Introduction to PHILOSOPHY:
proven, once it does
The Value of Philosophy and The Philosophical
Enterprise
I. The Value of Philosophy
Philosophy
1. Filosofie
2. Philosophia
3. Philo love
4. Sophia knowledge
People think that Philosophy is nothing
special due to the fact that it does not
do anything or produce anything
lucrative
ROOT OF NOTION OF USELESSNESS:
1. Wrong idea of what the
goal of life is
2. Wrong idea of what
kind of goods
Philosophy wants
Material
Mental <- this
is want Philo
wants
It aim for a knowledge which unifies
and systematizes the body of sciences
1. Essentially only
Philosophy can prove
that the sciences are
useful
The value of Philosophy must not be
equated to uselessness because our
notion of useful is from the utility of
the natural sciences
THE UTILITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES
1. Anyone can benefit
from the natural
sciences
2. Philosophy offers no
definitive answers or
answers that can be
how definitive answers;
it ceases to be
Philosophy and
becomes a discipline on
its own
WEAKNESS OF PHILOSOPHY:
Uselessness and Uncertainty since we
as people thrive on the notion of
certainty and security which is both
valuable and detrimental
THE VALUE/UTILITY OF PHILOSOPHY
1. Widens our
considerations of
possibilities while
searching for the
answer, shows familiar
things in unfamiliar
light
2. Removes the duality of
everything (black vs.
white) since it reduces
one from another to
just an extension of
ones self (a.k.a it stops
us from being
antagonistic selfish
bastardos)
THERE IS NO OTHER, NO
ONE IS OTHERED,
EVERYONE/THING IS A
POSSIBILITY
Philosophy is studied for the sake of
the questions themselves
Question and liberation from mere
absorbance/acceptance of a fact
if we do not question,
do we really believe in
what we believe in?
 THINGS WE CANNOT SEPARATE b. Scala Naturae a great chain of
1. The act of Philosophizing being
2. The discipline of Philosophy c. We are essentially trying to find
3. The Implications to a personal our place in this chain of being
endeavor thus giving us 2 demands
Philosophy is useless unless you have i. Cognitive - we must
done it know what things are
As long as you are living you ARE NOT to make us sufficient
DONE PHILOSOPHIZING for them
ii. Moral a desire to
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY: respond adequately to
these desires e.g polis
Modernity as the Transformations of Truth into
in the politics of nature
Meaning by Aldo Tassi
classical philosophy thus attempts to
- article talks about the history of Philosophy find his nature in the overall grand
scheme of the universe.
I. Classical Period (Ancient + Medieval Times)
In essence, man is nothing but part of
Characterized by: the scala naturae thus he is not the
1. Shift from myth to logic (mythos to measure of all things
logos) from cosmonogy to cosmology The measure is everything else
2. Recognition of Wisdom (Sophia) or surrounding him
recognizing the limitations of
II. Modern Period (16th 20th Century)
knowledge in different forms (below are
the 5 main branches of Philosophy) Characterized by:
a. Ontology theory of being 1. Things such as:
b. Epistemology theory of I. Free market
knowledge II. Secular culture
c. Axiology/Moral Philosophy III. Liberal democracy
theory of right behavior (ethics) IV. Individualism
d. Logic theory of correct V. Humanism
intereference VI. Rationalism
e. Aesthetics theory of beauty 2. Shift from concern to the nature
3. Concern for the nature of Things of things to a more
a. Aristotles four causes anthropocentric view i.e reality
i. Formal Cause (idea) in the face of human projects
ii. Final Cause (what it will I. Bases of Scientific
end up as) Inquiry:
iii. Efficient Cause (the act) Francis Bacon
iv. Material Cause (what it Putting nature
will be made of) on the rack
 We only see world depends
nature as on man himself
nothing with Everything else
intrinsic value, in reference to
it is merely an man
object intended (anthropocentri
for humans c)
use. David Hume
II. Political Theories and Immanuel
Niccolo Kant
Machiavelli It is because of
instead of the way we are
working with and no the way
whatever things are, that
nature had for it is possible for
man, us to have the
Machiavelli knowledge we
wanted to have
tame/ give 3. Worked upon by the two
order to this demands:
human nature I. Cognitive Demands
Thomas Hobbes We introduce
and John Locke the conditions
true nature that make us
can never be act in reality
truly be II. Moral Demands
explained by us Act in such a
because we are way that
only explaining adheres and
what came makes sense of
originally from the realities
us that we set
III. Philosophical Theories Essentially Modern Philosophy focused
Man now on the concern for meaning and where
determines the and what is our relationship to the
place of world.
