Which are more important,

QUESTIONS or ANSWERS?
 Questioning is the art of learning.
It opens up a path for us to explore.
Without question, we will be stuck in
that mundane little life of ours where
the same things happen over and
over again.

Which are more important, questions or answers?

 “The question is more important
than the answer because without
question there would be no answer.”
The day we stop asking questions is
the day we die as humans.
Margaret Weiss

Which are more important, questions or answers?

Question keeps the spirit of curiosity and inquisitiveness in us alive
Wonder as the beginning of philosophy is precisely
"philosophic wonder," that is, the
feeling of being perplexed.
 “For men were first led to study philosophy, as
indeed they are today, by wonder. Now, he who
is perplexed and wonders believes himself to
be ignorant... they took to philosophy
to escape ignorance...”

(Aristotle, Metaphysics 982b, tr. A.E.Taylor)

Oracle of Delphi
Socrates was the wisest man in Athens
questioned everyone he could find
they all pretended to know something they
clearly did not.
He was the wisest man in Athens because he alone was
prepared to admit his own ignorance

“He who is perplexed and wonders believes

himself to be ignorant... they took to
philosophy to escape ignorance...”
What is Philosophy?
• PHILIA which means LOVE
• SOPHIA which means WISDOM
means the LOVE OF WISDOM
Love in this context is understood as a strong desire for a particular object;
while Wisdom is understood as the correct application of knowledge. Thus,
philosophy as the Love of Wisdom at least in this context could refer to the
strong desire of a human person to possess knowledge and apply it correctly.

Traditionally, however, philosophy is defined as a science that studies beings

in their ultimate causes, reasons, and principles through the aid of human
reason alone. And when we speak of "being" or "beings" in philosophy in this
context, we mean all things that exist, material or immaterial.

All of these will start to unfold when we begin to WONDER or QUESTION

Questions are more important than answers because answers

themselves will, in turn, become questions.
• Karl Jaspers
Philosophical View in THREE VIEWS

Cosmocentric Anthropocentric
(Ancient Period) (Modern period)

Theocentric
(Medieval period)
Ancient philosophy (600 B.C.- 60.0 A.D.) – COSMOCENTRIC VIEW

wondered about the world (kosmos in Greek)

They wanted to understand the world for they found themselves

ignorant about the workings of the universe.

"Where did all things come from?"

The answer, they thought, would be a substance responsible for

the multiplicity of things. It would have to be something that is
the foundation of everything there is.
Thales of Miletus (c. 620 B.C.E.—c. 546 B.C.E.)

Thales was the first person to investigate the basic

principles, the question of the originating substances of
matter and, therefore, as the founder of the school of
natural philosophy.

His observations of nature and his philosophical reflections

led him to the view that WATER is the underlying principle
of all things.

The nurture of all creatures is moist, and that warmth itself is generated from moisture
and lives by it; and that from which all things come to be is their first principle’. Another
reason for the supposition would be that the semina of all things have a moist nature.

Water, therefore, held the potentialities for the nourishment and generation of the
entire cosmos.
Anaximander (c.612-545 B.C.)

He claimed that the origin of everything must be something

unlimited in its source, that could create without experiencing
decay, so that genesis would never stop… it is neither water
nor any other of the so-called elements, but a substance
different from them which is infinite or 'boundless' - APEIRON

He postulated eternal motion, along with the apeiron, as the

originating cause of the world. This (probably rotary) motion
caused opposites, such as hot and cold, to be separated from
one another as the world came into being. The Universe
therefore originates in the separation of opposites in the
primordial matter. It embraces the opposites of hot and cold,
wet and dry, and directs the movement of things; an entire host
of shapes and differences then grow that are found in "all the
worlds"
Anaximenes (c.585-528 B.C.)

He is best known for his doctrine that AIR is the source of all
things. In this way, he differed with his predecessors like
Thales, who held that water is the source of all things, and
Anaximander, who thought that all things came from an
unspecified boundless stuff.
In early Greek literature, air is associated with the soul (the
breath of life) and Anaximenes may have thought of air as
capable of directing its own development, as the soul controls
the body.

Two contrary processes of rarefaction and condensation:

Anaximenes explains how air is part of a series of changes. Fire
turns to air, air to wind, wind to cloud, cloud to water, water to
earth and earth to stone.

