WEEK 1

Lesson 1: introducing the reason of Doing Philosophy

What is PHILOSOPHY?
PEOPLE NORMALLY SAY THAT PHILOSOPHY IS:
Philos and Sophia
(Greek words)
*Philos= Love
*Sophia= Wisdom
But it has been contested that the word is not really “PHILOS” but “Philein” ( Therefore
philosophy entails doing)

What are the main branches of Philosophy?

1. Metaphysics - Questions on the nature of things (beyond physics)]
 Metaphysicians questions the meaning of life and why existence exist.

2. Epistemology - concerns how we know and in what extent we can know. (about
knowledge, it concern on what we know, how we know, what we can know)
 Rationalism – reason
 Empiricism – experience
 Episteme – greek word meaning knowledge
3. Ethics - Evaluates right and wrong

Is Philosophy Useful?
WORLD VIEW - To see things differently!
Hates or detests narrowmindedness - It encourages us to think outside the box. (it makes us
use critical thinking)
Anti-partial point of view - Rather it inspires us to look at a HOLISTIC POINT OF VIEW.

General Uses of Pholisophy

1. General problem solving
2. Communication skills
 3. Persuasive powers
4. Writing skills
5. understanding of other’s discipline

Important features of Philosophy:

 It eliminates ambiguity

 Philosophy can never feeds your tummies, can never give you practical needs, but it
gives answer to different questions.

 It is also directed towards offering reasonable guidelines for responsible action.

 Philosophy deals with the matters of the heart - Fr. Liberato Ortega
WEEK 2
Lesson 2: Tracing the Origins of Philosophy and its Challenge

Why do we study the History of things?

 It is about understanding who we are and where we came from, and learning
from other people about who they were and what they care about and what they
have thought about.
 Without understanding how we got where we are today, there would be no way
to resolve the current issues in a satisfactory way.
 you can’t understand the present without understanding history.
 Therefore there is Value in HISTORY.

Galing notes ni ilms:

[if there is no history we can’t solve the problems we have in the presnt]

A brief HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY and how their subject of discussions gradually

changed.
The outline of the History of Philosophy
1. ANCIENT PERIOD - the focus is to search for the first and ultimate substance
and the inquiry of the beginnings of the universe and where it came from.
[start to question everything and anything under the sun]
2. MEDIEVAL PERIOD - Concerned with proving God's existence and
understanding what is man in relation with God
[starts questioning the existende of God, concerns proving God’s existence]
3. MODERN PERIOD - concerned about problems or issues on knowledge.
[concerns about about issues and knowledge]
 Rationalism
 REASON - Sole source of knolwedege
 Empiricism
 EXPERIENCE - source of knowledge -
4. CONTEMPORARY PERIOD/ POSTMODERN PERIOD - Liberal era
[it does not exclude any other belief, it includes all perspectives]
PRE-PHILOSOPHICAL PERIOD
 people had already attempted to explain the origin of things and the events or
occurrences in nature.
 Such attempts are evident in the folklores, myths, and legends that the ancient
peoples the ancient Babylonians, Chinese, Hindus, Egyptians, and the Greeks
most notably believed in.
 these stories are characterized by religious elements or supernatural powers and
not by natural or rational explanation.
Ancient Period (Pre-Socratic Period)
 Philosophy is said to have begun in the Ionic colonies of Asia Minor around 6th
century BC through Thales of Miletus
 the focus is to search for the first and ultimate substance and the inquiry of the
beginnings of the universe and where it came from.

Ancient period (Miletians)

Thales of Miletus
 first Greek philosopher
 the father of philosophy, is regarded as the first to engage in the inquiry of
searching for causes and principles of the natural world and various phenomena
without relying on supernatural explanation and divine components
 Earth floats on water
 Water = first substance/ultimate substance
[water is his elements]

