GST 212

PHILOSOPHY AND LOGIC☯

 THE NATURE AND DEFINITIONS OF
PHILOSOPHY

The first and most popular definition of philosophy

is the etymological definition. Philosophy is made
up of two Greek words:

Philo (love) + Sophia (wisdom) = Philosophy.

Loosely interpreted, this means philosophy is the

love of wisdom.

Philosophy is about everything, meaning both

something and nothing. In this case something
means the tangible/material world. It refers to
things that are obvious to our senses, while
nothing refers to abstract things.

Another one is the normative approach. It tries to

limit philosophy to a moral enterprise. It is of the
opinion that philosophy should only be concerned
with human behaviour.

The analytic/ metaphilosophical approach analyses

the usage of words, i.e. it is about linguistic
analysis. It tries to understand what a word means
in a particular context.
 BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY

1. Metaphysis

2. Epistemology

3. Logic

4. Ethics

5. Aesthetics

1. Metaphysis deals with reality: it tries to find out

what is real how they are real, and the
characteristics. It deals with being, which is what
makes a thing what it is.

2. Epistemology is made of up of two words:

Episteme (knowledge) + Logos (study) =

Epistemology

Epistemology does not look at knowledge from a

common perspective but tries to find the source
and limit of knowledge by looking critically at it.
Sources of knowledge include: reasoning, senses,
revelation/faith, authority, intuition.

1. Sense: We get knowledge through our five

senses.

2. Reasoning: We get knowledge by

reasoning/thinking critically.

3. Intuition: It’s like a sudden flash of knowledge,

though it cannot be verified.

4. Authority: This is a fixed or unchangeable

statement. We believe such information because
we feel the proponents are learned.

3. Logic: This can be considered as the science of

reasoning. It tries to lay down or stimulate the
methods or principles of correct and incorrect
reasoning. It looks at our propositions and
statements. I.e. what we say when we try to express
certain ideas.

4. Ethics: The word ethics come from the Greek

word ethos. The Latin equivalent is normous. Ethos
loosely means a habitual behaviour.
Ethics is the science of morality. It tries to
differentiate right and wrong actions.

5. Aesthetics. Aesthetics deals with beauty and art.

It looks into the beauty of our environment and art.
 GENEALOGY AND PERIODS OF PHILOSOPHY

In ancient Greece, before the advent of western

philosophy, they had their traditions and myths.
Their idea of creation was centred around gods
which were described in stories by two poets Omar
and Hezoid in 17/18 BC. These stories were passed
down from generation to generation.

1. Thales

Thales was the first western philosopher. He started

by asking critical questions such as the origin of
the world. He was recorded to have correctly
predicted and eclipse and was of the opinion that
the whole world is made up of water, meaning that
water is the source and origin of life.

Thales was an engineer, and astronomer, and he

believed that the earth was flat and suspending on
water.

2. Anaximander

Anaximander was a student of Thales. He

disagreed with Thales and was of the opinion that
water could not be the source of life. He went with
a Greek word Abeiron meaning boundless. He
described something intangible, deciding it was
hard to imagine water taking any other form.

He also disagreed with Thales that the earth was

flat, deciding instead that it was cylindrical.

3. Anaximenes

Anaximenes disagreed with both Thales and

Anaximander. He said that the world was made up
of air. He is different from the first two because he
tries to describe how the air took different forms.

These three were located in the same area called

Milesia/Ionia in Greece. They are also part of a
group of philosophers called pre-Socrates.

- Milesia/Ionia is now in present day turkey.

4. Pythagoras
Pythagoras idea of the world was numbers. To him,
the universe was quantifiable. He looked at
numbers through the eyes of a mystic because he
believed that the essence of the world was made
up of them (numbers).

Pythagoras had a school, which is how the

Pythagoras theorem came about. Pythagoras
believed there were 10 planets because 10 is a
perfect number.

Cosmology – Looks at the nature of the universe

Cosmogony – Looks at the origin of the universe.

5. Heraclitus

From Heraclitus, the perception of reality changed.

He wanted to know the nature of reality, instead of
just being concerned with the primary substrate.

He made a statement that the world is an ever

living fire because of constant change. He looked
into the characteristics of reality.
6. Cratulus

Cratulus was a student of Heraclitus. He took

‘change’ to the extreme, believing that
communication was impossible and is hardly
mentioned.

