I.

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

A. What is philosophy?
"the love of wisdom"
A critical examination of reality characterized by rational inquiry that aims at the Truth for the sake of
attaining wisdom.

B. Branches of Philosophy
1. LOGIC is the science and art of correct inferential thinking and reasoning. It deals with the analysis of
propositions and arguments. It centers on distinguishing correct from incorrect; valid from invalid
arguments. Usually, it is offered as a basic course in most colleges and universities as a tool in studying other
subjects.

2. ETHICS deals with human actions whether good or bad, right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable,
justifiable or unjustifiable. It studies crucial questions on the morality of human conduct and provides basic
principles concerning particular issues.

3. COSMOLOGY is a philosophical study of the universe: its principles and causes. It tackles some basic
questions such as – was the world created or was it already existing? If the world was created and has a
beginning, then, is there an end? When is the end of the world? If the world was created, then who is
responsible for its existence? And so on and so forth.

4. THEODICY is a philosophical study of a Supreme Being or simply called God. It tries to unfold the nature of
a Being that is perfect, omniscient and omnipresent. Certain arguments here are discussed regarding the
existence and nonexistence of a Supreme Being.

5. RATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY deals with the principles underlying human behavior: its nature and faculties, as
distinguished from lower beings particularly the brutes or animals.

6. AESTHETICS deals with the essence of beauty. It also discusses the standard by which beauty may be
categorized and this is most especially seen in valuing and standardizing the beauty seen in all forms of art:
music, painting, dances, songs, sculpture, architectural designs, interior designs, interior designs, poetry,
literature and many more.

7. EPISTEMOLOGY is a science that is most related to the discipline of logic because it deals with the validity
or invalidity of knowledge. Some basic questions that are discussed are- How do we know that we know
things in this world? How do we know that we know? What is knowledge? What is the meaning of certainty?
Can anyone be certain on issues and problems about reality? How can certitude be attained?

8. METAPHYSICS is considered as the most abstract among the branches of philosophy. It studies the first
principles of the nature or essence of things.

C. TEN COMMANDMENTS OF PHILOSOPHY

 1. Allow the spirit of wonder to flourish in your breast. Philosophy begins with deep wonder about the
universe and questions about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. What is life all
about? Speculate and explore different points of view and worldviews. Do not stifle childlike curiosity,

2. Doubt everything unsupported by evidence until the evidence convinces you of its truth. Be reasonably
cautious, a moderate skeptic, suspicious of those who claim to have the truth. Doubt is the soul’s purgative
process. Do not fear intellectual inquiry. As Johann Goethe said, “the masses fear the intellectuals, but it is
stupidity that they should fear, if they only realized how dangerous it really is.”

3. Love the truth. “Philosophy is the eternal search for truth, a search which inevitably fails and yet is never
defeated; which continually elude us, but which always guide us.” This free intellectual life of the mind is the
noblest inheritance of the Western world; it is also the hope of our future.” (W.T. Jones)

4. Divide and conquer. Divide each problem and theory into its smallest essential components in order to
analyze each unit carefully. This is the analytic method.

5. Collect and construct. Build a coherent argument or theory from the component parts. One should move
from the simple, secure foundations to the complex and comprehensive. The important thing is to have
coherent, well-founded, tightly reasoned set of beliefs that can withstand the opposition.

6. Conjecture and refute. Make a complete survey of possible objections to your position, looking for
counterexamples and subtle mistakes. Following a suggestion of Karl Popper, philosophy is a system of
conjecture and refutation. Seek bold hypotheses and seek disconfirmations of your favorite positions. In this
way, by a process of elimination, you will negatively and indirectly and gradually approach the Truth. In this
regard, seek to understand your opponent’s position, for as J. S. Mill wrote, “He who knows only his own
side of the case knows little of that. If he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he
does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either position.”

7. Revise and rebuild. Be willing to revise, reject, and modify your beliefs and the degree with which you hold
any belief. Acknowledge that you probably have many false beliefs and be grateful to those who correct you.
This is the principle of fallibilism, the thesis that we are very likely incorrect in many of our beliefs and has a
tendency toward self-deception when considering objections to our position.

8. Seek simplicity. This is the principle of parsimony (Ockham’s razor). Prefer the simple explanation to the
more complex.

9. Live the truth. Appropriate your ideas in a personal way, so that even as the objective truth is a
correspondence of the thought of the world, this lived truth will be a correspondence of the life of the
thought.

10. Lice the good. Let the practical conclusions of a philosophical reflection on the moral life inspire and
motivate you to action. Let the moral Truth transform your life so that you shine like a jewel glowing in its
own light amidst the darkness of ignorance.

D. Why study philosophy?

The principal reason to study philosophy is the intellectual reason, namely, the love of the many dimensions of
the discipline.

In philosophy, one can grapple with classical and contemporary problems.

 What is the nature of God?