ANAXIMANDER
 claimed that the universe was formed from the boundless (Greek apeiron) which
is both the first principle (arche) and the substance (stoicheion) of the universe.
ANAXIMENES
 argued that air was the fundamental element. Through the process of rarefaction
or compression, the air surrounds Earth in a more or less compressed state.
Heraclitus of Ephesus and Xenophanes of Colophon
 continued the Miletian claim of a single, proper substance. They also offered a
cosmological account, but they expanded their focus on the human subject and
investigated the nature of inquiry itself in the physical explanations they provided.
Heraclitus
 claimed the "unity of opposites (winter and summer)" in characterizing the
cosmos and went further as to express that to understand these
characterizations is to inquire of the logos (an objective lawlike principle) and be
able to speak the language of the logos.
Xenophanes
 claimed that there is a single god. He did not subscribe to the idea of an
anthropomorphic god.
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans
 This group believes that the cosmos is a structured system ordered by numbers.
 they believe that nature can be quantified.
Socrates and Socratic schools
 considered the most flourishing in the History of Greek Philosophy.
 dominated by three famous philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

ANCIENT PERIOD
SOCRATES
 left no writings at all
 Socrates is best known for the Socratic method (question and answer)
 "the unexamined life is not worth living.”
PLATO
 concluded that the concept, or the idea, is the only true reality
 urged that humans detach themselves to what is corporeal
ARISTOTLE
 human beings philosophize because they wonder about the world, and as they
do, more things of their experience appear puzzling.

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

 considered the three of the greatest philosophers in the history of western
philosophic thought.
 You will notice that their concerns are more concentrated on inquiring what is
man and what he can become.

MEDIEVAL PERIOD
 described as the convergence of faith and reason.
 Philosophers in this period used philosophy as a handmaid of theology.
 Concerned with proving God's existence and understanding what is man in
relation with God.
 scholasticism directed its inquiry on how reason can be used to provide proofs
that God exists.
Notable Philosophers in Medieval ERA
ST. ANSELM - is known for his ontological argument for the existence of God in
Proslogion
ST. AUGUSTINE - promoted "the argument by analogy against solipsism or the
philosophical idea that only one's own existence is the only thing that is real
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS - famous for his influential work Summa Theologica which
explains his views on the creation and government of the universe, the origin and nature
of man, and human destiny, among others, through Catholic theology.

MODERN PERIOD
 is recognized to be concerned about problems or issues on knowledge.
 It is often described as dominated by two schools of thought -rationalism and
empiricism
 nature of knowledge and the verification and types of knowledge claims to be
known by humans.
Rationalism
 The rationalists René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
believe that reason is the sole source of knowledge.
EMPIRICISM
 Empiricists believe that aside from reason, experience is also a source of
knowledge.
 The five senses connected to the world can be used to determine what can be
known; hence, truth is based on what corresponds to reality, and empirical claims
about the world are also accepted as knowledge.

Immanuel Kant and Synthetic a Priori Knowledge

• In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant examined the extent to which human reason
is capable of a priori (formed beforehand) knowledge.
• His goal is to criticize reason by reason itself to establish a secure and consistent
basis for science, religion, and morality.
The rationalists, empiricists, and Immanuel Kant
• provided different perspectives on one specific concern the nature of knowledge
and knowledge claims
• Each school of thought espouses a conception of knowledge based on its origin
which gives knowledge seekers a wider perspective and increased
understanding of an important area in the life of humans.
CONTEMPORARY PERIOD/POST-MODERN
• In the contemporary period, you are not limiting one school of thought in this
particular era, but it includes all the school of thoughts that was tackled
throughout time.
• we have become more liberal, we do not exclude other beliefs or other line of
thoughts but we accept them, we investigate and we study them.
ANALYTIC TRADITION
• is concentrated on logical analysis of language to solve the problems which
beset philosophy.
• The philosophers under this tradition espouse a method of verification which only
accepts as meaningful and true those which can be investigated by science.
CONTINENTAL TRADITION
• German idealism, phenomenology and existentialism, hermeneutics,
structuralism, poststructuralism, and French feminism are some of the
movements within this tradition.
• What is common among these movements is their belief that the scientific
method is insufficient to provide an explanation of the world.
WEEK 3
LESSON 3: The Methods of Philosophy

The different methods of philosophy.

1. Philosophy as speculation (speculative thinking)
2. Philosophy as Critical thinking (analysis)
3. Philosophy as Reflective Inquiry

Philosophy as speculation (speculative thinking) derived from the Latin word specula
which means “watch tower”.

