Introduction to Philosophy: Meaning and Definitions

Philosophy: Background and Meaning

• The word philosophy lacks a universally accepted definition, similar to economics.
• Defining subjects like psychology and economics face similar issues, resulting in multiple definitions from various perspectives.

Everyone a Philosopher?

• Everyone is, in some way, a philosopher.
• Philosophers use working definitions as a starting point.
• Philosophy is a universal human activity that shapes lives through thought processes.
• Aristotle said, "You say one must philosophize. You must philosophize. You say one should not philosophize, then you must philosophize. In either case you must philosophize."
• Some philosophers may confuse others through complex intellectual activities.
• Justifying positions and postulations immediately qualifies someone as a philosopher.

Definitions of Philosophy

• Etymology clarifies philosophy's contextual meaning.
• Philosophy combines the Greek words philos (love) and sophia (wisdom), meaning "the love of wisdom."
• Philosophy is a rational search for the ideal life and its practical application.
• Ali (2003) defined philosophy as a rational search for ultimate reality and truth regarding basic questions of life.
• Jose Gasset, sees truth as the original name for philosophy, aiming to connect us with naked reality.
• Frederick Nietzsche sees a philosopher as someone constantly experiencing, seeing, hearing, suspecting, hoping, and dreaming.
• Karl Jaspers defines philosophy as inner action through which thinkers achieve self-awareness and awareness of reality by transcending the subjective.
• Martin Heideggn views philosophy as a discipline questioning everything and challenging values.
• Philosophy breaks paths, opening perspectives of knowledge, setting norms, and threatening human/societal values.

Philosophy in History

• Oyeshile & Ugwuanyi categorized philosophers:
  • The general class includes everyone.
  • The academic and professional philosophers include teachers, students, think tanks, and researchers.
  • The philosophers who are universally accepted and constantly quoted includes Socrates, Plato, Archimedes, Buddha, and Confucius.
• Philosophy originated in ancient Greece around 690 B.C.E.
• Thales of Miletus (6th century B.C.E.) was an early philosopher, astronomer, and geographer, who believed water was the basic principle of reality and is known for predicting a solar eclipse.
• The pre-Socratic period (600 B.C.E. - 103 A.D.) included philosophers like Thales, Anaximander, and Pythagoras, known as cosmologists, focused on discovering the basic nature of reality.
• The classical Socratic or Platonic Era included Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, considered the philosophers of the Golden Age of Greece.
• Socrates emphasized self-knowledge over searching for ultimate reality.
• During the Middle Ages or Medieval Period (1100-1400 A.D.), the Church and Arabic philosophers like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas dominated philosophical thought.
• Renaissance philosophy (1450-1600) saw a need to reconcile science with philosophy due to increasing scientific discoveries.
• Francis Bacon, a pioneer who referred to himself as "the trumpeter of the new science", is credited with "knowledge is power."
• The early modern period (16th-17th centuries) featured Rene Descartes, the father of modernism, and his thesis "I think therefore I am". Rationalists/empiricists like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley followed.
• The late modern philosophy period (1700-1900 A.D.) saw Immanuel Kant reconcile rationalism and empiricism, and Hegel originate absolute idealism.
• Karl Marx applied thesis, anti-thesis, and synthesis to economics and materialism.
• John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Frederick Nietzsche, and August Comte are examples of late modern philosophers.
• The contemporary period (20th century) is marked by epistemological schools, logical positivism, analytical philosophy, and logical empiricism (Rudolf Carnap, A. J. Ayer), American pragmatism (William James, John Dewey), phenomenology, Kantian thought, existentialism (Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jean Paul Sartre), Soren Kierkagaard, and neo-scholasticism.

What Do Philosophers Do?

• Philosophy aims to address questions using reasonable arguments.
• This use of arguments distinguishes philosophy from natural and social sciences.
• The mind of a philosopher is restless and constantly agitated by problems.
• William James stated that "Philosophy is a collective name for questions which have not been answered to the satisfaction of all that have asked them."

Functions of a Philosopher

• Though philosophy is the love of wisdom, loving wisdom doesn't qualify someone as a philosopher.
• Philosophy can be viewed from three angles: first as an activity, secondly as an attitude, and thirdly dialectically.

Activities of a Philosopher

• In the technical and practical perspectives, philosophy can be viewed as an activity.
• Activities include synthesizing, speculating, prescribing, and analyzing.
• A practical philosopher can see an element of balance and interaction among these four activities
• Synthesizing is to get an all encompassing view with all thoughts and experience.
• Speculation addresses topics that can't be demonstrated in a lab.
• Prescription is about establishing standards to evaluate conduct and art
• Analyzing helps clarify positions by examining everything logically.

