Doing Philosophy - Quarter 1, Lesson 1 PDF

DOING PHILOSOPHY Quarter 1, Lesson 1  Part 1 – The Nature and Functions of Philosophy Part 2 – Philosophical Tools and Processes Part 3 – Philosophical Reflection  After going through this lesson, you are expected to accomplish the following Most...

DOING PHILOSOPHY Quarter 1, Lesson 1  Part 1 – The Nature and Functions of Philosophy Part 2 – Philosophical Tools and Processes Part 3 – Philosophical Reflection  After going through this lesson, you are expected to accomplish the following Most Essential Learning Competencies: 1. Distinguish a holistic perspective from a partial point of view. 2. Realize the value of doing philosophy in obtaining a broad perspective on life. 3. Do a philosophical reflection on a concrete situation from a holistic perspective.  Lesson 1: What is Philosophy? More than 2500 years ago a sage in South Asia named Gautama Buddha declared that “Life is suffering.” This is the first of his Four Noble Truths. And indeed if you look at your life you will see that it is a series of challenges that you have to overcome if you want to survive. It feels like you are competing in a race in which you are required to successfully jump hurdles in order to win. And each challenge in life is really a question or a bunch of questions that you have to answer. If you are not feeling well for example you might ask, Why am I feeling this way (cause)? How can I overcome it (process)? How it will affect my life and the people around me (consequence)? Philosophy, our subject matter for this course, is really all about questions and answers. And since by now you already asked and answered hundreds of questions your life experienced already prepared you to take our philosophical journey starting now. Picture Analysis. Direction: Look at the picture below and answer the following questions 1. What do you notice from the picture? 2. Did anyone get the correct answer? Why or why not? 3. What does this picture imply about our effort to understand the realities of life or answer our perennial problems?  I. The Nature and Functions of Philosophy DEFINITION OF PHILOSOPHY Traditionally philosophy is defined as love of wisdom because it came from two Greek words philos (love) and Sophia (wisdom). You might find it strange to connect love to philosophy. You might think of philosophy as a purely intellectual discipline which has nothing to do with love. You might believe love is romance, poetry, intense passion in which you are willing to lay down your life. But you will see that philosophy can also be pursued passionately. In fact some people like Socrates died for truth. It is this centrality of love to philosophy that we call people who engages in philosophy as philosophers (lovers of wisdom).  I. The Nature and Functions of Philosophy ORIGIN OF PHILOSOPHY Greece is the birthplace of philosophy in the West. To be more precise it is the ancient Greek city of Miletus in the Western coast of what is now Turkey that gave birth to philosophy. It is in this city that the first philosopher in the West, Thales, lived. Thales is the Father of Philosophy in the Western civilization. He lived between 624 and 546 BCE a contemporary of the Lydian king Croesus and the statesman Solon (Stumpf and Fieser,2008). What made Thales a philosopher is his desire to know the ultimate stuff that makes up the different things we perceived. You see when we look at the world we encounter different things: people, trees, clouds, mountains, rivers, etc. Now Thales believed that despite the different things we encounter there is one underlying stuff or substance in which everything is composed. He believes that there is One in the Many. Thales was the first individual who tried to reduce the multiplicity in to a unity (Jones,1969).  I. The Nature and Functions of Philosophy PHILOSOPHICAL ACTIVITY Thales greatest contribution to philosophy the problem he posed “What is the ultimate stuff of the universe?” and his approach in solving that THALES problem. Studying Thales makes us realize that philosophical activity is characterized by three things: First in terms of scope philosophy involves the widest generalizations (Rand, 1982). While scientists concern themselves with scientific knowledge, historians with knowledge of the past, economists with knowledge of supply and demand, philosophers concern themselves with the nature of knowledge as such (which embraces all types of knowledge previously mentioned and more).  I. The Nature and Functions of Philosophy Second philosophy is all about fundamentals. A fundamental is the root cause that explains almost everything in a given context. To understand this imagine that knowledge is like a building with levels. Now the higher level depends on the lower levels (Peikoff, 1991). If somehow the lower level crumbles then all the higher levels that rest upon it will collapse. A fundamental is like the lower floor that supports everything above it. That kind of support is exactly what philosophy provides. Third philosophy is driven by the desire to integrate things in to a one coherent whole. As the celebrated philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said “The true is the Whole (Peikoff, 1991).”  I. The Nature and Functions of Philosophy BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY The study of the universe as a whole is the province of Metaphysics. based on Greek ta meta ta phusika τά μετά τά ϕυσιχά ‘the things after the Physics’, referring to the sequence of Aristotle's works: the title came to denote the branch of study treated in the books, later interpreted as meaning ‘the science of things transcending what is physical or natural’. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of existence, being and the world. Arguably, metaphysics is the foundation of philosophy: Aristotle calls it "first philosophy" (or sometimes just "wisdom"), and says it is the subject that deals with "first causes and the principles of things".  