Anaximenes’ theory of successive change of matter by rarefaction and condensation

was influential in later theories. It is developed by Heraclitus and criticized by
Parmenides.
Heraclitus (c.540-480 B.C.)

Greek philosopher remembered for his cosmology, in which

FIRE forms the basic material principle of an orderly universe.
Heraclitus wrote that the world order is an “ever-living fire
kindling in measures and being extinguished in measures.” He
extended the manifestations of fire to include not only fuel,
flame, and smoke but also the ether in the upper atmosphere.
Part of that air, or pure fire, “turns to” ocean, presumably as
rain, and part of the ocean turns to earth. Simultaneously, equal
masses of earth and sea everywhere are returning to the
respective aspects of sea and fire. The resulting dynamic
equilibrium maintains an orderly balance in the world.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not
the same man.”
All things are in constant flux, regardless of how they appear to the senses.
Parmenides (c.515-450 B.C.)

Reality is in some sense a unified and unchanging singular

entity. This has often been understood to mean there is just
one thing in all of existence.
Parmenides prescribes two views of reality. In "the way of
truth" (a part of the poem), he explains how all reality is one,
change is impossible, and existence is timeless, uniform, and
necessary. In "the way of opinion", Parmenides explains the
world of appearances, in which one's sensory faculties lead to
conceptions which are false and deceitful.
Whatever is is, and what is not cannot be" (concept of being)

“No man ever steps in the same river twice” (concept of becoming)

ONE and the MANY

Empedocles (c.490-430 B.C.)

In order to account for change in the world, in accordance with

the ontological requirements of the Eleatics, they viewed
changes as the result of mixture and separation of unalterable
fundamental realities.
Empedocles established four ultimate elements which make all
the structures in the world—fire, air, water, earth. Empedocles
called these four elements "roots". According to the different
proportions in which these four indestructible and
unchangeable elements are combined with each other the
difference of the structure is produced.

The four elements are both eternally brought into union and parted from one
another by two divine powers, Love and Strife. Love (φιλότης) is responsible for the
attraction of different forms of what we now call matter, and Strife (νεῖκος) is the
cause of their separation.

Empedocles is ECLECTIC in his thinking because he combined much that had been
suggested by Parmenides, Heraclitus and the Ionian schools.
Medieval Philosophy
In the medieval period during which the Church sustained man's
intellect, the world became secondary to God (theos in Greek)
and Christianity greatly influenced philosophy. Thus, there were a
number of medieval philosophers who philosophized using a
theocentric view. Among them are Avicenna, St. Anselm, and St.
Thomas Aquinas.
The first Muslim philosopher who argued
that in this world, the existence of beings
can be traced to another being
responsible for its existence. Since an
infinite chain is impossible, it has to end at
some point. The being in which the chain
ends must be self-sufficient (that is, not
depend on another being for its existence)
and whose very essence is its existence.
That being which is the starting point of
the entire chain of existence is God.
Avicenna (August 23, 980 – June 22, 1037)

The great chain of being is a hierarchical structure of

all matter and life, thought by medieval Christianity to
have been decreed by God. The chain begins with God
and descends through angels, humans, animals, and
plants, to minerals.
Ontological Argument for the Existence of GOD
1. It is a conceptual truth that God is a being than
which none greater can be imagined (that is,
the greatest possible being that can be
imagined).
2. God exists as an idea in the mind.
3. A being that exists as an idea in the mind and in
reality is greater than a being that exists only as
an idea in the mind.
4. Thus, if God exists only as an idea in the mind,
then we can imagine something that is greater
than God (that is, a greatest possible being that St. Anselm of Canterbury
does exist).
5. But we cannot imagine something that is
greater than God (for it is a contradiction to
suppose that we can imagine a being greater
than the greatest possible being that can be
imagined.)
6. Therefore, God exists.
Five Ways prove the Existence of GOD

1. The First Way: God, the Prime Mover

2. The Second Way: God, the First Cause

3. The Third Way: God, the Necessary Being

4. The Fourth Way: God, the Absolute Being

St. Thomas Aquinas
5. The Fifth Way: God, the Grand Designer
 Consider a bouncing ball. How did the ball
start bouncing? Did it fall and if so what
caused it to fall? What started all the
action?

The Argument from Motion: Our senses

can perceive motion by seeing that things
act on one another. Whatever moves is
moved by something else. Consequently,
there must be a First Mover that creates
this chain reaction of motions. This is God
sets all things in motion and gives them
their potential.

