Philosophy Finals

• Logic


  The study of reasoning, the tool that philosophy uses to study and evaluate philosophical truths, includes the use of good thinking skills and avoiding logical fallacies, deals with the question of how our ideas about the world outside of ourselves are correct
• Kinds of Logic


  • Deductive Logic
  • Inductive Logic
• Deductive Logic


  • Moves from the general to the particular, A deductive syllogism has a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion that follows from those two premises
• Deductive Logic Example


  • Major Premise: All men are mortal
  • Minor Premise: Socrates is a man
  • Conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is mortal
• Inductive Logic


  • Proceeds from the particular to the general
• Mathematics is usually based on deductive logic, Physical science is usually based on inductive logic
• Two Kinds of Statements (help determine how something can be true)


  • Analytical statement
  • Synthetic statement
• Analytical statement


  A statement where the predicate is contained in the subject
• Analytical statements

  • A triangle has three angles
  • Water is wet
• Synthetic statement


  A statement where the predicate adds something to the subject
• Synthetic statements

  • A bachelor is an unmarried man
  • Tuesday was a rainy day
• Two Kinds of Statements (deal with why something should be true)

  • A priori statement
  • A posteriori statement
• A priori statement


  A statement that is not dependent on experience, you can claim something to be true even before experiencing it
• A posteriori statement


  A statement that is dependent on experience, you can claim something to be true only after experiencing it
• Aesthetics


  Deals with the study of art and beauty, including what is beauty, what is art, the relationship between beauty and art, and whether beauty is in the eye of the beholder or has objective standards
• Westerners tend to think in a dualistic manner, separating the object one beholds and the beholder, while the Filipino/Asian way of thinking is more holistic and intuitive where the beholder and the object are connected
• Art touches the whole person, not just the intellect but also the imagination, the body and the soul
• Plato believed that studying music helps create the harmony of the soul and that social/political revolutions are usually preceded by musical revolutions
• Dialectical Method


  The art of asking questions, philosophy is shaped by the questions we ask, the ultimate questions about who we are, why we are here, our origin and destiny, the task of philosophy is to recover these questions about our humanity
• The word 'education' comes from a Greek word meaning 'drawing out' not 'stuffing in'
• Rational Method


  A philosopher uses reason alone to understand and analyze reality, unlike theology which also uses divine revelation
• Speculative Method


  Theoretical/speculative knowledge sought for its own sake, not just for practical application, philosophy can give criteria for analyzing why a job is good or bad
• Analytic Method


  The philosopher's main concern is to clarify the meaning of language and concepts, many ancient cultures believed in the divine origin and sanctity of words and language
• Rizal believed that native language represents the identity of a nation and shapes the way we think, he opposed imposing Spanish as the national language in the Philippines
• Simoun: 'Spanish will never be the national language because the people will never speak it. That tongue cannot express their ideas and their emotions. Each people has its own way of speaking just as it has its own way of feeling. Nine out of ten among you who presume to be educated are renegades to your own country. Whoever among you speaks Spanish is so indifferent on his own language that he can neither Write nor understand it. How many have l seen who pretend not to know a single word of their native tongue!'
• While Russia compels the Pole to study Russian in order to enslave them, while Germany prohibits the use of French in the provinces she has conquered from France


  Your government fights to keep alive your native languages, while you, on the other hand, an extraordinary people under an incredible government, struggle to get rid of your national identity
• As long as a people keeps its own language, it keeps a pledge of liberty, just as a man is free as long as he can think for himself. Language is a people's way of thinking
• Verbicide


  The murder of words
• Overuse, misuse, or abuse of words

  • The word "awesome" is applied to almost anything these days
  • The word "exciting" is used for everything
• The pollution of words are as bad as or worse than the pollution of rivers
• Prescriptive method


  Establishing standards by which we judge concepts and criteria and evaluate conduct
• Prescriptive method


  • Usually used by ethical and religious philosophers
• Historical method


  Tracing the concepts and values of a given period by studying the great philosophers of the past
• "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
• "Those who look only at the past are blind in one eye, but those who never look at the past are blind in both eyes"
• "Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan" ("Those who do not look at their past will never reach their desired destination")
• Synthetic method


  Synthesizing the thoughts or concepts of different philosophers
• Science makes concrete things abstract, while art makes abstract things concrete. Philosophy does both
• Science analyzes while art synthesizes. Philosophy also does both
• Philosophers can have the soul of a scientist and the soul of an artist