Philo 01 Module 1 STEM 2024-2025 Introduction to Philosophy

Philo 01: Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person First Semester A. Y. 2024 - 2025 MODULE 1 DOING PHILOSOPHY I. What will you learn from this module? After studying this module, you w...

Philo 01: Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person First Semester A. Y. 2024 - 2025 MODULE 1 DOING PHILOSOPHY I. What will you learn from this module? After studying this module, you will be able to: a) distinguish a holistic perspective from a partial point of view; b)realize the value of doing philosophy in obtaining a broad perspective in life; and c) do a philosophical reflection on a concrete situation from a holistic perspective. II. Lesson Introduction Since you started schooling, you were introduced to different disciplines that study the world and reality in varied perspectives. These disciplines are distinct from each other, however, they compliment other disciplines. Mathematics, for instance, is a discipline that can help us understand some concepts of Physics. In addition to the introduction to varied disciplines, you were also taught to reason out and to make comments on certain topics you talked about in your English literature classes in the past or issues that were raised by your Social Studies teacher. Practically, you were introduced to analytical and critical thinking in crafting your arguments to answer your assignments or periodical tests in the past. In connection to the things raised in the previous paragraph, this course aims to introduce you to another discipline which is an overarching discipline to some other disciplines. In addition to that, this course maximizes your critical and analytical thinking capacity in answering some exercises in this class. Apart from the first two intentions latterly mentioned, this course aims to provide learners a new and, hopefully, a holistic perspective in looking at man’s existence, his relationships, his socio-political responsibilities, and to understand life towards an inevitable end. Welcome to PHILO01: The Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person. This first module intends to provide an overview by answering these questions: What is Philosophy? What are the two traditions of philosophical inquiry and how are they different? How important is philosophy to man’s life? Apparently, philosophizing is an activity which is new but not new to you since you do it every day. Success in this course relies not only on how many names of philosophers and concepts you memorized but on how you maximize thinking and applying concepts to different topics and issues that will be raised in the activities. 1 III. Let’s Check What You Already Know The folktale of "The Blind Men and Elephant" teaches intercultural awareness by illustrating how different perspectives lead to distinct points of view. ACTIVITY: Take a close look at the illustration above and analyze how it could be related to philosophy. Answer the following questions briefly. Follow the numbered format for your answers. The entire activity above is an example of philosophizing or doing philosophy. Before digging into more philosophizing activities, it is important to know what we mean with the word Philosophy. IV. Let’s Explore A. Introduction 1. To introduce philosophy by means of asking the question: what is philosophy? It acknowledges how difficult it is to provide a definite answer to the said question above, but at least the question is being presented. The cat is already out of the bag, or the elephant is now being discussed in the room so to speak. Clearly, there is a problem or a crisis in defining what philosophy is. To give us an overview of the discipline, watch and listen to this crash course given by Hank Green about Philosophy. 2 Green, Hank. [CrashCourse]. (2016, Feb. 9). What is Philosophy?: Crash Course Philosophy #1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A_CAkYt3GY. 2. There is a need to clarify the term “philosophy”. As recorded in “The Lives of Philosophers” by the Greek historian Diogenes Laertius, philosophy was first used (coined) by Pythagoras to mean literally “love of wisdom” because etymologically philosophy comes from two Attic Greek words “philia” (love) and “sophia” (wisdom). 3. Green asserts that Philosophy is the academic of anything. (Green, 2016) To be clarified, philosophy is an encompassing discipline dealing with things in the universe. It is concerned with the most fundamental questions of everything: what’s the nature of reality? What is reality? Even the question “Who am I?” is philosophical. Fundamental means basic, primary, first, principal. In that sense, philosophy aims to ask and answer the fundamental question of things to arrive at the truth. 4. Philosophy is (immediately) a performance, and, thus, the title “Doing Philosophy”. This makes its practitioner – the one who does philosophy – a ‘philosopher’. The philosopher does not claim to be wise, but a lover of wisdom, who is, first of all, a human being. Philosophy as performance is certainly a “way of life”. (Not in the textbook: Immanuel Kant said, “Science is organized knowledge; wisdom is organized life.” 5. Philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. (FSU, n.d.) In this regard, philosophy can be considered as an art. It is a skill. In the video, Green emphasizes the use of logic in this discipline. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to life’s most basic questions. To make such a pursuit more systematic academic philosophy is traditionally divided into major areas of study. 6. Philosophy is different from other sciences (empirical science in that matter). However, philosophy aids other sciences by providing them with the fundamental ideas to which major scientific discoveries, principles are anchored. To name a few, there was already a theory of evolution even before Darwin when Thales asserted that the universe originated from moisture and argued that the first organisms thrived in water before they adapted in other environments. In addition, philosophy and science are also similar as a body of knowledge based on the world but differ in approach in coming up with this knowledge. 3 _____________________________________________________________________________ QUESTION TO PONDER: 1. What is the aim of “Doing Philosophy”? ____________________________________________________________________________ B. Different Kinds of Knowledge 7. Wisdom (sophia) is a different kind of knowledge distinguishable from opinion (doxa), technical knowledge (techne), and scientific knowledge (episteme). - Opinion (doxa) is the lowest kind of knowledge that lacks any proof or grounding or proper justification. 8. Technical knowledge (techne) is the knowledge of the means-end of objects. This is the kind of knowledge of how things are made or done. This is the knowledge inherent in skills to produce something. - Scientific knowledge (episteme) is the kind of knowledge that has grounded or justified assertions. This is the knowledge of the principles that govern things. This is the knowledge that finds the different scientific domains ranging from physics to geology, psychology to economics, etc. 9. Wisdom (sophia) is the highest of all knowledge as it is the “most finished of the forms of knowledge” (Aristotle). It is the knowledge of first principles. 