SAL Foundation College

Making, Parang, Maguindanao

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COURSE NO: PHILO 1

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY/LOGIC
INSTRUCTOR: MR. ABDUL YASSEM S. BASAGAN

MIDTERM MODULE

(WEEK 1)
LESSON 1: Reason and language

Learning Outcomes:Identify the core skills associated with critical thinking.

REASON AND LANGUAGE

Language is a primary tool of reason. It alone enables us to fixate, describe, and organize our
manifold experiences, and to profit from the experiences of others. In and through language our own
thoughts become crystallized and the thoughts of others are made available to us. Plato and Aristotle,
for example, died long ago, but their thoughts have been preserved through more than two thousand
years because they were linguistically formulated and are now accessible in our own language.
Language facilitates intelligent cooperation in all human endeavors. In and through language
our civilization has accumulated a cultural heritage of beliefs, ideas, theories, and facts, which
provides historical basis for every future development, the "level of culture" from which we must
proceed. Eliminate language and its effects and consequences from the slow progress of human
civilization, and this civilization itself becomes impossible and inconceivable; for civilization at all
stages of development depends upon cultural and intelligent cooperation is impossible without the
employment or use of language. It alone gives us access to the experiences and insights of our
fellowmen. It alone paves the way for reason in action.
The use of language, however, is not an unmixed blessing; for language may also become a
barrier between men, and may be a source of confusion and misunderstandings. It may chain our
thoughts to outworn traditions and may arouse our emotions until they obscure the clear mandates of
reason. Words are the tools of the demagogue and the trickster no less than of the statesman and the
great thinker; of the intellectual "crackpot" no less than of the humanitarian reformer. The first step in
critical thinking must therefore be an attempt to understand fully for what ends and purposes
language may be employed, and to see what the various functions of language are.

(WEEK 1)
LESSON 2-3: The Functions of Language

Learning Outcomes:Identify the five main types of linguistic expression and discuss the power of
language to express our identities, affect our credibility, control others, and perform actions.

THE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

1. Logical function. Language may be employed in order to convey information. And, for
purposes of critical thinking, this is the most important function of any language. This function
can be verified and are then said to be true; or they can be disproved and must then be
regarded as false. Or, if they cannot actually be verified or disproved, it is possible to specify in
each case what would constitute proof or disproof. That is to say, the criteria of truth and falsity
are relevant to every statement which purports to convey information and which exemplifies the
logical function of language.
 Examples:
 Thomas Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence.
 Good business management is based on self-management.
 Good government is based on self-government.
 Good institutional administration is based on self- administration.
Types of logical function:
Statements which convey information and thus serve a logical function may themselves be of various
types:
a. Primary reports- they may pertain to or record some specific event in first person experience,
something new observe directly or of which we have first person knowledge.
Examples:
 I have just received my grade.
 Under the present circumstances I prefer a glass oflemonade to a cup of coffee.
 I have a toothache.
Note: All of these statements convey or purport to convey, information, and are either true or false.
They are eye witnesses counts, reports of personal experience or observation and are, in this sense,
primary reports.
b. Secondary reports - they pertain to or describe some specific situation or event not directly
observed. Factual reports which are not "eye-witness" statements are of this type. Often they
are often they are compilations, summaries, or interpretations of primary reports. Expression
indicators of secondary reports are: I believe that… e. ";or I am convinced that...." Theyare
typically found on in newspapers and textbooksand objective analyses of various kinds.

Arguments - in statements which are so related to oneanother as to warrant the drawing of

specificconclusion. Whenever one advances beyond facts, from given or observed data to the
anticipation ofConsequences or to the deduction of other data, one resorts to arguments, and a third
aspect of the logicalfunction of language is in evidence: its employment asa vehicle for the
progression of thought. To constructan argument does not mean merely to record; it meansto trace
the implications of what has been recorded. Itmeans to advance step by step from given premises to
“derived" conclusions.