7. Parmenides

He disagreed with Heraclitus, and decided that

things do not change. He believed that the idea of
motion was flawed and impossible, because if
things were constantly changing then it would be
impossible to know anything.

He made the statement: Being is, not being is not.

He believed that there was no void in the universe.

8. Zeno

Zeno came up with four paradoxes. He believed in

permanence and the paradoxes aimed to illustrate
that motion is absurd.
9. Empedocles

He believed the world was made up of different

substances: water, earth, fire, and air. His argument
was that these elements formed different objects
according to the ratio of their mixture.

10. Anaxagoras

He was not quite satisfied with how these four

elements (water, earth, fire, and air) became
something else, and he proposed ‘infinite seeds’.
He believed there was a mind controlling the
universe which brings all these seeds together.

11. Democritus

He was a bit different form the previous two. He

used a Greek word ‘Atomi’ which is where the
words atom comes from. He believed that the
whole world was made up of atoms.

Before Socrates, plate, and Aristotle, there were

men called the sophists who taught people how to
win arguments in their favour and charged money
for these services.

12. Protagoras

He made a statement that man is the measure of

all things.

13. Gorgias

He believed it was impossible to know anything.

He added a clause that even if we could know, it
would be impossible to communicate it.

14. Hippias

“It is only when you see you can identify”. This

means that no matter how well a person describes
an idea or object for you, you can only understand
it fully when you see it.

15. Thrasymachus
He was one of the sophists. He made a statement
that “might is right and justice is in the hand of the
stronger.”

16. Socrates

Socrates lived in the era of the sophists but he had

a different aim. He shifted his focus to morality and
began to ask question about virtue, justice, etc.

People, especially the elite did not trust him

because of his influence and his decision not to
involve in politics. Some politicians conspired
against him and had him tried. He was accused of:

a. Impiety (he didn’t believe in the gods)

b. Influencing the youth negatively.

In 599BC Socrates died after he was poisoned with

a substances named hemlock.

17. Plato

Plato’s writing are dived in three periods:

a. Early period
b. Middle period

c. Later period

In the early period Plato wrote a book called

‘apology’ which contained Socrates defence to the
trials.

After Socrates’ death Plato abandoned politics and

became a philosopher. He created what is referred
to as the first university.

Plato created the theory of forms in trying to

understand reality. He tried to introduce a duality
of reality (world of forms and the material world).
He respected the world of forms more and saw art
as inferior because he regarded it as an imitation of
an imitation.

He talked about the allegory of the cave where he

used illustrations to show that man was ignorant.

18. Aristotle

Aristotle came in contact with Plato at his

university. One of the most remarkable things
about him was metaphysis.
He rejected Plato’s duality concept, deciding
instead that substance is made up of both ideas
and reality and it is the essence of reality.

The medieval period is also called the ‘dark ages’.

Scholars say this is so because there was no
significant advancement in knowledge, because the
Roman Catholic Church came into power and
began controlling the government.

Bibles were not readily available, so people relied

on what priests told them the bible said.

The polemic view – the earth is at the centre of

God’s creation.

Most philosophers in this period were priests, and

they tried to marry the ideas of philosophy with
religion.

1. St Augustine

2. St T Aquinas

3. Doniscotus

4. St Anselm
St Augustine borrowed Plato’s ideas and came up
with the theory of illumination.

“Credo ut Intelligam” means I believe, that I may

understand. This is perhaps the most significant
thing about the medieval era.

In this period, faith dominated reason.

19. Galileo

Galileo came up with the heliocentric view that the

sun and not the earth is at the centre of the
universe, and the planets revolve around it.

In the modern philosophical period, all the

disciplines under philosophy began to separate.
Medicine was the first to separate and this led to
specialization.

The old view of reliance was abandoned and

instead science became the bane because of its
advancement.
In this modern period was rationalist called Rene
Descartes. He coined the phrase “I think, therefore I
am.”
 SOME SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT AND
DOCTRINES IN PHILOSOPHY

1. Rationalists: they believe knowledge comes from

reasoning. They believe that the principles of
knowledge are in the mind.

There are 3 popular rationalists

1. Spinoza

2. Leibnitz

3. Descartes

2. Empiricists: They believe that the source of our

knowledge is our senses/sense experience.

- Tabula rasa – Empty slate

3. Idealism: Plato was the first person to popularize

idealism. It represents those who believe that ideas
are more real than any other thing.
4. Realism: Aristotle made realism popular. Realists
believed that what is real is what you can
experience.