Attitudes of a Philosopher

• Philosophers must have self awareness, recognizing everyone's biases and prejudices.
• Being aware of these predispositions allows positive or negative effects when assessing.
• Philosophers must have comprehensiveness, they collect relevant data from different sources.
• Philosophers must also reach and research what others have said and ensure there's enough info for a decision.
• Philosophers must have penetration, going deeply into matters.
• "Scratching" the surface of a matter differs from "going deep" to uncover overlooked aspects.
• Philosophers use calculated actions to reach a cogent decision on a matter.
• Flexibility involves a willingness to restructure ideas based on new evidence.
• Academic "pride" is discouraged; humility is necessary to accept colleagues' work.

Dialectical Activities of a Philosopher

• The word dialectics comes from the Greek word dialecktike, meaning the art of debate.
• "Dialecktike" was originally created to analyze and investigate for the truth.
• The approach dates back to Socrates and is referred to as the Socratic method.
• Socrates would bombard with questions so people can "see the other side" of the coin.

Deductive-Inductive Activities of a Philosopher

• Philosophers engage in arguments that are separated into two types: deductive and inductive.
• A deductive argument has a inference in which the conclusion is true based on the premises.
• Disadvantage of deductive reasoning is that it doesn't provide reason for the position being true or false
• Deductive reasoning is often employed by philosophers who generally use the speculative method of enquiry
• An inductive argument has an outline is provided from which a conclusion is gotten.
• Analytical philosophers employ a lot of inductive reasoning.
• One disadvantage of inductive reasoning is that it's gearing, at times, to the fallacy of hasty generalizations
• This arises from the fact that it makes several claims without taking time to examine all the particular instances implied in the claim.

Major Branches of Philosophy

• Philosophy is the king of knowledge and the mother of sciences.
• Disciplines go to philosophy for knowledge, especially in theoretical frameworks.
• Philosophy is considered the highest level of learning and the PhD is the highest degree worldwide.
• Philosophy's ubiquitous nature makes it involved in all spheres of life.
• Major branches include Metaphysics, Epistemology, Axiology, Ethics, Aesthetics, And Logic.

Metaphysics

• Metaphysics comes from the Greek words "meta ta physika", which means "after the physics."

• Metaphysics is considered the most important branch, as stated by Rene Descartes:

  • "The whole of philosophy is like a tree: the roots are metaphysics, the trunk is physics, and the branches that issue from the trunk are all the other sciences."

• The branch of philosophy that has to do with the nature of reality, and seeks to provide answers to "What is ultimately real?", divided into cosmology, theology, anthropology, and ontology.

  • Cosmology: Study of theories about the origin, nature, and development of the universe.
    • Issues of time and space are all key issues in the cosmological discourse.
  • Theology: Examines the existence of God.
    • Atheists claim that there is no God.
    • Pantheists believe that God and the universe are one.
    • Deists agree that God is the Maker of nature and moral laws but God is no longer interested in humankind or the physical universe.
    • Theists believe in a personal Creator God. Polytheism is the belief in the many gods while monotheism is to believe in one God
  • Anthropological: Study of the relationship between mind and body.
  • Ontological: the study of the nature or existence, or what it means for something to exist.

Epistemology

• Epistemology studies the nature, sources, and validity of knowledge.
  • Asks "What is true?" and "How did we come to know what we know?"
• Skepticists claim gaining knowledge is impossible.
• Agnostics profess ignorance, especially about God's existence.
• Absolute truth is eternal and universal.
• Opinions differ if knowledge is subjective or objective.
  • Van Cleve Morris believed knowledge is something that comes to us and is inserted to our minds.
  • Another view is that one contributes when they engage with the world.
• Epistemologists question if some truths are independent of human experience, talking about priori and posteriori knowledge.
  • Priori knowledge is truth built into the fabrics of reality, truth that is constant. (2x2=4).
  • Posteriori knowledge depends on human experience.
• Sources of Knowledge
  • Sources answers "From where did we get the things we know? How did we come about them?"
    • The Sense Organs means that we know by seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, and testing.
      • This is based on Empiricism.
    • Divine Revelation is when God communicates His will and wishes with human.
      • It is knowledge through faith and not accuracy.
    • Authority (Professionals or Experts) refers to knowledge from textbooks, professors, etc.
    • Reason accepts thought, logic, and reasoning as being the focal point of knowledge which is called rationalism.
      • It claims we have the power and ability to know the truths about the universe we cannot obtain from the senses alone.

