LMCW2143 PHILOSOPHY AND CURRENT ISSUES

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT (10%)

GROUP 1: PHILOSOPHY IN MALAYSIA

1. INTRODUCTION
2. PHILOSOPHY AT A GLANCE
3. WHY DO WE NEED TO LEARN PHILOSOPHY?
(fundamental thinking, in-depth thinking, significant meaning)
4. THE NATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION (NPE)
a. Meaning
b. Explanation of NPE
c. NPE in shaping individual citizen
5. PHILOSOPHY OF RUKUNEGARA (THE NATIONAL PRINCIPLES)
a. Meaning
b. Explanation of each principle
c. Rukunegara in shaping individual citizen
6. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SEJAHTERA (WELL-BEING AND HAPPINESS)
a. Meaning
b. NPE and Rukunegara in shaping Sejahtera society
7. CONCLUSION
NEP at individual level, Rukunegara at societal level, creating sejahtera society at national level
8. REFERENCES

GROUP 2: PHILOSOPHY IN OUR LIFE

1. INTRODUCTION
2. DEFINING PHILOSOPHY (dictionary, scholars)
3. BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY (Epistemology, Logic, Metaphysic, Axiology – meaning and example)
4. BRIEF HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY (classical/ancient, Hellenistic, Middle Ages, modern ages,
contemporary – scholars and their main ideas)
5. PHILOSOPHY IN THE WESTERN TRADITION
6. PHILOSOPHY IN THE EASTERN TRADITION
7. COMPARISON OF THE WESTERN AND EASTERN PHILOSOPHIES
8. THEORITICAL PHILOSOPHY
9. PRACTICAL PILOSOPHY
10. NEW PHILOSOPHY
11. CONCLUSION
12. REFERENCES

GROUP 3: THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN (psychology & sociology)

1. INTRODUCTION
2. WHY DO WE NEED TO LEARN ABOUT HUMAN FROM THE PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES?
3. HUMAN IN HELLENICTIC PERSPECTIVE (God, man, nature/cosmology)
4. HUMAN FROM THE MODERN WESTERN PERSPECTIVE (God, man, nature/cosmology)
a. Middle Ages, Modern Age
5. HUMAN FROM PSYCHLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
6. HUMAN FROM THE EASTERN PERSPECTIVES (God, man, nature/cosmology)
a. Islamic Perspective
b. Hinduism Perspective
c. Buddhism Perspective
d. Taoism Perspective
e. Confucianism Perspective
7. HUMAN FROM THE NATIONAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
8. CONCLUSION
9. REFERENCES

GROUP 4: EPISTEMOLOGY
1. INTRODUCTION
2. MEANING (dictionary, scholars)
3. CONDITIONS OF KNOWLEDGE (explanation and meaning):
a. Justified
b. True
c. Belief
4. HISTORY OF EPISTEMOLOGY
a. Hellenistic – Modern (Renaissance, Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution, Industrial
Revolution) – Post-Modern
b. Reasoning/logic – Tradition – Empiricism, Empirical Rationalism
5. MAIN SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS IN EPISTEMOLOGY (meaning/explanation, scholars, example)
a. Rationalism
b. Empiricism
c. Dogmatism
d. Scepticism
e. Intuition
f. Local Genius
6. THEORY OF TRUTH (meaning/explanation, example)
a. COHERENCE THEORY
b. CORRESPONDANCE THEORY
c. PRAGMATISM THEORY
7. THEORY OF TRUTH: BETWEEN TRADITIONS/RELIGIONS, RATIONALISM AND EMPIRICISM
8. INTEGRATION OF TRADITIONS (dogmatism), RATIONALISM (philosophy) AND EMPIRICISM (science)
9. CONCLUSION
10. REFERENCES
GROUP 5: LOGIC
1. INTRODUCTION
2. LOGIC AS A METHOD IN RATIONALISM
3. DEFINING LOGIC (meaning, scholars)
4. DEDUCTIVE LOGIC (meaning/explanation, examples)
5. INDUCTIVE LOGIC (meaning/explanation, examples)
6. ABDUCTION (meaning/explanation, examples)
7. HEURISTIC (meaning/explanation, examples)
8. FALLACY (meaning)
a. Formal
b. Non-formal
9. TYPES OF LOGICAL FALLACIES (meaning, examples)
a. Ad-hominem
b. Red herring
c. Confirmation bias
d. Appeal to Authority
e. Appeal to Ignorance
f. Appeal to emotion
g. Slippery slope
h. Straw man
i. Ad-populum
j. Either-or
k. The gamblers
l. Middle ground
m. Ambiguity
10. CONCLUSION
11. REFERENCES