everything else How are we to guarantee the coherence
the of the terms which we set down for our
knowledge of encounter with reality?
man in the WAYS OF DOING MODERN PHILOSOPHY
1. British Empiricism
 I. Locke and Hobbes o The vehicle for peristence and
II. Knowledge is based on surivial of bodily death is the
your perception of the SOUL which is immaterial and
does not need to be sustained
world and experiences
o The idea of immortality,
2. Process Philosophy however, is not clear but may
I. come from the fact that both
3. American Pragmatism he and socrates viewed the
4. Analytical Philosophy physical body as a cage for
5. Phenomenology reaching our full potential in
6. Existentialism understanding reality.
o Anti-phenomenological?
7. Language Philosophy
o Plato claimed that
8. Hermeneutics
knowledge gained through
the senses is no more
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
than opinion and that, in
PERSONAL IDENTITY FROM PLATO TO PARFIT BY order to have real
MARTIN knowledge, we must gain
What accounts for the fact that we are it through philosophical
the same person overtime reasoning.
o What is the underlying
substance?
Thesis: Identity is what matters most in Lucretius
survival o Opposes the fact that we
continue to persist even after
I. Classical View bodily death
o This is due to the fact that we
- There was a problem of death or rather did we
are union of the body and the
persist even after we die or is the death of the
soul
body the ultimate end?
o And since our identity is
Plato composed of both of the body
o Phaedo and the soul, if we die we lose a
o According to Socrates: WE part of the identity which is
SURVIVE OUR BODILY DEATHS the body. So essentially you are
o In contrast to popular belief the
not the same and that part of
vehicle/medium for survival
you that persist is not you
isnt something material or
extended (because what tend to this
o If it was something union is the body)
material/extended then it o The difference between
would have had to be sustained Lucretius and Plato is only over
by something else to go on thus what identity consists in
making us dependent also on
(Stanford).
that thing (and infinity times
over)
 Why id an underlying vehicle is makes the person also
necessary for the persistence of ones you
mental disposition? 3. It is contradictory
1. Theory: must be immaterial so because if you commit
that it will need sustenance a crime and cannot
2. Theory: it just exists like that remember it but
remember a time
II. Modern View where you could
A. THE MEMORY VIEW remember doing both
people are you.
John Locke 4. Fission Examples
1. Father of Modern Personal - I n which a
Identity Theory unified person
2. It is retaining the same is divided into
consciousness that makes us two or more
who we are overtime parts
(regardless of the soul or not) - Essentially they
3. Same consciousness meant a will not be the
part is memory same person
4. Personal identity therefore because they
depends on the presence of a will go on to
psychological relationship experience
which binds the early and later different things
stages of a person. which will be
5. PROBLEMS OF THE MEMORY impact them
VIEW: differently
1. If the person did not (SClarke)
remember doing such Anthony Collins supporter of lock
an act, was he the same Samuel Clarke attacked Locke
person who did it? Joseph Priestly questioned the
(essentially if u dont importance of personal identity in
remember then u did survival, resurrected selves are not
not do it) identical to anyone who has once lived
2. The view itself is before
circular because If you William Hazlitt
remember doing
something that makes B. PERSONS ARE FICTION
the past person you,
David Hume
and the fact that you
o There is no you that persist
remember
from birth to death but you are
remembering that
only an illusion.