2. Expressive function. Its logical function it served as an expression of emotions, as a means of

relieving emotionaltension; that it had an expressive function. And this function of language has
not been lost through all the thousands of years ofhuman evolution and human history. Even
today we employlanguage to relieve emotional tension about as freely as does thesavage. They
are phrases and expressions such as these give noinformation about the person, object,
situation, or condition referred to, but they do betray the emotional state of the speaker.They
are a linguistic vent for relieving his emotions.
Examples:
 I am having a wonderful time!
 What a glorious sunset!
 I won't forget you in a million years!
 “Angels and ministers of grace defend us! (Hamlet)

3. Evocative function. Language is also employed to evoke responses in others, to stimulate

and control their actions. Pleas, requests, orders, and commands are of an evocative nature:
and so are shouts of warning and attempts at persuasion. It is designed to produce to produce
some kind of action.

Examples:
 Look in the calendar, and bring me a word. (Julius Caesar)
 Look out!
 Squads right!
  Give us this day our daily bread.
4. Poetic function. The predominant function of poetry is to transfuse emotions rather than to
transmit of information. Poetry lies not in what is said but in the way of saying it; it is, as
Wordsworth put it, "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." Some ideas lend
themselves more readily than others to poetic expression; they are enhanced, elevated, and
glorified by poetical language. But the ideas themselves are not the essence of poetry.
Information or logical thought there is in a poem is stateable in prose, and that which is lost in
the translation from poetry into prose is the poetic form, the emotional atmosphere.

Poetic effects may be produced by rhythms and repetitions of sounds, words, and
phrases as in Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee"

It was many and many a year ago

In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

5. Ceremonial function. At times language is employed merely to establish communion or to

prevent silence. Casual greetings and farewells are examples of this function. It is employed
simply to establish social contacts, to facilitate communion, or to help over situations in which
silence might be impolite or embarrassing. Much "small talk" or "conversational chatter" can be
classed under the same heading. Its significance lies not in what it means, logically considered,
but in its being made at all; in its serving as a bond which holds a group of persons together; in
its serving as a basis for friendly inter course and human fellowship. The subject matter and the
informative value of conversational "small talk" are definitely subordinate to the ceremonial
function of language, which creates a feeling of friendly association and prepares the way for
more significant Liturgical readings in church, standardized communication. Prayers which are
read Sunday after Sunday and year after year, in probability possess nothing but ceremonial
significance for most members of an average congregation.

Examples:
 How are you?
 Lovely day!
 I am so glad to see you!
 I had a perfectly grand time at your party!
 (WEEK 2)
LESSON 1: SIMPLE APPREHENSION AND THE CONCEPT

Learning Outcomes:Compare and contrast the elements of simple apprehension; and analyze the
concept in simple apprehension and differentiate the concept as a sign.
SIMPLE APPREHENSION AND THE CONCEPT

Definition of Simple Apprehension Simple Apprehension is the first act of the mind whereby we
conceive something without affirming or denying about it.

Examples:
 college graduate
 Na
 1955
 the short man with the red hair
 smoking his pipe

Note: We have not affirmed or denied anything about these concepts. We simply have conceived
them. No judgment is enunciated.

The Element of Simple Apprehension

a. Material Element. It is the objective thing that is apprehended, the things to which the
apprehension refers.
b. Formal Element. It is that which the mind grasps in the objective thing.

Illustration:

When we apprehend "the short man with the red hair. Smoking his pipe" we have the formal
element of the of the apprehension. The object of this apprehension has a great deal more than what
we formally conceive. Thus, the short man with red hair, smoking his pipe" is also John, an apostle, a
Filipino, a devout pioneer, a husband, a father, a member of the Community Tournament.

Note: One may call the formal element of a simple It is the apprehension, in the broad sense,
the essence. Determinate thing as conceived. Essence in this context does not mean the equivalent
substance. It is the intelligible notes of a thing as apprehended. The thing as apprehended may not
be a substance. It may be something accidental, a characteristic of a substance.