• Speculation is sometimes considered as detached because it is an activity best

done alone and in isolation.
• However, it is still said to be a philosopher’s vision because to speculate also
means to participate in the world and use the experience as basis or resource
of ideas.

Philosophy as Critical Thinking (analysis) To criticize means to “judge” and/or to

“analyze.”
Philosophy, as critical thinking or analysis, questions, judges, and evaluates any and
all principles and premises that may be gained through speculation.

Two modes of Critical thinking

1. Logical - philosophical problems are solved through a careful analysis of the logical
structure of the philosophical assertions.
2. Linguistic - meanings of the words are analyzed for their clarity and consistency.
Logical
 Elementary sentence
 Verified through observation
 Example:
1. All Paulinians are good-looking.
2. Peter Shane is a Paulinian.
3. Therefore, Peter Shane is goodlooking.
Linguistic
 Meanings of the words are analyzed for their clarity and consistency.

Plato Defined man thus: “Man is a two-footed, featherless animal,” and was much
praised for the definition; so, Diogenes plucked a cock and brought it into his school,
and said “This is Plato’s man.” On which account this addition was made to the
definition, “With broad flat nails.” -Laertius, 1895; as cited in Sprague and Taylor, 1959

Philosophy as reflective inquiry This kind of reflection is seen as a “meaning-making”

process…

The method of reflective inquiry is not far from speculation which involves being part of
or experiencing the world. Reflective inquiry has to happen with others (community) who
are likewise involved with the process of thinking.

Six phases of Reflective inquiry

1. The experience
2. Spontaneous interpretation of experience
3. Naming the problems or questions which arise
4. Generating possible explanations
5. Branching the explanations into full blown hypotheses
6. Experimenting hypotheses
The role of community in the activity of reflective inquiry.
- community serves as a support group which validates
- a personal experience as valuable,
- an opportunity to see things in a “new” way which again broadens one’s field of
understanding and a support to engage in the process of inquiry.
 WEEK 4
The Value of Truth

The Nature of Belief

Belief, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, refers to the acceptance that a
statement is true or that something exist.

BELIEF
 Firmly held conviction
 Synonymous to option
 Traditional conception: as “to believe is nothing but to think with acceptance.” –
St. Augustine
 12+7=19(truth)
 Trust/faith

FORMS OF REPRESENTATION OF BELIEF

1. Qualitative Form – Quality of the Object of your belief
2. Quantitative Form – Quantitative character of your belief

The object of beliefs

Some philosophers claim that believing as a propositional attitude is directed
toward the propositions or statements about the object of belief.

Hence, a Belief is a mental state of having some attitude, stance, take, or

opinion about a proposition or about the potential state of affairs in which that
proposition is true.

The Object of belief is the representation of the fact found in the world or truth
conditions about the world.
 1. The Correspondence Theory of Truth
 The correspondence theory of truth states that the key to truth is the relation
between propositions and the world.
 this means that “a belief is true if there exists an appropriate entity- a fact – to
which it corresponds. If there is no such entity, the belief is false.

2. Coherence Theory of Truth

 The Coherence Theory of Truth states that the truth of any proposition consists
of its coherence with some specified set of propositions.
 This means that the truth conditions of a proposition are based on other
propositions
 In simpler terms, the Coherence Theory of Truth insists that a belief is true, only
if it is part of a coherent system of beliefs.

3. Pragmatic Theory of Truth

 The Pragmatic Theory of Truth holds that a proposition is true if it is useful to
believe it. Thus, in this theory of truth, “utility” is the essential mark of truth. Truth
is arrived at based on beliefs that lead to the best “payoff,” that give the ultimate
benefit or advantage that promote success. Philosophers who subscribe to the
pragmatic criterion consider truth as what is convenient.

