Name of course: Philosophy, Logic and Human existence

N.B: This note is not a supplement for not coming to class for

revision, it is meant to guide you.

Section One

Introduction of Philosophy

Philosophy as a discipline is one of the oldest, and debates centering on

it is about human beings place in a physical and spiritual space. The

definition of philosophy has a layman and an academic definition. The

layman definition is that philosophy is the ability to have a concept

about a way of life, because surely every human being must have a

particular form of philosophy about life, love, death etc.

The academic definition of philosophy is that philosophy is the

love of wisdom, this is gotten from the Greek word ‘Philo (love) and

Sophia (Wisdom), and fundamentally as a discipline it has many

branches:
A. Logic

B. Metaphysics

C. Epistemology

D. Aesthetics

E. Ethics
 LOGIC

a. Logic: This branch of philosophy aims to study the ability to

reasoning in an argumentative manner, but constructively. There

are different ways this is done, through correct thinking, such is the

use of Propositions, arguments, fallacies, statements and the use of

language.

(i) Propositions: this is a statement that is considered to be true

or false, but one which consists of an argument.

(ii) Arguments: is a set of propositions, which consists of a

premise and conclusion indicators. Premises is described as the

beginning of an argument; its indicator are: Accordingly,

Formally, Firstly, foremost, in the beginning etc. the conclusion

indicators signifies the end of an argument; in conclusion, to

end, in summary, therefore, in as much etc. Moreover,

arguments in logic are divided into two: Deductive and

inductive and deductive arguments, and it is important to

distinguish between the two:

Inductive arguments starts with particulars to general; some -----

-- all; for instance, some students of GST 113 are brilliant, then

ALL Students are brilliant.

Whereas, Deductive arguments starts with all and end with

some; ALL STUDENTS OF GST 113 ARE BRILIANT,

THEREFORE SOME STUDENTS ARE BRILIANT

Examples:

Deductive argument:

ALL S (Subject) ARE P (Predicate) (ALL MEN ARE LIARS)

SOME M (Middle Term) IS AN S (SOCRATES IS A MAN)

Therefore, S IS A P (SOCRATES IS A LIAR)

Inductive argument

SOME S ARE P (SOME POLITICIANS ARE LIARS

SOME M IS AN S (SOME AC PARTY MEMBERS ARE

POLITICIANS

THERFORE, EVERY S IS A P (THEREFORE EVERY

POLITICIANS ARE LIARS)

Fallacies; fallacies can be defined as error in reasoning made as

a result of a mistake in judgement, and sometimes committed in

judgement. There are two brad divisions of fallacy: formal and

informal, formal fallacies deals with violation of rules of valid

inferences, whereas informal fallacies are errors in reasoning

that may fall either because of carelessness or inattention. They

are fallacies of relevance, ambiguity and presumption.

Fallacies of relevance is committed when one appeals to force

or the threat to force cause the acceptance of a conclusion,

instead of appealing to reasoning: these are appeal to pity,

emotion, authority, against the man, ignorance etc.

 Fallacies of presumption; this are made when proposition are

uncertain and implausible; fallacy of accident, false cause,

begging the question etc.

Fallacies of Ambiguity; this arises as a result of incorrect

reasoning that arise from the imprecise use of language.

These are: fallacies of Ambiguity, equivocation, division,

composition etc.

METAPHYSICS

This branch of philosophy focuses on life and existences that is it asks us

about the place of human beings in an existential word. The academic

meaning is that metaphysics is from the Greek word, (Meta) after, and

physika (physics); this translates as the study of beyond the physical.

Topical statements under this branch includes: (i) Freewill and

determinism, (ii) idealism and materialism, (iii) universals and

particulars, (iv) substances and qualities.

Freewill and determinism are two polar concepts; free wilism is the

belief that are actions are free and there is no space for causes and

events, and that determinism is the belief that all events are predestined

and they have their causes and effects that follows, but there is a hard

determinism and soft determinism.

Idealism and materialism:

Idealism is the theory that comes from idea, it states that idea, spirit, or

non matter provides the origin and ultimate consistuent of the universe.

