Francis L. Dungca Jr.

Bsais 2A

Assignment in Ethics
1. Definition and Etymology of Philosophy

"Philosophy is the love of wisdom", The rather vague definition 'love of wisdom'
comes from the origin and etymology of the Greek word 'philosophy': philo ("love")
and sophia ("wisdom"). According to an ancient tradition Pythagoras of Croton coined
the Greek word 'philosopher' meaning 'lover of wisdom' to contrast with 'wise man'
(sophist), saying of himself that he was only a man who loved wisdom (a wisdom-loving
man), not a wise man. And the example of Socrates whose only wisdom was that he did
not think he knew what he did not know, that he did not think himself wise when he was
not further suggests that it was modesty that invented the word 'philosopher' ("lover of
wisdom"), a word from when the word 'philosophy' ("the pursuit of wisdom by the lover
of wisdom") came and also, Philosophy is the rational investigation of logic, ethics, and
metaphysics. In other words, Philosophy is philosophizing -- i.e. seeking to
understand our experience of the world, namely our life (Ethics), ways of
thinking (Logic), and all of reality (Metaphysics), as best we can, rationally by
the light of natural reason alone.

2. Western and Eastern definition of Philosophy and their Differences

Western Philosophy (Ancient Greeks, Europeans and Americans) usually focused on

five categories: Metaphysics - the study of existence, Epistemology - the study of
knowledge, Ethics - the study of action, Politics - the study of force, Aesthetics - the
study of art and Eastern Philosophy (Mostly China and India) also explored the five main
categories, but they didn't really make a distinction between certain categories and they
didn't really make a distinction on: Metaphysics and Epistemology and Philosophy and
Religion
 On the other hand, their differences in Western Philosophy the philosophers tend
to use a lot of logic, ideas reasoning and categorization, they tend to break down
the ideas as much as they could. They also focused on ideas in parts rather than
the whole idea while Eastern Philosophy focus to look at an idea as a whole and
they preferred to generalize the ideas and show how they'll reflect the same truths
and also Western Philosophy focuses on finding the differences in ideas while the
Eastern Philosophy focuses on the similarities.

3. Different Branches of Philosophy

Six Branches of Philosophy

Epistemology - the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope
(including limitations) of knowledge. It addresses four main questions. 1) What is
knowledge? 2) How is knowledge acquired? 3) What do people know? 4) How do we
know what we know?

Logic – is the study of reasoning. Logic is often divided into two parts, inductive
reasoning, and deductive reasoning.

Metaphysics – is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the
world. Cosmology and ontology are the two traditional branches of metaphysics.
Cosmology seeks to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and fate of the
universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order. Ontology is the
investigation into what types of things there are in the world and what relations these
things bear to one another. Thereafter, metaphysics became the philosophical enquiry
of a non-empirical character into the nature of existence.

Ethics – also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy which seeks to

address questions about morality; that is, about concepts like good and bad, right, and
wrong, justice, virtue, etc.

Aesthetics – is the branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, taste,
and the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the
study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of
sentiment and taste.

Political Philosophy – is the study of concepts such as liberty, justice, property,

rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why (or
 even if) they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and
freedoms it should protect and why, what form it should take and why, what the law
is, and what duties citizens owe to a legitimate government, if any, and when it may
be legitimately overthrown, if ever. Three central concerns of political philosophy
have been the political economy by which property rights are defined and access to
capital is regulated, the demands of justice in distribution and punishment, and the
rules of truth and evidence that determine judgments in the law.

References
https://www.roangelo.net/logwitt/philosophy-origin.html

The Origins and Branches of Philosophy

https://prezi.com/xsscgbxkaojr/the-difference-between-western-and-eastern-philosophy/

The difference between Western and Eastern Philosophy

https://www.evphil.com/philosophy-101.html

Evolutionary Philosophy