CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

1.1 Meaning and Nature of Philosophy

It is impossible to define philosophy in a way that will be acceptable by
every philosopher. This is because primarily philosophy has no
restricted subject area. Unlike other disciplines such as economics,
history, political science, biology etc. where students can give a straight
forward definition of their respective discipline, this is not possible with
philosophy. Philosophy concerned for issues that have diverse nature.
The critical nature of the discipline is the other factors that makes
defining philosophy difficult.As a result,philosophers themselves do not
have a significant agreement on the definition of philosophy. Each
philosopher defines or applies the word philosophy to suit the method or
the approachthat he or she has adopted.
Sometimes, it is often argued that we can define philosophy by doing
philosophy. Although, this approach may not be correct, because, it is
not in all cases that you need to practice something before you explain or
understand it. For instance, someone interested in the definition of death
does not necessarily need to die before he explains or understands it. If
he is told that the only way to define death is to die first, he is likely to
give up the attempt. Even if the best way to define philosophy is to
expose you to the rigors of deep philosophizing, this remains partial.
What you should always have in mind is that when a student of
philosophy asks a question “what is Philosophy” he has started
philosophizing and to philosophize is to wonder about life and about the
fundamental issues on human existence.
Etymology: Philosophy as the Love of Wisdom
The word philosophy is said to have been invented by Pythagoras (c.
575 - 505 BC). Philosophy is derived from two Greek words - philia
(love) coined from the verb philein meaning to love and Sophia’s
meaning wisdom. Simply, philosophy means the “the love of wisdom.”
For Pythagoras, wisdom means the most comprehensive and profound
knowledge of things. Consequently, wisdom in this sense was the
privileged possession only of the gods. Therefore, no man could possess
wisdom or could justify to call himself wise in this deep and profound
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sense. This was the reason why Pythagoras described the philosopher as
the “lover” or the “seeker” of wisdom. This is not wisdom merely of
good conduct or of practical life that consists in acting right. It is rather a
wisdom whose very nature consists essentially in knowing. “
Sophia as understood by Aristotle, refers to the highest intellectual and
especially philosophical excellence of which the human mind is capable,
and which is the result of studying nature for its own sake. Wisdom
consists in the constant and unwavering disposition to seek the truth.
Philosophy includes both the seeking of wisdom and the wisdom that is
sought.
However, wisdom as used here is different from, though not opposed to
knowledge in the sense of amassed information. This is because one
could be wise without having much knowledge, just as one could have a
lot of knowledge without being wise. Wisdom in the philosophical sense
is a habit of applying the intellect in a systematic way as a guide and a
beacon in one's activities. It is more a matter of temperament and
character than of knowledge.In this connotation, the distinguishing mark
of the philosopher i.e. friend or lover of wisdom, is the premium he or
she places on the application of the intellect at both the practical and
theoretical levels of operation. A philosopher in this connotation is
therefore one who believes in the efficacy of intellectual effort and who
uses whatever knowledge he or she can command to benefit mankind.
Wisdom does not consist in knowing multitude of facts but in havinga
unified view of reality.
For Plato, a true philosopher is a dialectician, that is, one who is skilled
in dialectic - investigation of truth or testing the truth through
discussion or logical disputation or argument. According to him, a
philosopher is one who apprehends the essences or nature of things.
Aristotle, who was Plato’s student, accepted his masters’ concept of true
wisdom as consisting in a genuine knowledge of things. But he adds that
since the wise man differs from other people by his knowledge of first
principles, philosophy as wisdom should seek the first causes of things.
Academic definition
Youwould remember we pointed out earlier that there is no general
agreement among philosophers as to a single definition of philosophy.
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The definitions of philosophy could be as many as philosophy books or
as many as photospheres themselves. We shall go on now to state just a
few of them.
According to Jacques Maritain (1930), “Philosophy is a science which
by the natural light of reason studies the first causes or highest principles
of all things, in other words, the science of things in their first causes, in
so far as this belongs to the natural order.”
William James (1977) philosophy “is a habit of mind or a body of
natural knowledge that results from a disciplined inquiry and that
enables one to explain in a more or less profound way, the sum of
human experiences.” Aristotle refers to Philosophy as “the knowledge of
truth.”
Omoregbe (1990) offers the definition of philosophy in two ways:
▪ “Philosophy is rational search for answers to questions that arise in
the mind when we reflect on human experience.”
▪ And “Philosophy isa rational search for answers to the basic
questions about the ultimate meaning of reality as a whole and
human life in particular.”
The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary describes philosophy as:
“The use of reason and argument in seeking truth and knowledge of
reality, especially of the causes and nature of things and the principles
governing existence, the material universe, perception of physical
phenomena and human behavior.” I am sure you will not let yourself be
confused by these various and sometimes contradictory definitions of
philosophy. It goes to confirm our earlier assertion that the definition of
philosophy depends on who is philosophizing. We shallbe contented
with the very first definition in this series namely: that philosophy is
“the science of things by their first causes, to the extent that it is
attainable by the natural light of reason.”
1.2 Basic Features of Philosophy
As an academic discipline, philosophy has its own salient features that
distinguishes it from other academic disciplines, be it natural, social and
humanistic disciplines. In this lesson, students will be introduced with
the generally fundamental features of philosophy.