GROUP 6: METAPHYSIC
1. INTRODUCTION
2. UNDERSTANDING METAPHYSIC (meaning/explanation, scholars)
3. OTHER TERMINOLOGIES FOR METAPHYSIC (meaning, scholars)
4. TYPES OF METAPHYSIC
a. ONTOLOGY
b. THEOLOGY
c. COSMOLOGY
5. IMPORTANT TOPICS IN METAPHYSIC
a. Ontology
b. Cosmology
c. Causality & cosmogony
d. Necessity & Contingency
 e. Mind & Matter
f. Free will & Determinism
6. SYSTEM IN METAPHYSIC: ONTOLOGY (meaning/explanation, scholars, examples)
a. Idealism
b. Materialism
7. SYSTEM IN METAPHYSIC: THEOLOGY (meaning/explanation, scholars, examples)
a. Theism
i. Monotheism
ii. Polytheism
b. Atheism
c. Agnosticism
8. CONCLUSION
9. REFERENCES

GROUP 7: IDEOLOGY AND CURRENT ISSUES

1. INTRODUCTION
2. DEFINING IDEOLOGY (meaning/explanation, scholars)
3. HISTORY OF IDEAS in
a. Medieval era (dogmatism)
b. Modern era (secularism, humanism, individualism)
c. Post-modern era (relativism, subjectivism, scepticism)
4. ERNEST GARNER in his book, Postmodernism, Reason and Religion, claims that there are three main
orientations (explain this)
a. Enlightenment rationalism
b. Post-modernism
c. Religion
5. MODERN
a. Meaning/explanation
b. Scholars and main ideas
c. Examples
6. POST-MODERN
a. Meaning/explanation
b. Scholars and main ideas
c. Examples
7. META-MODERN
a. Meaning/explanation
b. Scholars and main ideas
c. Examples
8. COMPARING MODERN AND POST-MODERN
9. RELATIVISM AS A CHALLENGE
10. TRADITIONS/RELIGIONS AS AN ANSWER TO THE CHALLENGE OF POST-MODERNISM RELATIVISM
11. CONCLUSION
12. REFERENCES

GROUP 8: DECOLONIZATION
1. INTRODUCTION
2. DEFINING COLONIZATION AND DECOLONIZATION (meaning. scholars)
3. EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION IN MODERN HISTORY
4. REASONS FOR EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION
5. GENOCIDE AND EPSITEMCIDE DURING WESTERN COLONIZATIONS
6. PHILOSOPHY BEHIND COLONIZATION: THE IMPLICATIONS OF ‘KNOWLEDGE IS POWER’ (F. Bacon)
AND ‘I THINK, THEREFORE I AM (R. Descartes) ON WESTERN THINKING AND COLONIZED
COMMUNITIES
7. CARTESIAN DUALISM AND ITS IMPLICATONS
a. Egoism
b. Anthropocentrism
c. Eurocentrism
d. Anthropogenic
8. POST-COLONIALISM AND ITS CRITICS TOWARDS COLONIZATION
9. DECOLONIZATION
a. Self-identity
b. National identity
c. Ecological man
d. Local genius
e. Traditions vs secularism
f. Occidentalism vs Orientalism
10. CONCLUSION
11. REFERENCES