5. Logical positivism (Vienna circle): This emerged

in the 1920’s in Vienna, Austria. They believe that
only things that can be verified in a scientific way
makes sense, or are true. To them, whatever cannot
be verified is nonsensical. They were influenced by
the work of the empiricists.

6. Phenomenology: This began with a man called

Edmund Husserl. It is the study of the process of
consciousness or a systematic study of our
experiences and consciousness.

7. Analytical philosophy: They believe that the

purpose of philosophy is the analysis of language.
8. Existentialism: Existentialists believed existence
should precede essence. The first existentialist was
Kierkegaard.

9. Pragmatism: Pragmatists believe that whatever is

true must be actionable.

10. Marxism: Karl Marx believed that the essential

nature of man is to work (“home laboris”). Marxism
is mainly in line with politics, sociology and
economics.

Marx was mainly concerned with the exploitation

of workers, and tried to find a solution to this
problem. This philosophy is called ‘class struggle’.

11. Hermeneutics: The science of interpretation of

texts.
 PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY

1. Appearance and reality: Appearance is very

deceptive. This is as perennial problem, as it
remains with us forever. Reality cannot change, but
appearance can be changed or distorted. The
fundamental problem here is that not everything
can be verified bit by bit.

2. Mind and body problem: Rene Descartes was

one of those who brought this problem to the
lights.

Body  Material things

Mind  Abstract things

The issue here is how body and mind interact. He

believed that there is a place called the pineal
gland which is just above the spinal cord in the
brain, where mind and body interact.
3. Freedom and necessity: It can also be seen as
freewill and determinism. Those of the freewill
school of thought believe that we are responsible
for whatever decision we make. Determinists
however believe that we are not responsible for
our actions.

4. The problem of God: Not everyone believes in

God because of certain contradictions in the
universe.

5. The problem of evil: This is also related to the

problem of God. If a good God created the
universe, then why is there evil in the world? It
seems we cannot exonerate God from the problem
of evil.
 CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ETHICS

1. Abortion: Pro-choice and pro-life

2. Same sex marriage and homo sexuality

3. Euthanasia/mercy killing

4. Assisted conception.

5. Cloning
 LOGIC

Logic is concerned with the study and analysis of

right and wrong reasoning. It tries to look at the
methods and principles of reasoning. Every
discipline studies reasoning, but none does so like
logic.

ARGUMENTS IN LOGIC

In logic, an argument is a group of statements

used to try to convince a person or express your
opinions. It is also a group of
statements/propositions whereby a conclusion is
inferred from the premise.

Proposition: In logic a proposition or statement is

any expression that has truth value. I.e. it can either
be true or false.

Inference: Inference is similar to implication. It

simply means the process by which the premises
come to arrive at a conclusion.
Syllogism: This is a type of argument popularized
by Aristotle. It is an argument with three
propositions (2 premises and 1 conclusion)

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PROPOSTION AND

SENTENCE

A sentence is an expression of an idea, thought or

emotion, while a proposition is any statement that
can be true or false.

Types of proposition

1. Categorical proposition

2. Disjunctive proposition

3. Hypothetical proposition

1. Categorical proposition: There are 4 types of

categorical propositions

a. Universal affirmative (A)  All S is P

S  Subject
P  Predicate

E.g. all men are mortal

b. Universal negative (E)  No S is P

E.g. No girl is a boy

c. Particular affirmative (I)  Some S is P

E.g. some flowers are red

d. Particular negative (O)

E.g. Some S is not P

2. Disjunctive proposition  Either A or B

E.g. all bodies are either in motion or at rest

3. Hypothetical proposition (conditional

proposition)  If X, then Y.

E.g. if you give me money, I will buy fuel on my way

back.
Types of argument

1. Inductive argument: Here, the premises prove

the conclusion with some degree of probability.

E.g. Some Bayelsa ladies are good cooks

Yenagoa ladies are Bayelsans

All Yenagoa ladies are good cooks

2. Deductive argument

Here, the premises necessarily proves the

conclusion.

E.g. All Bayelsa ladies are good cooks

Yenagoa ladies are Bayelsans

All Yenagoa ladies are good cooks

Types of Inference

1. Mediate Inference: a logical inference drawn

from more than one proposition or premise

2. Immediate Inference: a logical inference drawn

from only one proposition or premise

Relationship between propositions