Introduction to Philosophy

Module 1: Philosophy and Philosophizing

• Imperfection causes people to wonder and question
• Philosophizing stems from the desire to answer questions
• Philosophy is more than knowing, it is giving meaning
• Questioning and the pursuit of knowledge marks the start of philosophizing

Love and Wisdom

• Philosophy: love of wisdom
• Love entails passion
• Wisdom entails knowledge and understanding

Philosophy Challenges

• Ignorance of the nature and function of philosophy is a challenge
• Apathy, and preference for science are also challenges

What is Philosophy

• Philosophy seeks deeper knowledge of the world
• Philosophy gives meaning to the world
• Philosophy seeks to answer fundamental questions
• Philosophy: a way of life, world-outlook, and value system

What is a Philosopher

• Pythagoras identified three kinds of life at the olympic Games
• Lovers of gain seek profit
• Lovers of honor seek fame
• Lovers of spectacle analyze and understand life

Philosophy Defined

• A way of thinking about the world
• An activity seeking fundamental understanding
• For those willing to be disturbed creatively
• Characterized as an inquiry into principles

"Why" Questions

• Philosophy starts with "why" questions,
• Questions reveal assumptions underlying beliefs
• These questions help uncover the unquestioned assumptions that guide lives
• Philosophy examines assumptions and meanings behind theories

Philosophy as Activity

• It involves questioning and critical thinking
• Philosophy pursues understanding and knowledge

Philosophy and Students

• Philosophy helps students understand difficult intellectual problems
• Philosophy helps interpret texts
• Philosophy helps critic arguments

Why People Philosophize

• People philosophize because of tension
• This tension calls for questioning and search for meaning

Reactions to Tension

• Common sense: make sound arguments based on facts
• Scientific inquiry: investigate quantifiable relationships
• Philosophical inquiry: goes beyond the scientific

Origin of Philosophy

• Wanting to know is the initiation to philosophy

Sources of Philosophy

• Wonder drives philosophy
• Wonder arises from mystery or the unknown

Wonder

• "To wonder means to realize that there is something strange"
• Wonder evokes feelings and marks the start of philosophy
• Doubt also drives philosophy
• Philosophizing starts from inner restlessness

History of Philosophy

• History can be divided into Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary periods
• People were driven by desire to explain the world

Doubt

• Rene Descartes is known for his methodic doubt
• Doubt everything until he cannot doubt that he is doubting

Significance of Doubt

• Doubt paved the way for a new period in philosophy
• Descartes tried to provide philosophy with exactness of mathematics

Categories of Situations

• Grenz: limit situations
• Examples are death, birth, aging, fright, guilt, finality and suffering
• Karl Jaspers: Can't control them all but we can make sense of them
• Metaphysical uneasiness: feeling beyond the physical

Contrasting Curiosity

• Curiosity begins with external ideas
• Metaphysical uneasiness begins internally
• Gabriel Marcel: Philosophizing starts from inner restlessness

History Divided

• History of philosophy can be divided into four periods: Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Comtemporary

Possessing Knowledge

• People possess the natural tendency to know about basic things

Knowing The Basics

• Knowing the basics becomes unimportant as adults
• Everything has to be thoroughly thought through

Predecessors

• Philosophy started in the East
• Western thoughts began treating the world in a particular way

Mythology

• Mythology is rooted in mythological stories
• The myths explained reality with all encompassing stories

Milesians

• Milesians were the first philosophers
• They wanted to understand reality as a whole
• Their thoughts contributed to philosophy and science

Greeks and Philosophy

• Philosophy triumph over a primitive form of viewing the world
• It transition from mythical stories to logos, or reason and truth
• Ancient philosophy wants to explain the diversity of everything

Ancient Philosophers' Questions

• They asked, "What is the ultimate substance of the universe?"
• Thales started with the question of substance
• End came when emperor Justinian forbade the teaching of pagan authors

Enduring of Greek Philosophy

• Greek philosophy has an enduring value
• The greeks desired to understand reality and knowledge

CHARACTERISTICS OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

Intellectual Activity

• It gave rise to culture as a literary phenomenon
• Associated with culture
• Activity concerned with speech and writing

Search for Wisdom

• The search for wisdom is a dear delight
• Wisdom is knowledge that is unlimited

Knowledge of Totality

• Inquiry about the whole expanse of reality, excluding no part

Rational Method

• It's a a rational explanation of totality of reality

Speculative

• It is speculative, theoretical, contemplative, reflective
• Free science does not pursue a utilitarian end
• Natural desire to know, stimulating a love for knowledge

Notable Philosophers

• Thales: water as basic stuff

Pythaogras

• Pythagoras did not follow this explanation
• Numbers made the world
• The whole is explained by way of numerical relations

World

• The world is predictable and mechanical
• Philosophy means to purify the soul

Socrates

• "The unexamined life is not worth living"
• Seek knowledge before private interests
• Self-knowledge is sufficient

Knowledge and Virtue

• Socrates identifies knowledge with virtue
• Virtue can be taught
• Aristotle was born in Macedonia and studied under Plato

Happiness and Virtue

• Happiness means performing one's function
• Virtue or excellence is achieved

Philosophy

• Philosophy is a way of thinking about the world
• Philosophy understand the fundamental truths about themselves

Enmanuel Dy

• Emmanual Dy said sources of philosophizing are wonder, doubt, limit situations, and metaphysical uneasiness

Branches of Philosophy

• There are traditional branches of philosophy
• Branches are Epistemology; metaphysics; axiology; logic

Definition

• It is a study of knowledge, nature of knowledge

Module 2: Tools in Philosophizing About Ethics

The study of reasoning

• Ethics studies logos, meaning study and reason
• Ethics is the study of laws of thought

Logic Defined

• Studying principles to distinguish correct from incorrect reasoning
• Critical study of reasoning, practically and theoretically

Reasoning Defined

• Reasoning: When a conclusion is arrived from acceptance of a proposition

Concepts

• Propositions are true or false

Parts of a Proposition

• Thought expressed in indicative sentences
• Logic is interchangable

John Austin

• Constantine are utterances whose meaning can be affirmed

Arguments Examined

• In logic arguments are not disagreements between people
• Argument: A piece of reasoning expressed in words or symbols
• Use of sentences and reasoning is what constitute an argument

Analysis

• The premises serve as the support for a position that is taken

Conclusion

• Conclusion is the position that a person takes regarding the issue

Indicators

• Phrases are used to let the recipient know that they are about to reach the conclusion

Divisions of Logic

• Deductive logic: general specific statements
• Deductive logic: traditional or arithmetic
• Inductive logic: specific to general

Divisions of Deductive Logic

• Symbolic and Mathematical
• Made famous by Bool, Frege, Rusell

Traditional Logic

• All humans are mammals. Some Filipinos are human, etc
• With a sound deductive argument if the claim is true, then the conclusion is true

Inductive Examples

• Introduced by First Bacon
• Considers all forms of logic

Conclusion and Probability

• Inductive's conclusion relies is made on probability

Hypothesis Formulation

• Observation and hypothesis for things observed

Conclusions Analyzed

• In inductive, if all premises are true, the conclusion can only be probably true

Abductive Logic

• Conclusions are possible
• Aberrant facts: facts that deviate from general acceptance

Thoughts' Laws

• Identity: If the statement is true then it is true and cannot be untrue
• Contradiction: Cannot be both true or false

Definitions

• Excluded middle cannot be both

Proposition Analysis