Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person PDF

Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person  Motivation! Spell the words using your body Philosophy Philosophy Greek words: Philein or Philia which means “to love” and Sophia which means “wisdom”. Philosophy Philosophy originally meant “love...

Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person  Motivation! Spell the words using your body Philosophy Philosophy Greek words: Philein or Philia which means “to love” and Sophia which means “wisdom”. Philosophy Philosophy originally meant “love of wisdom”. Philosophy  The formal definition of philosophy includes “the science that by the natural light of reason studies the first causes or highest principles of Philosophy Science. It is an organized body of knowledge. It is systematic. It follows certain steps or Philosophy Natural Light of Reason. It uses a philosopher’s natural capacity to think or human reason or the Philosophy  Study of All Things. A philosopher does not limit himself to a particular object of inquiry. Philosophy is Philosophy  First Cause or Highest Principle o Principle of Identity o Principle of Non- Contradiction o Principle of Excluded Principle of identity Whatever is is; whatever is not is not. Everything is its own being, and not being is not being. Principle of identity Example: Mario is a boy. If he is a boy, he is not a girl. He cannot be a girl. His nature tells him that Prin. of It is impossible contradiction for a thing to be and not to be at the same time. Prin. of  Example: If an animal is contradiction a cat, the same animal cannot be not a cat, whether it is Persian, Siamese or Himalayan. They are all cats. Prin. of excluded  A thing middle is either is or is not; between being and not-being, there is no middle ground possible. Prin. of excluded  Example: middle There is no such thing as a half-man and half-horse. A centaur or tikbalang is just a legendary creature. It has no reference in real Prin. of sufficient  Nothing reason exists without sufficient reason for its being and existence. Prin. of sufficient  Example: reason Nothing happens without a reason. Branches of material Philosophyobject - all things unravels the truth and studies everything under the Branches of  nature of the universe, the Philosophy standard of justice, the validity of knowledge, the correct application of reason, and the criteria of beauty have been the domain of philosophy from its Branches of Metaphysics Philosophy Ethics Epistemology Logic Aesthetics Metaphysics studies reality, existence, the nature of being, the physical world, and the universe Metaphysics  pursues to answer difficult questions like: What is the nature of reality? How did mankind come to be? How can we prove the existence of something? Can Metaphysics The task of a metaphysician is to explain that part of our experience which we call unreal in terms of Metaphysics  Thales - (proponents)For him, everything we experience is water (“reality”) and everything else is “appearance.” We try to explain everything else (appearance) in terms Metaphysics  Plato - Something is considered (proponents) real in the physical world if it can be experienced using the five senses. For Plato, reality is unchanging, eternal, immaterial, and can be detected only by the intellect. Metaphysics  Idealist and Materialist (proponents) Philosophers - Their theories are based on unobservable and observable entities: Ethics It is also known as moral philosophy, and often referred to as the study of morality. Ethics  It is the study of the rightness or wrongness of human action and how it can affect other people in the society (norms of morality). Ethics  It pursues to address questions about how we define proper conduct, how we should live our lives, and what we mean by the good life. Ethics It insists that obedience to moral law be given a rational foundation. Ethics  It concerns itself with questions like: What is the good life? How should we act? What do we mean by virtue? What does “right” even mean? Ethics (proponents) Socrates: True knowledge = Wisdom = Virtue; For Socrates, to be happy is to live a virtuous Ethics (proponents)  Socrates: The seeds of good deeds lay dormant in the mind and heart of a person that can be awakened by virtue which can be achieved through self-knowledge. For example, courage as virtue is Ethics (proponents) William Edward Burghardt Du Bois: He is an African- American who wanted equal rights Ethics (proponents)  William Edward Burghardt Du Bois: His social philosophy, “Negro Problem”, answers the question by defining a social problem as “the failure of an organized social group to realize its group ideals, through the inability to adapt a certain Epistemology It is often referred to as the theory of knowledge. It deals with nature, sources, limitations Epistemology  It attempts to explain: (1) how we know what we claim to know; (2) how we can find out what we wish to know; and (3) how we can differentiate truth from Epistemology  It addresses varied problems like the reliability, extent and kinds of knowledge; truth; language; and Epistemology Pragmatism (Gk. pragma- ‘deed’) means that the meaning and truth of an idea are tested by Epistemology Sources of knowledge o Induction o Deduction Induction It gives importance to particular things seen, heard and touched. Induction It forms general ideas through the examination of particular facts. Induction Empiricist Philosophers are the advocates of induction method. Induction Empiricism is the view that knowledge can be attained only through sense experience. Deduction It gives importance to general law from which particular facts are understood or judged. Deduction Rationalist Philosophers are advocates of deduction method. Deduction For a rationalist, real knowledge is based on the logic, the laws, and the methods that reason develops. Logic It is the branch of philosophy that studies reasoning. Logic It teaches us how to differentiate between good and bad reasoning and how to construct valid Logic  Etymologically, it came from the Greek word logike, coined by Zeno the Stoic (c.340–265 BCE), which means a treatise on matters pertaining to the Logic (proponents) Aristotle - He is the first philosopher to devise a logical method. Logic (proponents) Aristotle - For him, truth means the agreement of knowledge with reality. Logic (proponents) Aristotle - Logical reasoning makes us certain that our conclusions are true. Logic (proponents) Zeno of Citium - one of the successors of Aristotle and founder of Stoicism. Aesthetics It is the science of the beautiful in its various manifestations including the sublime, comic, tragic, Aesthetics  It includes how we define art, how we feel when viewing art or witnessing beauty, how we judge works of art, and how we form our taste. Aesthetics Aesthetics is important because of the ff: (1) It vitalizes our knowledge. It makes our knowledge of the Aesthetics  Aesthetics is important because of the ff: (2) It helps us to live more deeply and richly. A work of art helps us to rise from purely physical existence into the Aesthetics  Aesthetics is important because of the ff: (3) It brings us in touch with our culture. The answers of great minds in the past to the great problems of Aesthetics  This concerns itself with the questions that include: What is art? Is art an expression of feelings? Can it be a “vehicle of truth”? Is “good taste” innate or learned? Is art and morality connected? Aesthetics  Hans-Georg Gadamer – (proponents) He argues that our tastes and judgments regarding beauty work in connection with one’s own personal experience Aesthetics  Hans-Georg (proponents) Gadamer - Our culture consists of the values and beliefs of our time and our society. Aesthetics  Immanuel Kant - He argues (proponents) that it is our faculty of judgment that enables us to have experience of beauty and to grasp those experiences as part of an ordered, natural world with  Are there any questions?  Activity 1 1.It means love of wisdom. 2.It is the study of morality.  Activity 1 3.It is the study of reasoning. 4.It is the theory of knowledge.  Activity 1 5.It is the science of the beautiful in its various manifestations.  Activity 1 6.It is the study of reality, existence, the nature of being, the physical world, and the universe.  Activity 1 7-10. Give an example for each of the four highest principles.  Activity 2 Look at the famous artwork ‘The Persistence of Memory’ by Salvador Dali. Try to stare at the picture for few moments. Write down how the picture can be interpreted using the Activity 2