”.

Wisdom

ü   Deals with the principles of things, the first cause of all beings. It deals with the
understanding of the meaning of once existence and the importance of the things
around him/her.
o   Involves reflection
o   Insight
o   A capacity to learn from experience
o   Some plausible from human condition

Philosophy

ü   Inasmuch as philosophy deals with wisdom, it is, therefore, considered a search

for meaning – search for understanding on the importance of human life. It is a
search for understanding one’s lived experience.
ü   It is important part of the human person’s life whether he/she knows it or not.
This is because every human person is a rational being.
ü   It is the nature of every human person to ask for the meaning of life and to search
of fulfillment and happiness.
ü   Philosophy came about when human beings started to have a sense of wonder in
the world. It all started when people to have reflections on their everyday
experience.
ü   The sense of wonder lead him/her to ask the questions
Million-dollar questions in philosophy:

1.   What is the ultimate material of the universe?

2.   How can we explain the process of change in things?

The Beginning of Philosophy (How did philosophy came about?)

Miletus

ü   – the birthplace of philosophy was the seaport town of Miletus, located across
the Aegean Sea from Athens, on the western shores of Ionia in Asia Minor. The
first philosophers were called either Milesians or Ionians.
ü   It was the center of commerce around 585 BCE (Before Common Era). Merchants
also traded their ideas and beliefs brought about by their reflections. This caused
arts and philosophy to flourish

Questions of Milesians:

o   Where does everything come from?

o   What is the source of the existence of everything?

Thales (624-546 BCE)

ü   Everything must have come from water.

ü   Aristotle mentioned that Thales concluded the idea that the seeds of all things
have a moist nature, and water is the origin of the nature of moist things.

Anaximander (550 BCE)

ü   Agreed with his teacher Thales that there is a single basic stuff out of which
everything comes.
ü   He disagreed with Thales, if everything comes from water, then where could this
water come from?
ü   In this case, everything must have come from an original stuff, which he calls the
indeterminate boundless. Things are finite, the original stuff is infinite or
boundless.

Anaximenes (585-528 BCE)

ü   Made an attempt to reconcile the idea of his predecessors by designating air as

the primary substance from which all things originated.
ü   According to him “just as our soul, being air, hold us together, so do breath and
air encompasses the whole world

Pythagoras (570-497 BCE) – Across Miletus, Aegean Sea

ü   He promulgated the belief that everything comes from numbers.

ü   Everything is measurable and can be numbered, then everything must have
originated from numbers.

Heraclitus of Ephesus (570-480 BCE)

ü   Focused his attention to the problem of change.

ü   He held the belief that everything is in constant flux, “everything is on constant
change.”
ü   He expressed his concept of change by saying that “no one can step on the same
river twice”.
 ü   The only thing that is not changing is change itself.

Question to ponder: But what causes everything to change?

ü   He observed that everything passes through fire changes, then there is fire in
everything.
ü   He therefore, held that everything must have come from fire.
ü   He provide an answer regarding the question about changes in things.

Parmenides of Elea (510 BCE)

ü   Disagreed with Heraclitus regarding the concept of change.

ü   Parmenides would hold the exact opposite view by saying that change is an
illusion.
ü   Everything, according to him is permanent. The world consists of one indivisible
thing.
ü   The One is motionless and in a perfect sphere. We are just being deceived by our
sense. This is the basic idea of unchangeability influenced by Plato, the
distinction between the intelligible world of forms and the visible world of
opinion.

Empedocles (495-435 BCE) – a pluralist from Sicily

ü   Change and motion are made possible because objects are composed of many
particles, which are in themselves changeless.
ü   Being is uncreated and indestructible and that it simply is.

The four changeless elements which everything was made

1.   Earth
2.   Air
3.   Fire
4.   Water

Leucippus (490-430 BCE) – the founder of the atomist

Democritus of Abdera (460-360 BCE)
ü   Everything is made up of atoms moving in the empty space
ü   Everything was the product of the collision of atoms moving in space

Different philosophers provided different views as regards the question “where did
everything come from? The question therefore who holds the right answer?
ü   Pythagoras believed that every human person is capable of knowing the whole
truth.
ü   Pythagoras believed that only God is truly wise and the wisdom of the human
person is only derivative from the wisdom of God.
ü   Pythagoras held that God is Wisdom. Human beings, on the other hand, can only
be friends or lovers of wisdom, hence the term philosophy.
Assignment:
1.   What is the importance of the study of philosophy in your chosen profession?