The Object of Simple Apprehension

a. Simple Object. It is meant one that is a single essence. We cannot remove or add anything
from it without changing it so that we have another essence or essences in mind. Example:
rational animal, sensient being, corporeal being, spiritual being, vegetarian being.
b. Complex Object. It is meant that is has more than one essence such as: the short man with
the red hair, smoking his pipe; jet aircraft on overseas bases, fellow students of our esteemed
college.
 (WEEK 2)
LESSON 2-3: THE CONCEPT

Learning Outcomes:Identify and apply the use of concept in logic.

THE CONCEPT
Simple apprehension is the first act of the mind whereby it conceives directly and immediately a
determinate nature without affirming or denying anything about it. The term of this act is called the
concept. It is defined as that which the mind produces within itself and in which it apprehends a thing.
It is also called thing known. The intention is another name for the concept because the mind tends
into its object in an infinite union of assimilation. It is termed the idea from the Greek word for form
since in knowing the mind possesses the form or the similitude of the thing known. The concept is
sometimes called term because in logic the concept is considered in relation to the judgment is
resolved into its elements or terms: the subject and resolved predicate.

I. The Concept as a sign

Every concept signifies something; it has a signal value. Concepts are the things that we know;
rather they contain the similitude of what is known. A sign is that which represents something different
from itself to a knowing subject. Generally Speaking, a sign is something sensible.

Signs are divided into:

a. Natural signs. They are from the natural things.
Examples: Smoke is the sign of fire because of the nature of fire. Laughter is usually a sign
of joy.
b. Artificial signs or instrumental signs. They arise from the institution of man. They are
artifacts constructed by the arts of man. Examples: stars and stripes are a sign of the United
States of America; green light at an intersection on a highway is instituted as an artificial sign
that traffic in that direction is to move on its way.

II. Comprehension and extension of the concept

Comprehension of a term (concept) is the sum of intelligible notes of a concept. For example, in
the concept "man” we comprehend the intelligible notes primarily in the essential definition
"rational animal "social being"; “a risible being”
Extension of a term refers to the things to which it applies the extension to which it applies as
John. Peter, Peter, James.

III. The Division of the Concept

Concepts are divided according to comprehension, extension, and mutual relation. They are
divided according to comprehension when we consider the various modes in which we conceive
the intelligible notes of a thing. They are divided according to extension when we consider the
various ways that the concept is applied to things.

1. According to Comprehension

a. Simple concept- when it is conceived in one intelligible note.

Examples:
 Man
 Hydrogen
 Salt

b. Complex concept - when it is conceived in more than one intelligible note.

Examples:
  Rational animal
 8:30 A.M.
 The efficient executive in his modern office

c. Absolute concept - one that can stand alone signifying something according to substance.
Examples:
 Body
 This boy
 Justice Whiteness

c. Connotative concept -it represents something as inhering in a' subject. All adjectives are
connotative concepts.

Examples:
 Heavy
 Red
 just

d. Concrete concept - it signifies something composed from a subject and some form and
quality.

Examples:
 Man -composed of subject and form of humanity
 Loyal

e. Abstract concept - it signifies only a form or that in f. which a thing is constituted.

Examples:
 Humanity
 Loyalty
 Quick-wittedness
 Filipinism

f. Positive concept - it connotes a certain form or essence.

Examples:
 Law
 Rational
 Jet-engine

g. Negative concept- it signifies a lack of form or essence.

Examples:
 Irrational
 Illegal
 Un-Christian
 Irresponsible

h. Categorematic (significant) concept - when it has a complete sense in itself can be the
subject of a judgment.

Examples:
 Student
  College
 Intellectual

i. Syncategorematic (Co-significant)concept - conjunction of a judgment. This is true of all

adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles (All, some, none, If, Because, And, slowly)

Examples:
 All Greeks are freemen.
 Some are coming.
 Walk slowly.

2. According to Extension

c. Collective concept - is one that denotes not individuals by groups.

Examples:
 Army
 Family
 Herd
 League
 Faculty

d. Divisive concept - it denotes individuals as taken one by one or divisively.