The idealists believe that the physical word exists but its reality and

existence depends on the mind, to be is to be perceived.

Materialism holds the position that matter is the basic substance of

everything that is, the ultimate consistuent of the universe is matter, they

do not deny the existence of entities like gods, spirits, angels, mind etc.,

but that they could only be explained in material terms.

Substances and qualities

Metaphysics raises these two concepts as the consistuent of the universe;

substances are regarded as not open to sensory observation but

determines the nature which are open to the senses. The qualities are

attributes of the substances that are open to the senses, for example,

humanity or humanness is the substance of size, shape, color and texture

etc.

EPISTEMOLOGY

Epistemology as a branch of philosophy is from the Greek work

“episteme” (knowing, to know, to have knowledge) and logy (means to

study). The combination of both words is known as the study of the

theory of knowledge. Knowledge itself has been made problematic by

the different schools of thought who have responded to the traditional

accounts of knowledge, which states that three conditions must be

fulified for someone to claim that one has knowledge, this traditional

account date back to Plato, who states, for S to Know p :

(I) He or she must have Justification for p

(II) He or she must have truth for P

(III) He or she must have belief

This was responded to by Edmund Gettier in 1963 in his article: is

Justified believe knowledge by providing counter examples of when this

would not occur.

Moreover, other epistemology, the different types of knowledge are

various: knowledge by intuition, revelation, faith, rational etc., but such

knowledge are debated and classified by different schools of thought

such as: the rationalists and the empiricists; the rationalists argue that

knowledge could only be attained through a priori, that is through

mathematical proofs and theorems, and scientific methods of knowing

that is based on rationality; whereas the empiricists argue that

knowledge could only be attained through a posteriori experience,

empirical observations.

ETHICS AND AESTHETICS

Ethics as a branch of philosophy is from the word etiquette, which is

custom. Simply, ethics as a branch of philosophy deals with the study of

morality, which is how we evaluate whether a particular moral standards

are right and wrong, and what the evaluation of those morality is based

on. There are three traditional branches of ethics; Prescriptive ethics or

normative ethics, descriptive ethics, Meta Ethics or Critical Ethics or

Applied ethics.

Prescriptive Ethics or normative ethics is defined as the setting the

criteria or standards of good moral conduct, and this is guided by

normative ethical theories. The normative ethical theories are: virtue

ethics, deontological theories, consequentialist theories. Utilitarianism

holds that morality is for all, deontology is a duty based theory, that each

person has a moral duty to uphold. Virtue ethics is a character based

theory of morality. Consequentialist argue that all moral actions have

consequences that follows.

Meta-ethics or applied ethics, critical ethics examines the meaning,

nature and origin of moral standards, it raises questions about morality.

Descriptive ethics is the use of the descriptive method of science to

describe a moral phenomenon. This is described in relative or absolute

terms.

Aesthetics

Is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with value laden issues such

as beauty, value of goodness and badness etc?

 SECTION TWO

YORUBA PHILOSOPHY AS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE IN

YORUBA PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION

PROVERBS: proverb is said to be the longest human experience

expressed in possible few words, which must have arisen out of the

experience reflecting on the world, and passed as language. It is thus a

summary of ideas remembered in ab environment that knew no writing,

and this reflects the customs, ideologies, and beliefs of the people. Then,

for an average Yoruba person, man is both physical and spiritual, and

the concept of life pre dates birth and death.

The best way to understand the above, is to examine three concepts:

1. Concept of Ori (Inner Head); it is believed that it is

chainable through caution, sacrifices and training; the Yoruba

child is therefore taught very early that life is a complex

affair.
2. Concept of Ogbon (Knowledge and Wisdom): The

Yoruba distinguish Ogbon (wisdom)from

imo(understanding) or eko(:training),;the Ogbon is endowed

by the creator, and is jealously sought after, the custodian of

such wisdom is Orunmila who is omniscient or omnipotent,

but one does goes to the god for fun.

3. Concept of Aye(Spiritual world):

Yoruba people belief that the physical world and spiritual

world exists, do this denotes that man is both physical and

spiritual. The aye consists of the good ones and wicked ones,

depending only if a person offends them.