Historical Development of Philosophy

Pre Socratic

ü   Philosophy is concerned with the acquisition of truth. Basically, it is a search for

meaning.
ü   The Pre-Socratic philosophers were primarily concerned with nature and origin
of the world.
ü   They were known to be early metaphysicians
ü   Ancient philosophy is considered as Cosmocentric

Medieval

ü   Philosophy became religious in nature

ü   The medieval philosophers, were also trying to formulate an answer regarding
the origin of things.
ü   The beginning of everything must be something that has no beginning but is the
source of existence of all things.
ü   The source of existence of all things must be an infinite being.
ü   Philosophers called this infinite being God.
ü   The classical mind is secular, the medieval mind is chiefly theological.
ü   Medieval philosophy is identified as Theocentric
ü   Making the act of faith is the conclusion for logical process and negating the
supra-rational character of faith.
ü   Medieval philosophers studied church doctrines and biblical theology in order to
explain what God chose to reveal.

Modern (17th Century)

ü   The result of these changes was a shift away from metaphysics toward
epistemology
ü   Spearheaded by Rene Descartes, Frances Bacon, John Locke
ü   Descartes studied the process of thinking itself. (epistemological turn) Father of
Modern Philosophy
ü   Devoted themselves acquiring knowledge about knowledge
ü   Modern period identified as Ideocentric as tried to focus on the certitude of
knowledge.
ü   Is the human mind capable of obtaining truth?

Contemporary Period

ü   Focused the attention from human mind to human person. It is considered

Anthropocentric
ü   They were aiming to have social reformations and economic improvements thus
it leads to Industrial Revolution.
ü   The main problem that was prevalent at this period was how to ground human
value, making the rediscovery of human dignity as the main goal of philosophy.
ü   Philosopher tries to reflect the mystery of human existence

The Problem of Philosophy

ü   The rise of science and technology brought a different perspective in the human
person’s approach to philosophy.
ü   It provides him instant satisfaction, makes the mind set aside reasoning.
ü   Technology inclined the human person to focus a great deal on the material
world.
 ü   In approaching life’s problems, people no longer look at philosophy as method
since they believed that science is capable of producing more practical answers to
certain questions in life.
ü   Philosophy does not have a proper object. Philosophy appears not to focus on the
true and real problems.
ü   Then why do we need to study philosophy?

The Necessity of the Study of Philosophy

ü   People are asking questions which only philosophy can provide an explanation.
Some of the questions that are hunting the human mind are:
o   What is the meaning of human life?
o   Why is there death?
o   What is the meaning of good and evil? If there is good, why there is
evil?
o   What is the dignity of human person?
o   What is the nature and law of love?
o   Is there really freedom?
o   Is there a God?

What is Philosophy?

1.   As a human activity
ü   It is only human being can philosophize
2.   As a social activity
ü   Because the human being is a social being
3.   As perennial
ü   It is a never ending search for truth
4.   As a disinterested search
ü   It does not offer practical answers
5.   As search for the intelligible structure
ü   It is searching for the truth, it is therefore, using reason
6.   As a search for the totality of being
ü   Philosophy deals with whole creation

The Nature of Philosophy

ü   All sciences rooted in philosophy. Aristotle for instance wrote about

biology, zoology, physics, literature, astronomy, psychology as well as
other philosophical topics.
ü   Plato founded the Academy in Athens, “Let no one who enters here be
ignorant of Geometry.”
ü   Philosophy, as a super subject, sought to provide, if not all answers, then,
the answers to at least most ultimate and fundamental questions.

The Different Branches of Philosophy

1.   Metaphysics- deals with the nature of beings

2.   Epistemology – study of knowledge
3.   Ethics – philosophical study of moral judgment
4.   Social Philosophy – deals with the philosophical study of society and its
institutions
 5.   Political Philosophy – focuses on one social institution, the state that
determines its proper organization.
6.   Aesthetics – deals with beauty, harmony; hence philosophy of art.
7.   Logic – theory of correct reasoning, investigate the criteria of valid inference

Philosophies of Discipline

1.   Philosophy of Science – deals with scientific investigation

2.   Philosophy of Mathematics – provide account on the nature and methodology of
mathematics
3.   Philosophy of Law –
4.   Philosophy of Education
5.   Philosophy of Biology
6.   Philosophy of Psychology
7.   Philosophy of Mind
8.   Philosophy of Religion
9.   Philosophy of History
10.  Philosophy of Sport
11.  Philosophy of Love
12.  Philosophy of Culture
13.  Philosophy of Women
14.  Analytic Philosophy
15.  Existentialism
16.  Phenomenology