Examples:
 Sailor
 Soldier
 Father
 Professor

e. Singular concept - it is limited to an individual determinate subject.

f. Common concept - when the extension of a concept not restricted to an individual
determinate subject but it is Communicable to all or some individuals contained under it.

3. According to Perfection or Representation

a. Intuitive concept - it is known without a process of it reasoning; arises from experience.

Strictly speaking, it is an immediate knowledge of a thing according to Garrigou LaGrange
prefers to call “abstractive intuition”.

For example, the concept of this computer or lap top before me arises so to speak intuitively;
our concept with sunny afternoon; or how the dessert tasted at lunch.

b. Abstractive concept - this is arrived at by reasoning either deductive or inductive. For

example: the concept of the velocity of light, specific gravity, square root-these are not simply
derived from observation of the world around us but rather from reasoning. Scientific concepts
are abstractive.
c. Clear concept - it is sometimes called proper concepts. It signifies a concept that corresponds
to one essence only. It is realized in the perfect definition of a thing. For example: Assuming
knowledge of the campus, we have a practically dear concept of this lecture hall as the place
where logic is taught.
d. Obscure concept - it is a concept that is not clear because it cannot be distinguished one
thing from another by such concept. For example: If we were to say that religion is a wonderful
 experience, we would have an obscure concept of religion because there are many other
things that are a wonderful experience for man.
e. Distinct concept - it apprehends a thing in its principal notes. For example: When we
conceive the intelligible notes of law as an ordination of right reason promulgated by a person
in authority for the common good, we have a distinct concept of the law.
f. Confused concept - a concept that does not apprehend f. what is essential in a thing known.
For example: When we say that the law is the will of the majority, we have not grasped the
important or the essential elements of law but only something which may be an expression of it
as in a republic.
g. Univocal concept - it has one and the same essence g. which is found in many things. For
example: The concept man means rational animal whether we are speaking about American
men or Burmesse men, men, Medieval men or Modern men, tall men or short men.
h. Analogous concept- it has a meaning partly different as it is found in many things. For
example: healthy..to healthy people, healthy food healthy air, healthy color.

Note: The significations are partly the same, and they are partly different.

Divisions of analogous concepts

i. Analogy of attribution- refers to many things as related to one principal thing or principal
analogate (the inferior of the analogues). For example: In the case of the concept healthy, the
principal analogate is a healthy person and the other usages of healthy person and the other
usages of healthy as applied to air, food, recreation, color, are related to this principal thing or
subject in which it is intrinsically found. We cannot speak of air as intrinsically healthy. The
relation to something outside the meaning of air; namely, its relation to man as a condition of
health is the reason for this usage.
ii. Analogy by proportion - it convenes to things by reason of some proportional similitude. For
example: the concept of life. We speak of the life of God, angels, men, animals, vegetables. But life is
not the same in all of these beings although it is intrinsic to them all. It is used in proportion.

Note: The analogy of proportion, therefore, is distinct from the analogy of attribution. In attribution the
concept is found intrinsically in its perfection in one principal analogate and in the analogy of
proportion it is found intrinsically in different ways.

4. According to Mutual Relation

a. Contradictories - are concepts one of which simply a. removes what the other posits so that
they have no medium.

Examples:
 A -non-A
 Man non-man
 Possible impossible

b. Contraries - are concepts one of which not only remove what another posits but also adds
something positive exclusive of the thing posited and especially distant from it.

Examples:
 White black
 Healthy-sickly
 Extravagant stingy
 c. Private concepts - are concepts one of which posits what another takes away in a suitable
subject.

Examples:
 Intelligence stupidity
 Blindness - sight

d. Relative Concepts -are those which have a mutual relation so that it is impossible to know the
meaning of one without the other. Examples: Husband wife Father – Son

(WEEK 3)
LESSON 1-3: DEFINITION

Learning Outcomes:Apply a rule in making definition and enumerate the kinds of definitions.
I. The Meaning of Definition

A definition is a complex concept that informs us what a thing is. It is an act of simple apprehension
whereby we conceive the essence or meaning of thing; that which makes a thing to be what it is and
what something else. Aristotle says that a definition is "a phrase signifying a thing's essence.

