Introduction to Philosophy

• Philosophy analyzes the nature and importance of philosophy
• The study distinguishes philosophical and non-philosophical questions
• Philosophy differentiates the different schools of thought that emerged across history

What is Philosophy?

• Term philosophy comes from the Greek words "philos" (love) and "sophia" (wisdom)
• The term can be defined as love of wisdom
• Being wise entails applying learned experiences to live and die well
• Philosophy is concerned with answering or reflecting on the biggest questions about life and reality
• Philosophical questions are complex, general in point-of-view, and can be controversial
• These questions cannot be answered directly by common sense, even science

Philosophical Questions

• These questions do not have a definite answer, are broad or general in scope
• Philosophical questions lack a single method for answering and have no practical purpose
• Answers are beyond physical evidence/empirical research, requiring reason and rational thinking
• Philosophers often have conflicting views and perspectives
• Examples of philosophical questions:
• Do guns protect people or kill people?
• Can money buy happiness?
• Why is beauty associated with morality?
• What is the truth?
• Does God have supreme power?
• Will the world be a better place if caste and religion cease to exist?
• What is the meaning of true love?
• Philosophy helps look at an old question in a new way, such as connecting emotions with money

Nature of Philosophy

• Shares critical thinking and open-mindedness with science
• Involves systematic procedures and methodology in formulating answers and perspectives using reason or rational thinking
• Philosophy investigates things using human reason alone
• Philosophy deals with questions about everything including their existence
• Philosophy is an overarching field of study that investigates “anything under the sun"
• Unlike disciplines like mathematics and the sciences, philosophy deals with a broad spectrum of topics
• Philosophy touches upon nearly every aspect of human life, which is as broad as life and as deep as human understanding

Importance of Doing Philosophy

• Philosophical reflection leads to developing beneficial skills applicable in everyday situations
• Enables holistic thinking, considering large-scale patterns in systems
• Holistic perspective requires an open mindset and ability to get the general sense of a situation
• Partial thinking focuses on specific aspects of a situation and is important for analytical thinking
• Philosophy helps with
• Overcoming errors in common sense
• Resolving mental confusion
• Understanding happiness
• Managing emotions
• Gaining overall perspective

Brief Historical Development of Philosophy

• The development of western philosophy is divided into six parts: pre-philosophical era, pre-Socratic philosophy, classical (Socratic) philosophy, medieval philosophy, enlightenment and age of reason, and modern philosophy. In each part, you will encounter the dominating theme of philosophy as well as different schools of thought and their respective philosophers. "school of thought" is a set of ideas, opinions or beliefs shared by a group of people with a common perspective. On the other hand, what we meant by “philosopher" is a person who practices philosophy or engages in answering philosophical questions.

Pre-Philosophical Era

• People attempted to explain the origin of things with myths, legends, and religious elements
• The earliest records are generally in Ancient Greece but started with philosophy in Ionia
• Thales (Miletus / Ionia ) was the first proper philosopher
• He investigated the natural world through observation and reason
• The Ionian Awakening followed with other Greeks and philosophers emerging.

Pre-Socratic Era

• Philosophers called "philosophers of nature" investigated the single underlying substance
• They also philosophized whether change exists or is just an illusion
• Materialism was dominant, believing the world can only be understood through physical matter
• This is why some were considered naturalists

The Milesians

• Thales:
• Known as the first person in recorded history to have started philosophizing
• Introduced the term arche meaning the ultimate substance of everything
• Was of the belief that arche is water because it can be found in liquid (inherent state), solid(freezing), and gas (evaporation).
• Anaximander: a younger contemporary and student of Thales
• Thought the ultimate substance is apeiron ("the infinite" / "the boundless")
• Anaximenes
• Believed the ultimate substance of everything is air
• Air becomes wind, cloud, water, mud, and stone when moved and condensed
• Rarefied air presumably became fire

