Alexandra Mari M.

Lazaro
12 ABM Success

A1 - Assigned Task: Answer the following:

1. Define and explain Philosophy in your own opinion.

2. Who was Pythagoras?
3. Identify the branches or divisions of Philosophy. Choose one and explain.

Rubrics:

A.Content: Knowledge and information for number 1 and 3 , 10 points each and
additional 5points for the grammar.

B. Number 2 Content information 10 points (40 items all in all)

 Philosophy is the study of everything around us, living or nonliving. Thus,
philosophy is thinking critically to better understand ourselves and the world we live in.
Famous philosophers for example, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and the like devoted
themselves to formulating principles based on their own experiences and knowledge to
put into words the things that they think we must do to live our lives fruitfully. All of them
have one purpose; it is for us to be fulfilled or content while living. For instance, Plato
wanted us to reach a state of which he called “eudaimonia'' which means fulfillment. He
had 4 big ideas to make that happen.

First, think more. It is quite usual for us to not think much about what we do, we
usually just go along with what the Greeks call “doxa” or popular opinion that often leads
us to wrong values, careers, and relationships. Plato’s solution is to know yourself more.
Knowing yourself more prevents you from acting on impulse and getting pulled by your
feelings. Second, let your lover change you. “True love is admiration.” For Plato, we
should get together with someone who has great qualities which you yourself lack.
When you become close with this person you become a little like they are. The main
point here is that those two individuals that are in a relationship should inspire each
other to grow and reach their full potential. Third, decode the message of beauty.
Conventionally, everyone likes beautiful things, Plato is the first one to ask, “Why do we
like beautiful things?” Unconsciously, these beautiful things present the qualities we
need but are not present in our lives. Fourth and last, reform society. Plato was inspired
by the rival of Athens - the Sparta, he tried to learn everything about them from what
they eat to how they raised their children. His goal was to know how a country or society
can produce fulfilled people.

According to “The Republic,” a book that he wrote he identified the changes that
should be made. First, Athenian society is focused on the rich citizens and famous
celebrities of its society. He firmly believed that the people we admire are important
because it influences our ideas, mindset, and sometimes even behavior. Plato wanted
to replace the influencers of their society by ideally wise and kind people he called
“Guardians”. The Guardians will be discerned by their public record, propriety, and
simple habits; also they should have a broad experience in life and distaste popularity.
In addition he also wanted to end democracy in Athens nevertheless, he did not want to
replace it with ruthless dictatorship because he noticed that many vote for their leaders
without thinking much about it that lead to electing inadequate figureheads.

He proposed a standard that will let them know if an individual is fit to vote, he or
she must become a philosopher first. To make that happen he started a school - The
Academy in Athens which lasted for a good 300 years. In the said institution, the
students do not just learn the arithmetics and how to read and write, they are also
taught moral values. His primary goal was that politicians become philosophers
themselves. “The human race will have no respite from evils until those who are really
philosophers acquire political power or until, through some divine dispensation, those
who rule and have political authority in the cities become real philosophers” (326a-
326b).

Pythagoras (570 - 490 BC) born in the Greek isle of Samos; taught by Thales
who brought Mathematics back to the Greek. He moved to Egypt and stayed there for
over 20 years learning Mathematics, religion, and culture of the Egyptians. He later on
established a school that he named after himself. He taught Mathematics, Music
Theory, religion, Astronomy, and Philosophy. One of his contributions was in Music
Theory, he discovered that a string exactly half the length of another will play a pitch
that is exactly an octave higher when struck or plucked. In Mathematics, he discovered
the Pythagorean theorem also known as the “c^2 = a^2 + b^2” and irrational numbers.
In religion, he was most famous for his belief in reincarnation and he taught this in his
school. He believed that all animals belong to the same family, because when one
animal dies he believes that it just reincarnates to another animal therefore all animals
belong to one family. Another idea from the same field, Pythagoras found the Tetraktys
and deemed it sacred. It is composed of ten dots that make up a large triangle and it
makes up smaller triangles and when summed up it is equal to ten, so for Pythagoras
ten was sacred. He also taught the way of life, he passed along religious rituals, dietary
and living restrictions. In addition, after becoming a Pythagorean one should go through
a rite called the “Vow of Silence” which lasts for 5 years.

However, despite all of the information we have today that present Pythagoras’
contributions to our society there is a controversy about it, there was no real record of
his works, he never wrote anything down. He was only mentioned by Plato and
Aristotle; they wrote about his way of life and his followers but there was no record of
his mathematical discoveries or even his astronomical contributions and after that for
over eight hundred years he was never mentioned ever again. But one guy disagreed
with such claims (his name was not mentioned). The mathematical formula, the
Pythagorean theorem however, was found in the writings of the later Pythagorean
scholars.
 Metaphysics was said to be found 2500 years ago, it is one of the main branches
of Philosophy. It is the discipline concerned with the fundamental nature of reality.
Metaphysics means “after the physics”, it is one of the titles of Aristotle’s books. He
named it that way because the book came after he published his book “Physics”. But
because of Aristotle’s immense influence it became known as metaphysics, a name of
an entire philosophical discipline even though Aristotle addressed it as the “first
philosophy or theology”. There are two themes of metaphysics, the first one is “The
study of first causes”. First cause - that which does not change and from which
emanates the things in this world we experience, which is about God. The second
theme, “The study of being” or existence. Aristotle attempted to identify and outline the
fundamental categories of being. The study of being - study of which is, or that which
exists. In the 17th and 18th centuries the idea was developed by a group of
philosophers known as the continental rationalists and distinguished between what they
called “general metaphysics” and “special metaphysics”.

General metaphysics also called ontology is the study of being or existence

which is in line with Aristotle’s concept of metaphysics. On the other hand special
metaphysics is divided into three disciplines cosmology, rational psychology, and
natural theology. Topics included are immortality, freedom of the will, and the mind and
body problem. Ontology or general metaphysics is the most prominent area of
metaphysics however, the problem is present-day ontology is not focused on the
concept of existence and what it means rather they try to keep records of what exists.
They diligently try to discover properties, numbers, events, relations, souls, material
objects, and universals and if they exist they identify their characteristics.

In today’s contemporary metaphysics the following topics are addressed: nature

of time and space, mind-body problem, causality, what it means to be a person, and
problem of free will. Peter Van Inwagen tried to encapsulate what metaphysics is by
these three questions. First, “What are the most general features of the world and what
sorts of things does it contain? What is the world like?” Second, “Why does a world exist
- why is there a world having the features and the content described in the answer to
question one?” And third, “What is our place in the world? How do we human beings fit
into it?”

It is evident how broad and abstract metaphysics is and many philosophers and
metaphysicians themselves believed that the questions are unanswerable. In fact, in the
19th century a philosopher humorously quoted “Metaphysics is the finding of bad
reasons for what we believe on instinct.” (FH Bradley) According to Ludwig
Wittgenstein, for him the questions and propositions found in philosophical works are
simply nonsensical but not wrong. “Consequently, we cannot give any answer to
questions of this kind, but can only establish that they are nonsensical . They belong to
the same class as the question whether the good is more or less identical than the
beautiful.” (Wittgenstein)

Another philosopher KT Fann also stated that philosophical propositions do not

misstate facts and are not false; it simply transcends the world that results in nonsense.
Wittgenstein may strongly believe that most questions of metaphysics are not
answerable but he is not completely against the discipline. In fact he is greatly
influenced by the 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer who
proposed the most extensive and elaborate metaphysical systems in history.