LESSON 1: DOING A PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy
- The love of wisdom. (philo : love ; sophia : wisdom)
- The study of general and fundamental problems concerning
matters (existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and
language).
- The rational, abstract, and methodical consideration of reality as a
whole or of fundamental dimensions of human existence and
experience.
- An activity people engage in when they want to learn the
fundamental truths about who they are, the world they live in,
and their relationships to it and to one another.
- It involves logical analysis of language and clarification of the
meaning of words and concepts.
- It's all about asking questions and thinking deeply. Trying to figure
out the meaning of life and everything around us.
- Explore ideas and try to make sense of the world.
Philosopher
- They use their thinking skills to dig into these questions, analyze
arguments, and come up with ideas and theories.
● Question Everything.
- They want to dig deeper and understand
the why and how of things.
● Think deeply
● Seek wisdom
- They want to figure out how to live a good
and meaningful life.
● Read and write
● Ask more questions
- They're like detectives who keep searching
for clues to the mysteries of existence.
Value of Doing a Philosophy
Philosophy is defined as the science of natural light reason, under this
definition, four things are to be considered.
1. Science.
- The investigation is systematic.
2. Natural Light of Reason.
- Philosophy investigates things, it becomes theology,
the philosopher uses his natural capacity to think or
simply, human reason alone or the so-called unaided
reason.
3. Study of all things.
- Sets the distinction between philosophy from other
sciences.
4. First cause or higher principle.
- A principle is that form in which something proceeds in
any manner whatsoever.
● Principle of Identity
- Whatever it is, it is, and whatever is not is
not, everything its own being and not being
is not being.
● Principle of Noncontradiction
- It is impossible for a thing to be and not to
be at the same time and at the same
respect
● Principle of Excluded Middle
- A thing is either or is not, everything must
be either be or not be, between being and
not being, there is no middle possible
ground.
● Principle of Sufficient Reason
- Nothing exists without sufficient reason for
its being and existence.
Philippine Christian University-Dasmariñas - STEM 12 H/Tricia Baltazar
Branches Philosophy
Metaphysics
- “After physics”
- The only extension of fundamental and necessary drive in every
human being to know “what is real?”.
- To understand the world in terms of appearance and reality, we
try to make things comprehensible by simplifying or reducing the
mass of things we call appearance to a relatively fewer number of
things we call reality.
- It ponders the nature of existence, reality, and what things are
made of.
- It explores concepts like time, space, causation, and even the
existence of abstract things like numbers.
Ethics
- Derived from “Ethos” meaning “Moral philosophy”
- Explores the nature of moral virtue and evaluates human actions.
- A study of the nature of moral judgment.
- It deals with questions of right and wrong, good and bad. It asks
"How should we behave?"
- It explores different moral theories and principles to guide our
actions and decisions, such as utilitarianism, deontology, and
virtue ethics.
Epistemology
- Derived from “epistēmē” meaning “knowledge”
- It deals with nature, sources, limitations and validity of
knowledge.
- It asks "What can we know, and how do we know it?"
- It delves into the nature of knowledge, belief, truth, and how our
minds work in acquiring information.
Logic
- Derived from the word “Logike” and was coined by Zeno, the stoic.
- A treatise on matters pertaining to human thought.
- It is considered as a tool and therefore does not contribute
directly to the content of our thoughts.
- The science of reasoning.
- It studies the principles of valid reasoning and argumentation.
- It asks, "What makes an argument sound, and how can we reason
effectively?"
Aesthetics
- Derived from “aisthetikos” meaning “sensitive”.
- It’s all about beauty and art.
- They ponder questions like, "What is beauty?"
- It explores the nature of art, taste, and the role of aesthetics in
our lives.
- The science of the beautiful in its various manifestations including
the sublime, comic, tragic, pathetic and ugly.
○ It vitalizes our knowledge (makes our knowledge of the
world alive and useful)
○ It helps us to live more deeply and richly (it is not
something merely like craft of applied arts but
something of weight and significance to humankind)
○ It brings us in touch with our culture (the answers of
great minds in the past to these problems are part of
our culture).
Pre-Socratic Philosophers
Philosophers in Miletus
- Philosophy is said to have begun in the Ionic Colonies of Asia
Minor around 6th BC through Thales of Miletus.
