Doing Philosophy

PAUL REYNIER A. LAGBO

REVEALING THE
WHOLE
 Discovering Philosophical Reflection

• To reflect philosophically, is to think about an

important question that does not have a
definite or ready answer.
– Questions like:
• Does God exist?
• Is there really a human freedom?
• What is the purpose of human life?
• Why do we live?
• Is there a true religion?
• Philosophy allows us the freedom to ask even
those questions that others believe to
already have a definite answer
– A scientific discovery:
• Is theory of evolution true?
• What is really gravity?
• What is energy? Does it really exist? Can we touch it or
not? What does it look like?
• Can technology replace human activity?
• Can science prove the existence of God or deny the
existence of God?
• Philosophy does not dictate conclusive or
final answers to philosophical question.
– It always keeps you wonder.
– It keeps you think deeper and deeper.
– It does not let you just receive an info without
validating its truthfulness.
– Knowledge of this world does not satisfy your
thirst for the ultimate knowledge
– It longs to a more profound and source of
knowledge of what knowledge really is.
• A philosophical questions always
contains a bigger problem.
– That is questions on:
• LAW
• RELIGION
• EXISTENCE
• HUMANITY
• NATURE
• UNIVERSE
• SCIENCE
The Whole is Bigger Than Its Part
The Universal and Particular
• To philosophize is to look at life from a holistic
perspective
• Such is precisely what makes philosophy
different from science according to the German
Philosopher Martin Heidegger.
• For Him, a scientific question is always confined
to the particular, whereas a philosophical
question leads into the totality of beings and
inquires into the whole
 An example is Human Freedom:
• Discussing about human freedom is not only
limited to one particular person.
• It refers to every human being.
• It also tackles not just a particular group of
people but includes any group from different
places and countries.
• Freedom can be discussed to every discipline
like in ethics, religion, politics, science etc.
“Science talks particulars
about reality while
Philosophy talk about the
whole of reality.”
 Truth and Dialectic
• Philosophers rely on the human
faculty of reason as they
philosophize. Through this rational
capacity, they arrived at a technique
to resolve philosophical questions.
 Socratic Method

Dialectical method
–
A discussion involving opposing views.
–
Begins with commonly held truths and opinions.
–
Questions are then asked to test the logic behind these views.
–
Contradicting ideas are eliminated until consistency is reached.
–
Socrates believed this was the ultimate way of discovering truth.
•SOCRATIC METHOD:
1. Problem Centered.
2. Based Upon Student Experience.
3. Critical Thinking.
4. Teaching Is a Drawing Forth Rather
Than a Telling.
5. Learning Is Discovery.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL
ENTERPRISE
 Wonders, Knowledge and Ignorance
• Plato one of the best Philosopher claimed that
philosophy begins in wonder.
• Wonder is the beginning for it stimulates us to
venture into philosophy.
• It is our ignorance that makes philosophy possible. The belief
that one has figured out everything, however, will impede our
search for truth.
• In other words, to gain wisdom, one has to admit that
he/she is not yet wise.
• The etymology of the term philosophy in
Greek (philo as love and Sophia as
wisdom) is equivalent to love of wisdom,
thus we can consider philosophers as
lovers of wisdom
• Philosophy therefore maybe understood
as an activity in pursuit of wisdom.
Philosophical Thoughts in Three Views:
• Cosmo-centric View
– A view that tries to understand the world by asking
this question “Where did all things come from?”.
The following are the philosophers who try to explain
the Universe:
• Thales – Water
•Anaximander – Boundless
• Anaximenes – Air
•Pythagoras – Number
•Atomist – atom
• Theo-centric View
– A view that talks about God is the source of
the universe. God is the centre of the
discourse.
The following are the philosophers who try to
explain the Universe:
•Avicenna – the first Muslim philosopher who prove
the existence of God
•St. Thomas Aquinas – five ways in proving God’s
Existence
• Anthropocentric View
– A view characterized by subjectivity and
individualism. It is a result both of the rise of
modern science and the diminished authority of
the Church in the seventeenth century.
– This idea shed light on the philosophies
characterized in this period:
• Rationalism – is committed to the view that knowledge
is acquired through reason independent of sense
experience
• Empiricism – holds that all knowledge is ultimately
derived from sense experience