The subject that is defined is called the definitum, and the predicate, that tells what it is, is the
definition as in the judgment.
It is said that the definition is a complex concept because it must contain the proximate genus
and the specific difference. The proximate genus is what the thing defined has in common with things
nearest to it. The specific difference is that which distinguishes a thing from all other things.
Example:
Man is a rational animal.
Animal proximate genus
Rational- specific difference
Thus, man is distinguished from minerals, vegetables, and all other animals because he alone can
reason. He is endowed with a power that supersedes the instincts of the brute world and sets him
apart as above all other creatures of this world.

II. Kinds of Definition

Definitions vary according to their grades of perfection or their comprehension of what a
thing is.
1. Nominal definition - it is merely verbal and indicates a thing signified by a word.

In the nominal definition, we give the etymology of the word. Very often the etymological
approach serves as an enlightening introduction to the real definition.

For instance when we say that philosophy comes from two Greek words philos meaning lover
and Sophia which means wisdom and so philosophy is a love of wisdom.

2. Real definition- this is the definition in its proper sense. It informs us whata thing is. By real
we do not necessarily mean that it pertains to real things. By its contextual meaning, it signifies
that the definition pertains to what it is conceived: the objective concept, which may be a being
of the mind or of reality.

The real definitions are subdivided into:

 a. Essential definition - is a real definition in its proper sense. It gives the constitutive
principals of a thing that which makes the thing to be what it is.

Example:
 Man is a rational animal

*Essential definition can be either physical or metaphysical.

i. Physical essential definition - when it gives the detemined essential parts.

Example:
Man is a being composed of body, soul, and spirit.

ii. Metaphysical essential definition - it gives the principles that a thing according to the mode
and order in which they are known the proximate genus and the specific difference.
Example: Man is a rational animal.

b. Casual definition - it give either the efficient of final cause of a thing. The efficient
cause is that by which a thing is produced. For example: The cosmos is created by
God.

The final cause is that on account of which a thing is done. For example: A clock is a
mechanical instrument that serves as a time-indicator.

c. Descriptive definition- it designates a thing either by its proper accidents or by

enumerating the common accidents. It abounds in the experimental and social
sciences. Examples:
 Man is a risible being (proper accident)
 Hawksbill turtle is described as a tropical sea plates.
 Sulphur is yellow substance that burns in air with a blue flame and suffocating color.

iii. Rules for the Good Definition

1. The definition should signify more dearly than the definitum.

2. The definition should be brief.
3. The definition should not be negative.
4. The definition and the definitum should be convertible. (e.g. When we say that man is a
rational animal, it must follow that every rational animal is man).
5. The definition should be composed of the proximate genus and the specific difference of a
thing.
6. The definition should be universal.

**Nuggets of Wisdom **

 The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and
convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

 Always remember that problems contain values that have improvement potential.
-Norman Vincent Peale
 (WEEK 4)
LESSON 1: THE LOGIC OF PROPOSITION