9.1. Wisdom is the knowledge and encounter of the Nothing. 9.2. Wisdom is a kind of knowledge that thinks about itself as its object of thought or self-knowledge. ______________________________________________________________________________ QUESTIONS TO PONDER: 1. What makes wisdom the highest of all these forms of knowledge? 2. Why is wisdom the knowledge and encounter of the Nothing? ______________________________________________________________________________ C. Holistic and Partial Perspective 10. Before going further, there are two methods that need to be considered in doing philosophy. Firstly, try to understand. Agreeing to every idea presented in this course is not necessary. Trying to understand means questioning the idea of what it is rather than simply accepting them. Secondly, do a critical evaluation on the understanding of the presented idea. It is by challenging one’s own and other people’s understanding of the world that one can properly decide on the view worth having. (Green, 2016) Having said that, let’s go back to the activity. Would it be sufficient to say that it is the object after pointing out some qualities viewed from your side? What if someone views the object from another angle and points out some qualities that you have never mentioned, would it be sufficient that you are viewing different objects? 4 11. Another example is that you are interested and are planning to buy the book Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, however, you have heard from friends and have read some reviews that the book is too vulgar and doesn’t have good content. Will you still buy the book? What makes a good book? Most of you, if not all, heard of the quote, “Don’t judge the book by its cover.” What makes a good book is not simply based on how attractive the cover looks. Sometimes the book with a boring cover is the most interesting and the best to read. Going back to the question, what makes a good book? How will you challenge other people’s opinion with regard to the book? The best way to challenge the pre-existing reviews about it is to read the book yourself and do your own review of the book’s content. 12. In answering questions, reasoning doesn’t leap into something critical in an instance. It would start from a basic assumption before it develops into a comprehensive analysis on the matter of the question. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and philosopher, asserts that knowledge would start from a naïve understanding of reality, then develops into a critical knowledge of things. (Diaz, n.d.) In this regard, we shall now, distinguish the difference between a naïve understanding or more commonly known as partial perspective and critical understanding or also known as holistic perspective. Holistic perspective – It is an analytical and critical reflection and assumption reality which maximizes information and/or established relevant facts, values and beliefs in order to look at reality’s bigger picture. Partial perspective – It is a naïve opinion or assumption reality that is based on mere observations, or sense experiences. 13. For instance, if someone is asked, “What is love?” Most likely, the person would answer by describing love based on his own experience. Since that person is head over heels to his/her partner, perhaps his/her answer would be, “Love is that intense and deep affection which sticks to someone like a bubblegum, and it makes the person crazy in removing it.” However, that experience may or may not be someone else’s experience. Some would argue that love is pain or love is a mystery. Those answers, therefore, are partial perspectives of love. Those answers coming from individual experiences are not incorrect. They are parts of a holistic viewpoint about love. Going back to the question “what is love?”, the core of the question is not on the matter of love experiences but on the nature of the phenomenon itself. In an attempt to answer the question in a more wholesome view, Max Scheler asserted that love is an irreducible phenomenon that cannot be identified with striving, desiring, longing. Love is primarily a spiritual act that is a movement. Love is that movement wherein every concrete individual object that possesses value achieves the highest value compatible with its nature and ideal vocation; or wherein it attains 5  the ideal state of value intrinsic to its nature. (Nota, 2013) In this regard, those individual assertions on love describe and elaborate Scheler’s notion of love. ______________________________________________________________________________ QUESTIONS TO PONDER: 1. How related is partial perspective to holistic perspective? 2. Can one immediately have a holistic perspective on things? Why or why not? ______________________________________________________________________________ D. Branches of Philosophy 14. Philosophy is divided into three major divisions: Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Value Theory. The table below shows the difference of the three divisions including the subdivisions of Value Theory.is not worth living. Branch of Philosophy Definition Metaphysics It is the study of the nature of reality or beings as such which includes what exists in the world, what it is like, and how it is ordered. Sample concepts include: time, motion, change, being, essence, nature, operation, quality, transcendence, etc. Epistemology It is the study of the scope and nature of knowledge. It is primarily concerned with what we can know about the world and how can we know it and how do we know it. Sample concepts include: truth, validity, certitude/certainty, knowing process, idea, mind, etc. Value Theory This frames the way man thinks how he does things. Ethics It studies and evaluates human conduct. It often concerns what we ought to do and what it would be best to do. In struggling with this issue, larger questions about what is good and right arise. Sample concepts include: moral, rightness, human acts, freedom, responsibility, conscience, etc. Aesthetics It is the study of the nature of beauty and of art. Sample concepts include: symmetry, balance, harmony, measure, etc. 15. Some books claim that Logic is a branch of philosophy. However, Aristotle, the philosopher who made Logic, asserted that Logic is not philosophy but a tool of philosophy. It is about proper reasoning, giving strong arguments guided by some rules and guidelines in a categorical and hypothetical argument. 6 ______________________________________________________________________________ QUESTIONS TO PONDER: 1. How is Metaphysics related to Epistemology? 2. What differentiates Ethics from Aesthetics? 3. Why is Logic not considered as a Philosophy by other thinkers and authors? _____________________________________________________________________________ V. Resources Green, Hank. [CrashCourse]. (2016, Feb. 9). What is Philosophy?: Crash Course Philosophy #1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A_CAkYt3GY. Calano, PhD, M. J. T., Pasco, PhD Cand., M. O. D., & Ramoya, PhD Cand., M. C. B. (2017). Philosophizing and Being Human: A textbook for Senior High School. Sibs Publishing House, Inc. Stumpf, Samuel Enoch & Fieser J (2008). Socrates to Sartre and Beyond: A History of Philosophy. Mc Graw Hill, Inc 7