Axiology

• Axiology studies values, answering "What is of value?"
• Individuals desire and prefer certain things over others, forming value systems.
• Value systems deal with what people, cultural groups, or events nations consider as good or important.
• Ethics and Aesthetics are the two main branches of axiology.
  • Ethics is concerned with moral values or the nature of good in human conduct. The philosopher wants to answer "Why are certain actions good or bad?".
    • Ethics is studied under normative, descriptive, and meta ethics.
      • Normative ethics has to do with standard of human conduct.
      • Descriptive ethics is concerned with morality and ethical laws.
      • Meta-ethics concerned with the what ethical are.
  • Aesthetics defines the realm of value that searches for beauty and art.

Logic

• Logic is the study that distinguishes good from bad arguments.
• Logic deals with judgments, inferences, and the structure of reasoning.
• Copi (1982) defined it as "The study of methods and principles by which we differentiate good reasoning from bad reasoning and correct from incorrect reasoning" guiding along the the structure of human reasoning.
• The father of logic is Aristotle.
• Studying logic enables one to know the difference between conviction and logical reasoning.
• Logic develops an attitude towards assumptions and presuppositions.

Minor Branches of Philosophy

• Philosophy of education
• Philosophy of religion
• Philosophy of language
• Philosophy of mind
• Philosophy of law
• Concepts and principles of freedom and justice
• Philosophy of literature
• Philosophy of history
• Philosophy of science
• Medical ethics
• Philosophy of social science

Traditional Philosophical Schools of Thought

• Metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology, are viewed differently leading to different schools of thought.
• A school of thought is defined as the many views and opinions the groups of people share.
• There exist schools such as: Idealism, Realism, Neo-Scholasticism, and Skepticism.

Idealism

• It has influence on education and is concerned with truth, beauty, and honor.
• Idealism emphasizes mind over matter, and focuses on ideas and thought.
• Plato (427-347B.C.E.) was the main proponent, defining truth as what is perfect and eternal.
• Plato taught that some universal truths exist, especially in mathematics (ex: 2x4=8).
• Using Allegory of the Cave, Plato teaches of the reality of the mind.
• Plato's allegory teaches the world is a world of images and shadows of the real world, and not ultimate reality.

Realism

• It questions abstraction and otherworldliness.
• This school holds that the world is real as presented to to experience.
• Aristotle believed the physical world is real and focused on the factual against the abstracted.
• Realism argues that the existence of a tree doesn't matter whether one is there to think about it or not, existence is real.
• Aristotle (384-322 B. C.) propounded the theory that the basic constituents of every object were form and matter.
• Francis Bacon (1561 1628) introduced empiricism into the modern world through using his inductive methodology.
• John Lock (1632 1714) proposed that the human mind is like a blank sheet or slate which receives different impressions from the environment.

Neo-Scholasticism

• The focus was to prove existing truth through rational processes, which is an attempt to "rationalize theology to buttress faith by reason" (Knight, 1990).
• Thomas Aquinas (1225 1274) wrote Summa Theologica to synthesize philosophy of Aristotle and Christianity.
• Neo-scholasticism believes human reasoning can expand to acquire much knowledge and rely on faith.

Skepticism

• It is to doubt and arm oneself with justifications for opinions.
• This school held that their knowledge is limited, not certain and not constant.
• Sextus Empericus believed knowledge was impossible to acquire accurately.

Modern Philosophical Schools of Thought

• Traditional philosophies focused on metaphysical issues, but modern ones focus on the discoveries of science.
• It led to questioning old beliefs
• The following have emerged: Rationalism, Pragmatism, Existentialism, and Empiricism

Rationalism

• It puts emphasis on reasoning for acquiring knowledge.
• Rene Descartes, the father of rationalism, states "I think therefore I am".
• Baruch Spinoza held pantheistic views of nature.

Pragmatism

• The pragmatic school of thought is also called Experimentalism and Instrumentalism
• Charles Peirce was the chief proponent.
• William James and John Dewey the works were elaborated on.
• Pragmatism says which is true is that which works.
• When accepting a theory, a pragmatist wants to know what the effect would be and what can come out of it.

Empiricism

• The view that knowledge is obtained through the senses to form knowledge.
• With that theory, the person may have certain things that distort what we see, it runs into trouble.
• John Locke is the father of empiricism.