I. The Nature and Functions of Philosophy How do we obtain knowledge? Do we obtain knowledge by revelation, intuition, instinct or reason? Can we achieve certainty or are we doomed to suffer perpetual doubt? Is knowledge based on the things we perceive or from something else? This is the concern of epistemology which can be defined as the “branch of philosophy that studies the nature and means of human knowledge.” The term is derived from the Greek epistēmē (“knowledge”) and logos (“reason”), and accordingly the field is sometimes referred to as the theory of knowledge.We need epistemology to guide us in knowing since we make mistakes from time to time.  Here are some examples to help illustrate epistemological concepts: Knowledge Definition: Traditionally defined as justified true belief. Components: For someone to know a proposition, three criteria must be met: Belief: The person must believe the proposition. Truth: The proposition must be true. Justification: The person must have justification for the belief.  Here are specific examples of skeptical questions: 1.Can we know anything with certainty? 1. What arguments support or refute skepticism? 2. How do we respond to radical skepticism (doubt about all knowledge)? 2.What if our senses deceive us? 1. How reliable are our senses in acquiring knowledge? 2. Can we trust our sensory experiences? 3.How can we know that the external world exists? 1. Is there a way to prove the existence of an external reality beyond our perceptions? 2. What arguments address the problem of external world skepticism?  I. The Nature and Functions of Philosophy Ethics (or Moral Philosophy) is concerned with questions of how people ought to act, and the search for a definition of right conduct (identified as the one causing the greatest good) and the good life (in the sense of a life worth living or a life that is satisfying or happy). The word "ethics" is derived from the Greek "ethos" (meaning "custom" or "habit"). Ethics differs from morals and morality in that ethics denotes the theory of right action and the greater good, while morals indicate their practice. Ethics is not limited to specific acts and defined moral codes, but encompasses the whole of moral ideals and behaviors, a person's philosophy of life (or Weltanschauung). It asks questions like "How should people act?" (Normative or Prescriptive Ethics), "What do people think is right?" (Descriptive Ethics), "How do we take moral knowledge and put it into practice?" (Applied Ethics), and "What does 'right' even mean?" (Meta-Ethics). See below for more discussion of these categories.  I. The Nature and Functions of Philosophy Another branch of philosophy is Logic. Logic (from the Greek "logos", which has a variety of meanings including word, thought, idea, argument, account, reason or principle) is the study of reasoning, or the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration. It attempts to distinguish good reasoning from bad reasoning. Aristotle defined logic as "new and necessary reasoning", "new" because it allows us to learn what we do not know, and "necessary" because its conclusions are inescapable. It asks questions like "What is correct reasoning?", "What distinguishes a good argument from a bad one?", "How can we detect a fallacy in reasoning?"  Part 1 – The Nature and Functions of Philosophy Part 2 – Philosophical Tools and Processes Part 3 – Philosophical Reflection  II. Philosophical Tools and Processes 1. Philosophical Questions Philosophy was born because of ignorance. If one is ignorant, he asks questions and if he keeps on questioning the more knowledge he acquires. The Socratic Method, also known as method of elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate, is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions.  II. Philosophical Tools and Processes 1. Philosophical Questions Dialectics is a term used to describe a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process between opposing sides. As a dialectical method, it is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned arguments.  II. Philosophical Tools and Processes 1. Some philosophical questions and witty ones. What is life? Can vegetables feel pain? How can you tell? Agree or disagree? Things only exist when you are looking at them. What makes something funny? How do you know you are not just in a VR computer game? On an airplane, when sitting in the middle seat, who gets to use the armrests?  II. Philosophical Tools and Processes 1. Some philosophical questions and witty ones. Can you imagine a new color that hasn’t been discovered before? Are you dreaming right now? How do you know? What came first? The chicken or the egg? If time travel is possible, would we have met time travelers already? Are animals conscious? How about insects? Plants?  II. Philosophical Tools and Processes 2. Logical Reasoning. In philosophy reasoning is the process of thinking about something in a logical way in order to form a conclusion or judgement. Institutionalized by the triumvirate Greek philosophers specially Aristotle.  II. Philosophical Tools and Processes 2. Logical Reasoning. One type of logical reasoning is the deductive reasoning: Example: Premise 1: All human beings are mortal Premise Premise 2: But the President of the Philippines is a human being Conclusion: Therefore, the President of the Philippines is mortal.  II. Philosophical Tools and Processes 2. Logical Reasoning. Inductive reasoning begins with a particular to universal argument. Example: Premise: Student A, B, C, D, E, F….. are wearing School ID. Conclusion: Therefore, All students are wearing ID The above examples show the logical process wherein by reasoning one arrives at a certain truth or knowledge.  Written Works (WW) WW # 1: Picture Analysis (Elephant with 6 blindfolded scientists) WW # 2: Assignment (definition of philosophy, branches, questions) WW # 3: 3 Sentence Examples for each of the Laws of Thought WW #4: 5 Witty Philosophical Questions WW#5: 2 examples each for Deductive Reasoning and Inductive Reasoning