 o What we know is the self is a
bundle of expressions that
consists of different factors
such as emotion, memories,
etc.
o Aforementioned factors are
inside a box, but the thing is
THE BOX DOESNT EXIST
o We mistake our bundles of
perception as perceiver but
there is no perceiver since we
cannot separate ourselves from
the perception
C. EXTRINSIC RELATIONS VIEW
What determines what a person
depends on how he is related to
everything else
EMBODIMENT
My Body by Calasanz
Main Thesis: I am my body, but my humanity
cannot be simply reduced to my body.
Essentially talks about the paradox of
embodiment.
Tries to figure out what essentially is
the relationship of the personal identity
to the body it is in.
I. Classical Views
Plato
o the body is the essence of
humanity
o the soul is a charioteer of two
winged horses (one is virtue of
goodness the other is the body
falling to humanly pleasures)
o The true nature of man lies
imprisoned by the body
o One who is enlightened must
strive to escape his body
Aristotle
o Man is the union of the body
and the soul
o There is no body that is not
informed by soul and there is
no soul that is not the form of
body.
o There is no way a soul can
express itself without a body.
St. Augustine
o Soul is more important if the
body can be divided into soul
and body.
o A soul, however, is not a soul if
it is not the soul of the body.
o Man can only exist as a unity of
the soul and the body
St. Thomas Aquinas
o The very essence of the soul
inherently needs to be one with
the body.
Rene Descartes
o First Meditation is where he
explains the methodic doubt:
we should doubt all things we
know because they come from
our senses
o Second Meditation, there is
only one truth that cannot be
denied; I think,therefore,I am.
o Last meditation, the REAL
ESSENCE of man is different
from his body
The body is an
extended being that
does not think.
o RELATIONSHIP IS NOT LIKE A
CAPTAIN AND SHIP because
 there is a level of involvedness
in a body and the I
o Believes that the unity of the
body and soul is not a
philosophical truth
Soul moves the body,
and the body acts on
the soul
Gabriel Marcel
o Criticized the philosophy of
Descartes
o The embodiment of man is the
starting point of any
philosophical reflection.
o Descartes is on the level of
primary reflection (objective):
there is an othering between
the person and the body thus
making it into a body which is
not part of the person.
o Secondary reflection(
subjective): there is a
recognition that the one
analyzing is part of the one
being analyzed. What exists is
not a body but my body.
It does not make sense to separate the I
to the body because it alienates the
body as an abstract concept.
o There is no separate life
between the body and the I
o History and location are
inseparable
o You are implying that your body
is an instrument which says that
you would need another thing
to sustain it which is clearly
against our experience.
If the body of a person is treated as a
possession, their mine-ness over their
body loses its meaning.
o I AM MY BODY
o NON INSTRUMENTAL
COMMUNION
SYMPATHETC MEDIATION - feeling
that makes known my body
II. The Life of Embodied Spirit
The body as an intermediary
o The body may serve as both a
bridge and an obstacle.
o Through the body we
experience the world and the
world experiences us.
o Through the body I experience
that I am not part of the world
and not merely a thing among
other things.
The body in intersubjectivity
o The body may also serve as an
intermediary between you and
other people.
o Interrelate through vision,
actions, attitude, etc.
o Every part and action of my
body says something of myself
and the world.
EMBODIMENT IF NOT JUST AN
ADDITIONAL OR AN EXTERNAL
APPEARANCE; IT IS THE GESTURE AND
APPEARANCE OF WHAT I TRULY FEEL
INSIDE.
o The body cannot fully state all
of my subjectivity
o The body can show myself but
can also be used as a mask
The Value of My Body
o It has a unique value and
dignity
o Directs the person not only to
others but to God
o 1 Corinthians 6: 15 18