Existentialism

• The theory has unique relationship with literature because the school of thought is more concerned with man and not the mind
• Individualism is the central theme
• Meaning is not built into the universe, it is man who gives it.
• The French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, said, "existence proceeds essence"
• Walter Kaufmann defined tenets include the refusal to belong to any school of thought and an open dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy.

Socialism

• This is chiefly concerned with the well-being of the individual.
• Wants all men to be fairly treated with in the environment we are in
• The theory is inspired by Karl Marx.

Marxism

• Karl Marx is regarded as a revolutionary ideology.
• The foundation is laid on materialism and revolution.
• Marx advocates for that the working class takes the capitalists and be in control.

Positivism

• Auguste Comte was its major proponent
• It focuses on behaviourists to arrive with positive knowledge which was of the system.
• Auguste Comte divided human history into three epochs, with people has a distinct way of having a distinct way of looking at issues.
  • First Epoch- the theological
  • Middle Epoch - The metaphysical. -Highest Epoch - The positive.
• Comte set out to outline universal and scientific knowledge: universal knowledge being the questions that men could ask and what methods followed.

Materialism

• As a school of thought it focuses on acquisitions and wealth.
• Its historical root traces to behaviorism
• It state that reality can be explained with the law

Logic and Its Relevance

• Karl max states logic is the “money of the mind”.
• Logic is the nerve center of philosofical studies.
• Logic is the systematic separation of correct reasoning from the incorrect one.
• Logic is the study of methods for evaluating arguments.
• Logic helps one know how to communicate precisely and carefully, and make predictions with principles that are reliable.
• It is useful for planning to detect and avoid.

Branches or Types of Logic

• Formal logic.
• Informal logic.
• Inductive logic.
• Deductive logic.
• Material logic.
• Truth-functional logic.
• Dialectical logic.
• Symbolic (mathematical) logic
• Prepositional logic,
• Positive (negationless) logic.
• Quantificational logic,
• Multi-valued (modal) logic.
• Traditional (Aristotelian) logic,
• Categorical logic

Logic as the Science of the Law of Thought

• It directs the mind in the attaining the truth.
• The Laws of Thought are the first principles that underline all human thinking processes and discourse:.
• The Law of Identity
• The Law of Contradiction
• The Law of Excluded Middle
• The Law of Identity can be stated in the following words;
• If anything is A, then it is A.
• If any proposition is true, then it is true.
• The Law of Contradiction
• Nothing can both be A and not A.
• No proposition can be both true and untrue.
• The Law of Excluded Middle states;
• Anything must be either A or not A.
• A proposition must be either true or false.
• It points out that there is another alternative in a proposition.
• Propositions are sentences in assertion and are referred to as statements.

Types of Statement (simple & compound)

• Simple statement usally has one conveyance like "London is in England"

• The compound statement is where there is a convence of mutiple ideas like "London is in England and Englandd is in Europe."

• Symbols are used to show analyasis i.e.

  • Affirmative/Negationlist - the statement in it is in it's positive state. For example: p- 'London is in England'. Pq- 'London is in England and England is in Europe'.

  • Negated/Affirmative statement - the statement is not being affirmed. For example: For example: p- 'London is not in England' Pq- 'London is not in England and England is not in Europe'.

What is a statement of conjunction?

• The conjunction when is true when all compponents to to are
• The connection is then false for other types of conjuctions.

Truth and Validity

• Truth and falsehood characterized propositions. As for if an argument is valid or invalid, those are not characterisics of propositions

• If an argument is valid, both premises and conlusion are valid.

• There is a connection between the valididty with the validity or invalidity.

  • An argument must satisfy two conditions to establish the truth

1. The argument must be valid 2)All premises MUST be true arguments are not properly characterized as either true or false but as valid or invalid. Note that to determine the truth or falsehood of premises is the task of scientific inquiry in general, since the premises may deal with any subject matter

Deductive and Inductive Argumnets

• Deducitve Deductive arguments show the conlusion of truth and used for the basis for proejctions. Argument can only be shown valid and invalid. (contains both major and minor premises).

• Inductive An inductive argument is an argument in which the truth of its premises is intended to make likely, but not guarantee the truth. the premises of his argument are true, then the conclusion is more likely to be true than false. Inductive arguments are is probalistic.

    - The occurrence of special indicator words such as probable.
   - The actual strength of the inferential link
  

There two types of arguements when doing tests of strength and validtiy a) Weak arguements - it not problalbe if its argument is true then conlsuion is also true b) Cogent argument - the truth value of conclsiuion can not guarateed