1. Thales
- The first Greek philosopher and the father of
philosophy.
- Engage in the inquiry of searching for the natural world
and various phenomena without relying on
supernatural explanation and divine components.
- Water as the Primary Substance.
⋅ He thought that everything was made of water.
2. Anaximander
- Who wondered about the beginning of the universe
and where it came from.
- The Boundless.
- He claimed that the universe was formed from
boundlessness or infinite.
3. Anaximenes
- Argued that air was the fundamental element through
the process of refraction or compression
- Air as the Primary Substance.
- The air surrounds earth in a more or less compressed
state. He believed that air was the fundamental
substance of the universe and that it could change into
other elements through processes like condensation
and rarefaction.
4. Heraclitus
- Claimed the Unity of Opposites in characterizing the
cosmos.
- Change is Everything.
- ‘No man cannot step on the same river twice’
- Everything is in constant flux, like a flowing river.
5. Xenophanes
- Claimed that there is a single God.
- The Critique of Anthropomorphism/Critique of the
Gods
- He did not subscribe to the idea of an
anthropomorphic God.
- He suggested if Gods are ‘’human-like’’ then horses,
oxen and lions would have equine, bovine and leonine.
- He introduced the idea of a single, all-encompassing
divine entity and advocated skepticism about the limits
of human knowledge.
6. Pythagoras
- Believes that the cosmos is a structured system
ordered by numbers. Believe that nature can be
quantified.
- Numbers and Harmony.
- He thought that numbers were the key to
understanding the world.
- He believed that everything could be explained
through mathematical relationships and harmony.
“Unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates
- For us to live a meaningful life, we must give ourselves time to
think reasonably and logically about our lives and how to live
them.
Philippine Christian University-Dasmariñas - STEM 12 H/Tricia Baltazar
The Greek Triumvirate
Socrates (470-399 BCE)
- The foremost philosopher of ancient times.
- Contributed to the field of ethics
- Formulated the Socratic Method or Elenchus
- A means of examining a topic by devising a series of
questions that let the learner examine and analyze his
knowledge and views regarding the topic.
- Socrates never exists. No left philosophical writings.
Plato (427-347 BCE)
- (Student of Socrates) He wrote down his teacher’s writings and
incorporated some of his own ideas into them.
- His teaching and writings are considered the foundation of
Western philosophy.
- Founder of Academy
- An institution of higher learning which was the first of
its kind in the West.
● Knowledge through concept is the only true knowledge
● Concept or idea is the only true reality
● One of his famous works is ‘’The Republic”
● Senses are often deceitful
● Humans detach themselves for what is corporeal because the soul
without the limitation of body can be better recognize by the
eternal form of truth
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
- He attended the Academy
- A prominent student of Plato.
- He was involved in a great variety of disciplines such as zoology,
psychology, ethics, and politics.
- His studies in logic led to the formulation of a formal process of
analyzing reasoning which gave rise to deductive reasoning.
● Perceptual and cognitive faculties are dependable
● Human beings philosophize because they wonder about the world
● Endowment of senses will lead a person in direct contact with the
world
● And therefore, allow him to analyze whether what appears upon
close scrutiny and analysis is correct
Doing Philosophy: Philosophical Reflection
Doing Philosophy
- To ask questions, to reflect and to formulate and evaluate
arguments.
- Asking the right questions, critically examining the work of
previous philosophers, truly understanding the works and the
reasoning behind the works, and possibly building on the works of
previous philosophers by expanding or testing this methodology.
Philosophical Reflection
- Tool in doing philosophy or creating philosophy.
- The act of giving time to think about the meaning and purpose of
life. It could be done through debate, discussions, essays and
other activities.
➢ Primary Reflection
- Fragmented and compartmentalized thinking;
instrumental thinking; means-end of thinking or selfish
way of thinking.
➢ Secondary Reflection
- Integrates the fragmented and compartmentalizes
experience into a coherent whole.
■ Partial point of view
- one's perception is limited by other factors or based on
a single factor.
■ Holistic point of view
- Having a view where we understand both the whole
and the parts of something, and, we understand how
the parts, when brought together, make up the whole.