St. Thomas Aquinas

 Consider yourself and your family history. You
came to be because of your parents and your
parents came to be because of their parents
and so on. But where does it begin?

The Argument from Efficient Cause: Because

nothing can cause itself, everything must have
a cause or something that creates an effect on
another thing. Without a first cause, there
would be no others. Therefore, the First Cause
is God.

St. Thomas Aquinas

 Consider things that exist beyond the realm
of human control. How did trees, animals,
mountains, stars, and the sun come to
exist? What caused these things to exist? If
it was a mere accident what existed before
the universe? If nothing, then nothing can
come from nothing.

The Argument from Necessary Being:

Because objects in the world come into
existence and pass out of it, it is possible for
those objects to exist or not exist at any
particular time. However, nothing can come
from nothing. This means something must
exist at all times. This is God.
St. Thomas Aquinas
 Consider the notion that there are varying
degrees of love, goodness, and perfection.
Consider the concept of heat. There are
certainly varying degrees of heat.

The Argument from Gradation: There are

different degrees of goodness in different
things. Following the “Great Chain of
Being, ” which states there is a gradual
increase in complexity, created objects
move from unformed inorganic matter to
biologically complex organisms. Therefore,
there must be a being of the highest form
of good. This perfect being is God.
St. Thomas Aquinas
 Examine the natural world around you.
Although it appears to be chaotic at times,
nature is very structured. Weather
systems, oceans, the solar system, time, it
all has structure. Who is responsible for
this structure? Who could have designed
such a plan?

The Argument from Design: All things

have an order or arrangement that leads
them to a particular goal. Because the
order of the universe cannot be the result
of chance, design and purpose must be at
work. This implies divine intelligence on
the part of the designer. This is God.
St. Thomas Aquinas
The modern period (1500 1900) in philosophy is characterized by
subjectivity and individualism.

Hence, centered on man (anthropos in Greek) The anthropocentric

view was a result both of the rise of modern science and the
diminished authority of the Church in the seventeenth century. In his
account of modern philosophy, Bertrand Russell explained that
progress in the scientific field made man realize the practical utility of
science as technique rather than of a doctrine that explained the
nature of the work (Russell, 1996). This idea sheds light on the
philosophies characterized in this period - rationalism and empiricism.
RATIONALISM
The view that regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge. Holding that
reality itself has an inherently logical structure, the rationalist asserts that a class of
truths exists that the intellect can grasp directly. There are, according to the
rationalists, certain rational principles—especially in logic and mathematics, and even in
ethics and metaphysics—that are so fundamental that to deny them is to fall into
contradiction.
The first modern rationalist was Descartes, an original
mathematician whose ambition was to introduce into
philosophy the rigour and clearness that delighted him
in mathematics. He set out to doubt everything in the
hope of arriving in the end at something indubitable.
This he reached in his famous cogito ergo sum, “I think,
therefore I am”; for to doubt one’s own doubting would
be absurd. Here then was a fact of absolute certainty,
rendered such by the clearness and distinctness with
which it presented itself to his reason. His task was to
build on this as a foundation, to deduce from it a series
of other propositions, each following with the same
René Descartes
self-evidence. He hoped thus to produce a philosophical
system on which people could agree as completely as
they do on the geometry
EMPIRCISM
It is a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory
experience. It is one of several views of epistemology, along with rationalism and
skepticism. Empiricism emphasizes the role of empirical evidence in the formation of
ideas, rather than innate ideas or traditions. This broad definition accords with the
derivation of the term empiricism from the ancient Greek word empeiria, “experience.”

John Locke proposed in An Essay Concerning

Human Understanding (1689) a very influential
view wherein the only knowledge humans can
have is a posteriori, i.e., based upon
experience. Locke is famously attributed with
holding the proposition that the human mind
is a tabula rasa, a "blank tablet", in Locke's
words "white paper", on which the
experiences derived from sense impressions as
a person's life proceeds are written.

John Locke (1632–1704)

Philosophical View in THREE VIEWS

Cosmocentric Anthropocentric
(Ancient Period) (Modern period)

Theocentric
(Medieval period)
PHILOSOPHY is indeed the
science that studies beings in
their ultimate causes, reasons,
and principles.

All of these start to unfold when we begin to

WONDER or QUESTION
and are resolved through
DIALECTICS