Learning Outcomes:Define the nature of proposition, enumerate and explain the four kinds of
sentences.
THE NATURE OF PROPOSITIONS
A logical proposition is anything that may be said to be true or false. It is the expression in
words of an act of thought which we call a judgment.
Judgments are involved in every kind of intellectual They are the result of a process of
comparing and evaluating particular facts of experience. The term "judgment" is frequently used in
connection with the decision rendered by court. These decisions are the conclusions that have been
reached after a careful examination of the facts on both sides of a given case and after an attempt
has been made to weigh or to evaluate correctly the evidence that has been presented. Something
like this takes place whenever we judge that a thing exists or that it stands in a certain relation to
something else.
Judgments and propositions are, as we have seen, closely related. The two terms are
frequently used interchangeably. But there is a distinction between them which should be made clear.
The term "judgment" refers to the psychological activity by which one becomes aware of objects and
relations. It is only when one of these has been expressed in words that we have a logical
proposition. Both judgments and propositions do however refer to something that exists independent
of the individual who is making the judgment.
A distinction should also be made between propositions and sentences. A proposition is
necessarily a sentence. But not all sentences are logical propositions. It is only when expresses
something that is affirmed or denied of an objects of class of objects that is a proposition. Wishes,
Commands, entreaties, prayers, questions, and exclamations are all sentences but they are not
propositions.
Propositions are compose of three elements. These are terms, relations, and qualifying
words which indicate the affirmative or negative character of the proposition and whether the
subject term includes the entire class or only a part of it. Every logical proposition includes two terms,
one of which is called subject term and the other one the predicate term. The subject term is the
object or group of objects about which something is affirmed or denied. The predicate term is also an
object or class of objects that stands in some relation to the subject term. These two terms are
connected by certain words which express the relation that exists between them. Traditional logic
always expresses this relation by some form of the verb to be, usually by is or are and in certain
cases by the use of is not or are not. Whichever one is used, it is known as the copula and it serves
to connect the two terms of the proposition. The copula always expresses the relation of inclusion or
exclusion. It indicates that the subject term is included in the predicate term or else is excluded from
it.

In English grammar we speak of a sentence as a group of words expressing a complete

thought and we consider four kinds of sentences:
1. Declarative: one which states a fact or truth.

Examples:
They are all going to Bicol.
They have a whole day of fun at the beach.
Dagupan has wondrous beaches and resort hotels.

2. Imperative: expresses some requestor command.

Examples:
Wait here!
Please come back later!

3. Interrogative: one which asks a question.

 Examples:
Is the resort overlooking to Manila?
Do the stars shine brightly?

4. Exclamatory: one which expresses a sudden feeling.

Examples:
How happy they were when they won the game!
Oh! The baby is sleeping.

(WEEK 4)
LESSON 2: KINDS OF PROPOSITION

Learning Outcomes:List down and discuss the kinds of propositions.

KINDS OF PROPOSITIONS
Propositions may be according to their form:

I. Categorical Proposition is a proposition that directly I. asserts or denies something of an

object or class of objects.
Examples:
All tables are articles of furniture.
No men are immortal.
Some metals are useful.
Some men are not liars.

Basic Elements of the Categorical Proposition

A proposition is a logical reality in which there is either a Composition of concepts through an
act of affirmation, or a division of concepts through an act of mind.
As a logical expression indicating what is true or false, a proposition can be stated verbally
only in declarative sentences. A proposition affirms or denies something else. Its basic elements
are:

 The subject of a categorical proposition is the term which signifies that about which the
proposition diredtly purports to give information.
 The predicate of a categorical proposition is the term which is used to give information
about the subject.
 The copula of a categorical proposition is always "is" or not" or some other part of the
present tense, indicative mood, of the verb "to be." The force of the word is" is” is included
in the predicate term or else is to signify the identity of the subject with at least part of the
denotation on of the predicate; the force of "is not" is to signify the distinctness of the
subject from the whole denotation of the predicate.

Examples:
 This is an easy exercise.
 My wife is a careless driver.
 Baseball is not an interesting game.

(WEEK 4)
LESSON 3: QUALITY OF THE PROPOSITION

Learning Outcomes:Compare and contrast the affirmative and negative propositions.

QUALITY OF THE PROPOSITION
The copula serves to connect the two terms of the proposition. The copula always expresses
the relation of inclusion or exclusion. It indicates that the subject term is included in the predicate term
or else excluded from it.
a. Affirmative Any proposition is said to be affirmative when a. the class denoted by the
subject term is included in the class denoted by the predicate term.
Examples:
 All metals are elements.
 Some books are extremely valuable.

b. Negative A negative proposition is one in which the class denoted by the subject term is
excluded from the class denoted by the predicate term.
Examples:
 No aliens are citizens of this country.
 Some things that glitter are not gold.