Opinion’s Purpose
“We have the obligation to withhold acceptance from all propositions whose truth
we do not clearly and distinctly perceive.” - Rene Descartes
“If truth cannot be achieved, prudence is exercised through having opinion.”
“ It is a wiser decision to make an opinion that is based from evidences.”
“Wisdom and knowledge are interrelated.”
WEEK 5
Lesson 5: Who is the Human Person

THE THREE ASPECTS OF THE HUMAN PERSON

1. Somatic Aspect
2. Behavioral Aspect
3. Attitudinal Aspect

SOMATIC ASPECT
- Body
- Material composition
- Substance of a human person
- View of science and biology that states that all functioning consciousness are
reduced to one principle: MATTER.

BEHAVIORAL ASPEC
- This aspect refers to the human person’s mode of acting.
- B.F. Skinner (American Psychologist who theorized the “theory of behaviorism”.
He stated that any behavior must be taken account.
- Behavior: Predicted, manipulated, controlled
- Nature of the human person: Behavioral

ATTITUDINAL ASPECT
- Attitude is a person’s mental reactions to stimuli or tendency to act. It is a certain
inclination, bias, or disposition toward a certain type of activity.
- These tendencies may define a person’s future actions and what he or she
values as right and wrong.

THE THEORIES ON HUMAN NATURE

The Human Person as an Immortal soul

- The human person has a soul.
- The nature and function of the soul has been a concern for Philosophers since
the time of the Ancient Greeks.

Phaedrus ( one of the dialogues of Plato)

“Every soul is immortal, for that which moves itself is immortal, while what moves, and is
moved by something else stops living when it stops moving. This is the very essence
and principle of a soul, for every bodily object that is moved from outside has no soul,
while a body whose motion comes from within, from itself does have a soul.”

THE HUMAN PERSON IN THE PLATONIC ACCOUNT

Human person
- has an immortal soul which is the source of movement.
- You are moved from within
- No outside force compels you to have life or to have motion.

Soul
- Immortal
- Source of movement
- Something that is, in itself necessarily uncreated and immortal.

THE HUMAN PERSON AS A COMPOSITE BODY AND SOUL

Aristotle’s three kind of substance:

a. Matter
b. Shape
c. Form

- According to Aristotle, there are natural bodies which have either life or do not have
life.
- If the body has life, it is meant to have self nutrition, growth and decay.
- Every natural body which has life in it is a substance in the sense of a composite.

THE HUMAN PERSON AS A “THINKING THING”

“On the one hand I have a clear and distinct idea of myself, in so far as I am simply a
thinking, non-extended thing [ that is, a mind], and on the other hand I have a distinct
idea of the body, in so far as this is simply an extended, non-thinking thing. And
accordingly, it is certain that I am really distinct from my body and can exist without it. “ -
Rene Descartes

MIND – a thinking thing: distinct and unextended.

Body - a non-thinking thing: distinct and extended
Nature of Man: is pure minds
THE FACULTIES OF MAN

1. Vegetative – The Vital Faculty; it includes the operations of:

a. Nutrition – The absorption and assimilation of food.
b. Augmentation/Growth – capacity to increase in size as a result of nutrition.
c. Reproduction – The capacity to generate one’s own kind

1. Sensitive - It includes the senses and the appetites.

The Senses - material cognitive faculty of man

The two types of senses of man:

a. External – The 5 senses (sight, taste, smell, hearing and touch)
b. Internal – common sense, imagination, memory, and the estimative sense

The Appetites – natural inclination toward anything that one perceives to be good or
away from anything that is evil.

The two types of appetite:

a. Concupiscible – mild emotions whose objects are easy to attain/avoid (love hatred,
desire, happiness, sadness)
b. Irascible – emergency emotions, whose objects are difficult to attain or avoid (hope,
courage, fear and anger)

1. Rational – the power that is proper to a human; it differentiates a human from any
other corporeal beings (beings with bodies; and there are two rational faculties that
enables a human person to make sense about his or her life and the world he or she
lives in and to determine his or her life and action.

a. Intellect – the spiritual cognitive faculty of a human; it enables a human person to

know objects that are spiritual, immaterial, abstract and universal; it enables people to
recognize the world and each other, to make decisions and plans and to conduct their
lives properly in the world.
a. Will – the faculty of volition; the faculty of choice; it inclines man to lean toward a
rational good or move away from a rational evil; it enables people to make choices and
to determine their course of action