Doing Philosophy

• "Philosophy" comes from Greek words: Philo = "to love", Sophia = "wisdom"
• Philosophy

  • Defined as the science that studies the first causes or highest principles of all things
  • Uses natural light of reason
  • Studies reality and existence
• Branches of Philosophy:

  • Metaphysics: study of reality and existence
  • Ethics: explores moral virtue and human action
  • Epistemology: nature, sources, limitations, and validity of knowledge
  • Logic: rulebook for good reasoning and clear thinking
  • Aesthetics: study of art and beauty
• Metaphysics:

  • Big questions like our place in the universe, consciousness, free will, and existence of God
• Ethics:

  • Explores moral virtue and evaluates human action
  • Questions on ethical permissibility and moral acceptability
• Epistemology:

  • Addresses knowledge, truth, language, and scientific knowledge
  • Sources of knowledge: induction, deduction, pragmatism
• Logic:

  • Concerned with reasoning and clear thinking
  • Premises and conclusions in arguments
  • Deductive and inductive reasoning
• Aesthetics:

  • Study of art and beauty
  • Questions on universal standards of beauty and emotional reactions in viewers
• Principle of Identity

  • each thing is identical with itself
• Principle of Non-contradiction

  • contradictory propositions cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time
  • a statement cannot be both true simultaneously
• Principle of Excluded Middle

  • states that for every proposition, either this proposition or its negation is true. 
• Principle of Sufficient Reason

  • states that everything must have a reason or a cause
• Socrates

  • teacher of Plato, founder of western Philosophy
• Plato

  • teacher of Aristotle, founded the academy
• Aristotle

  • founder of political science
  • said that man is a rational animal
• Thales

  • experience are reality and other are appearance
  • who is often considered the first Greek philosopher, proposed that everything was made of water
• Heraclitus

  • claimed that everything was in a state of flux or perpetual movement, and that everything would start and end with fire.
• Deductive arguments

  • are often said to start from the general and end with the specific.
  • logical approach where you progress from general ideas to specific conclusions
• Inductive arguments

  • are characterized more by their predictive power. That is, they don’t deal with certainties but with probabilities and likelihood. Perhaps it’s best to give an example first before explaining
  • a method of drawing conclusions by going to the specific to the general
• Science

  • Organized body of knowledges systematic it follows certain steps or employs procedures.
• Natural Light of Reason

  • uses a philosopher’s NATURAL capacity to think or human reason or so-called unaided reason
• Study of all Things

  • It makes philosophy distinct from other sciences because it is not one dimensional or partial.
  • A philosopher does not limit himself to a particular object of inquiry.
  • Multidimensional or holistic
• Pragmatism

  • the meaning and truth of an ideo are tested by its practical consequences.
• Premise

  • is a statement or proposition that serves as evidence or support for a conclusion
• conclusion

  • is the statement or proposition that is inferred from the premises in an argument