 Why be moral?
 Is there an afterlife and what is it like?
 Is it possible to create thinking machines?
 Is it morally permissible to clone human beings?

In philosophy, one can grapple with questions in the arts and in the sciences.

 What makes something a work of art?

 Is there anything objective in the arts or is it all purely subjective?
 What is the scientific method?
 Can a robot be a good scientist?

In philosophy, there are questions with a human face and questions of a cold logical character.

 What, if anything, do parents and children morally owe each other?

 Is romantic love important?
 To what extent can anything be proven?
 What is a proof anyway?

In short, the principal reason to study philosophy is that it makes a person's life more intellectually interesting and
rewarding. Those who study philosophy are challenged to analyze concepts clearly and evaluate evidence and
arguments critically.

The utilitarian reason to study philosophy is that it is good preparation for jobs that demand careful reading,
critical thinking, intelligent decision-making and sound judgment.

E. THE VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY

1. Describe the "practical man."
2. Why must we free ourselves from the prejudices of the "practical individual"?
3. At what does philosophy aim?
4. With what type of questions does philosophy deal? Give an example.
4. In what does the chief value of philosophy lie, according to Russell?
6. Describe the instinctive person.
7. How does the self enlarge itself?
8. What is the relation of the philosophic mind to the world of action and justice? Can you suggest
an example of an individual so concerned?

F. ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE

 Plato realizes that the general run of humankind can think, and speak, etc., without (so far as they acknowledge) any
awareness of his realm of Forms.

 The allegory of the cave is supposed to explain this.

 In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their
heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire.  Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet,
along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the
wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see
and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. Here is an illustration of Plato’s Cave:

From Great Dialogues of Plato: Complete Texts of the Republic, Apology, Crito Phaido, Ion, and Meno, Vol. 1. (Warmington and
Rouse, eds.) New York, Signet Classics: 1999. p. 316.
 Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were
real; they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows.
 So when the prisoners talk, what are they talking about? If an object (a book, let us say) is carried past behind them, and it
casts a shadow on the wall, and a prisoner says “I see a book,” what is he talking about?

He thinks he is talking about a book, but he is really talking about a shadow. But he uses the word “book.” What does that refer
to?

 Plato gives his answer at line (515b2). The text here has puzzled many editors, and it has been frequently emended. The
translation in Grube/Reeve gets the point correctly:
“And if they could talk to one another, don’t you think they’d suppose that the names they used applied to the things they see
passing before them?”
 Plato’s point is that the prisoners would be mistaken. For they would be taking the terms in their language to refer to the
shadows that pass before their eyes, rather than (as is correct, in Plato’s view) to the real things that cast the shadows.

If a prisoner says “That’s a book” he thinks that the word “book” refers to the very thing he is looking at. But he would be
wrong. He’s only looking at a shadow. The real referent of the word “book” he cannot see. To see it, he would have to turn his
head around.

 Plato’s point: the general terms of our language are not “names” of the physical objects that we can see. They are actually
names of things that we cannot see, things that we can only grasp with the mind.
 When the prisoners are released, they can turn their heads and see the real objects. Then they realize their error. What can
we do that is analogous to turning our heads and seeing the causes of the shadows? We can come to grasp the Forms with our
minds.
 Plato’s aim in the Republic is to describe what is necessary for us to achieve this reflective understanding. But even without it,
it remains true that our very ability to think and to speak depends on the Forms. For the terms of the language we use get their
meaning by “naming” the Forms that the objects we perceive participate in.
 The prisoners may learn what a book is by their experience with shadows of books. But they would be mistaken if they
thought that the word “book” refers to something that any of them has ever seen.

Likewise, we may acquire concepts by our perceptual experience of physical objects. But we would be mistaken if we thought
that the concepts that we grasp were on the same level as the things we perceive.
G. NICOMACHEAN ETHICS
1. Non-reductive account of morality; not rule-based, holist.

2. Centered on moral character and virtue.

3. Practical Intelligence (Phronesis) is the final adjudicator of morality.

4. How is Practical Intelligence acquired?—By moral training/education and habit.

5. Happiness is the ultimate goal for human being. Not a state but an activity (of the soul in accordance with
rational principle and in conformity with excellence): living-well and faring-well, flourishing in accordance
with one’s destination; living a good life.

6. Excellence = virtue

7. The locus of virtue in the soul—dispositions/traits (Hexeis) whereby we become situated in the right way
wrt passions (e.g., pleasure and pain)

8. What is the right way? Who is to decide?—A virtuous human being.

9. One becomes temperate by abstaining from (excessive) pleasures; it is when one becomes so that one is
most able to abstain from them. (Circularity?—Not vicious)

10. Virtuous acts must proceed from a firm moral character.

11. Virtue is a matter of striking the mean.

12. Ethics becomes descriptive, focused on how one becomes a good moral character.