The Non-Milesians

• Pythagoras
• Believed everything in the world is governed by numbers and understood through mathematics
• He was a proponent of Pythagorean theorem
• Xenophanes
• Believed the ultimate substance of everything is earth which interplays with water
• The person is considered as the first philosopher of religion
• He critized representation of God and said that there is only 1 God who is transcendent and omnipresent
• Heraclitus
  • everything in this world lives in constant changes
  • believed the ultimate substance of everything is fire: “All things are exchangeable for fire, as goods are for gold and gold for goods"
• Downward path where fire turns to water, water to earth, earth turns to water, water to air, air to fire.
• Parmenides
• Rejected Heraclitus' view of change and considered it just an illusion, saying that the universe is already there and didn't evolve.
• Believed that everything that exists is static and unchanging
• Empedocles
• Synthesized the thought of other philosophers, considering water, earth, fire and air stand on equal terms
• These mingle with each other to produce the world
• Democritus
• Introduced atomism
• Believed everything is composed of tiny, indivisible and indestructible things called atoms
• These are too small, infinite in number and come in many different kinds

Classical or Socratic Era

• Philosophers during this period emphasized how people should behave and think
• They consider how society/government should operate and what lies beyond the physical world
• Further development was caused to ethics, philosophy of politics, and logic
• Socrates
• • The oratorical philosopher; left no writings and has a method of questioning which clarify the ideas
• Encourages people to acknowledge ignorance and pursue wisdom
• "I know that I know nothing"
• Plato
• Literary superstar that composed philosophies presented in dialogues
• He wrote the philosophies of Socrates
• His philosophy completes/extends Socrates's philosophy
• "Theory of Forms (Idealism)" asserts the reality only exists in the mind and experiences are just illusions
• Believed philosopher kings should rule so that decisions are free from impulses/emotions
• Introduced the idea that humans are composed of a tripartite soul
• Aristotle
• His philosophy opposes Plato's tradition
• Believes realism makes an endownment of senses which leads to direct contact with an experience
• It provides proof in pursuit of the truth
• Ideas must be supported by perception and to understand things, both reason and our senses should be relied on.
• Father of Political Science; he systematically studied politics
• Introduced "virtue" as the “ultimate good,” and “eudaimonia" as “happiness.”

Scholastic or Medieval Era

• Philosophers in this period sought to reconcile philosophy with religion
• There was an attemp to explain God through logical arguments
• Avicenna
• Muslim philosopher that reconciled Aristotelian philosophy with Islamic theology
• Introduced the concept of "tabula rasa" (blank slate) which influenced John Locke
• St. Augustine of Hippo
• One of his notable philosophies is that man is fallible
• Man needs God because man is fallible
• Thomas Aquinas
• Logical approach to reconciling faith and reason
• He had cosmological and teleological arguments for God's existence
• He believed for the impossibility of univers and movement, there would be a mover who would be God

Renaissance and the Age of Reason

• Philosophers replaced God with man and his/her achievements, focused on politics and the self
• Niccolò Machiavelli
• Believes the end justifies the means: leaders must sacrifice morality to secure the state's success
• It's better to be feared than loved if can't be both
• Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
• Said evils in society come from the French Catholic Church
• Believed in deism, which asserts that God doesn't interfere since humans have reason
• Voltaire influenced the French Revolution motto of “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite!"

Modern Philosophy

• Focuses on the source of human knowledge
• Dominated by rationalism and empiricism, ending with Kant's synthesis
• Addresses issues around knowledge and verification
• Rationalism
• Reason is the only source of knowledge
• Begins with intellect/reason through abstraction
• a) Plato: knowledge is pre-existed
• b) Rene Descartes: Knowledge is the availability of dear and distinct ideas because of human consiousness and once someone becomes conscious, they will start to have clear and distinct ideas .
• Empiricism
  • Sensory experience is the only source of knowledge
  • a) David Hume: Knowledge is a Body and Bundle of impressions
  • b) John Locke: Knoweldge is that which is acquired and in the process of time the person through his/her experience can have knowledge
• Immanuel Kant
• Synthetic a priori knowledge derived from body/senses and the intellect that we project to the world
• Knowledge depends on the categories/conditions of the human mind

Other Notable Philosophers

• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Critic of religion, criticizing “sklavenmorale” (slave morality) by Christianity
• Said "God is dead" because science is replacing God; religious practices are abandoned
• Albert Camus
• Believes that life has no meaning, and we must rejoice because we can define it ourselves
• Jean Paul Sartre
• Believes that existence precedes essence
• Says we find essence (meaning/purpose) as we go through life