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Dear learners, the general features of philosophy can be summarized as
follows:
1) Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and the universe,
which are often held uncritically.
The word philosophy is often used to characterize a person or a group of
persons' attitude to life. Attitude here means the general pattern or the
habitual way of response of the person to events. Also, attitude, in a
more developed sense, characterizes a person's expressed or observed
worldview, which may be the sum of his assumptions, beliefs, attitudes,
and prejudices which are partly inherited and partly acquired in the
process of living (Akinpelu, 1981). In this sense everybody is a
philosopher in so far as everybody has a philosophy of life, that is, an
attitude towards life. When we claim to have a personal philosophy of
life, it refers to either or both two senses that we sometimes refer. Thus,
why in the street you often heard people saying, ‘My philosophy’, ‘His
philosophy’, and so on. If you ask a common man: “What is your
philosophy of life”? You will get answers such as: “My philosophy of
life is to take things gently” or You can see here that when we talk of a
layman’s conception of philosophy, it simply means, the sum of a
person’s beliefs, the main principles that control and guide a person’s
life. This view also suggests that at least most human adults have
necessarily some philosophy of life, since it would be impossible to lead
a human life without some forms of beliefs and definite principles to
guide those beliefs.
2) Philosophy is a process of reflecting on and criticizing our most
deeply held conceptions and beliefs.
This is the formal sense of “doing”philosophy. These two senses of
philosophy-” having” and “doing”- cannot be treated entirely
independent of each other, if we did not have a philosophy in the formal,
personal sense, then we could not do a philosophy in the critical,
reflective sense. However, having a philosophy is not sufficient for
doing philosophy. A genuine philosophical attitude is searching and
critical; it is open-minded and tolerant- willing to look at all sides of an
issue without prejudice. To philosophize is not merely to read and know
philosophy; there are skills of argumentation to be mastered, techniques
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of analysis to be employed, and a body of material to be appropriated
such that we become able to think philosophically.
Philosophers are reflective and critical. They take a second look at the
material presented by common sense. They attempt to think through a
variety of life’s problems and to face all the facts involved impartially.
The accumulation of knowledge does not by itself lead to understanding,
because it does not necessarily teach the mind to make a critical
evaluation of facts that entail consistent and coherent judgment. Critical
evaluations often differ.
3) Philosophy is a rational attempt to look at the world as a whole.
Philosophy seeks to combine the conclusions of the various sciences and
human experience into some kind of consistent worldview. Philosophers
wish to see life, not with the specialized slant of the scientist or the
businessperson or the artist, but with the overall view of someone
cognizant of life as a totality. Although there are difficulties and dangers
in setting forth any worldview, there also are dangers in confining
attention to fragments of human experience. Philosophy’s task is to give
a view of the whole, a life and a worldview, and to integrate the
knowledge of the sciences with that of other disciplines to achieve a
consistent whole. Philosophy, according to this view, attempts to bring
the results of human inquiry- religious, historical, and scientific into
some meaningful interpretation that provides knowledge and insight for
our lives.
4) Philosophy is the logical analysis of language and the clarification
of the meaning of words and concepts.
In this conception, philosophy is reduced to the role of clarification of
the meaning of words and concepts. When we use such words like
justice, good, bad, beauty, ugliness, what do we mean? To the advocates
of this conception, the function of philosophy is to clarify the meaning
of such words. To them, philosophy is a specialized field serving the
sciences and aiding in the clarification of language rather than a broad
field reflecting upon all of life's experiences.
Certainly, this is one function of philosophy. In fact, nearly all
philosophers have used methods of analysis and have sought to clarify
the meaning of terms and the use of language. Some philosophers see
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this as the main task of philosophy, and a few claim this is the only
legitimate function of philosophy. Such persons consider philosophy a
specialized field serving the sciences and aiding in the clarification of
language rather than a broad field reflecting on all of life’s experiences.
This outlook has gained considerable support during the twentieth
century. It would limit what we call knowledge to statements about
observable facts and their interrelations i.e., to the business of the
various sciences. Not all linguistic analysts, however, define knowledge
so narrowly. Although they do reject and try to “clean up” many non-
scientific assertions, many of them think that we can have knowledge of
ethical principles and the like, although this knowledge is also
experientially derived. Those who take the narrower view neglect, when
they do not deny, all generalized worldviews and life views, as well as
traditional moral philosophy and theology. From this narrower point of
view, the aim of philosophy is to expose confusion and nonsense and to
clarify the meaning and use of terms in science and everyday affairs.
5) Philosophy is a group of perennial problems that interest people
and for which philosophers always have sought answers.
Philosophy presses its inquiry into the deepest problems of human
existence. Some of the philosophical questions raised in the past have
been answered in a manner satisfactory to the majority of philosophers.
Many questions, however, have been answered only tentatively, and
many problems remain unsolved. What are philosophical questions? The
question “Did Ram make a false statement on his income tax return?” is
merely a question of fact. However, the questions “What is truth?” and
“What is the distinction between right and wrong?” have philosophical
importance. Sometimes we think seriously about fundamental life issues:
What is life and why am I here? Why is there anything at all? What is
the place of life in this great universe? Is the universe friendly or
unfriendly? Do things operate by chance or through sheer mechanism, or
is there some plan, purpose, or intelligence at the heart of things? Is my
life controlled by outside forces, or do I have a determining or even a
partial degree of control? Why do people struggle and strive for their
rights, for justice, for better things in the future? What do concepts like
“right” and “justice” means, and what are the marks of a good society?
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The above questions are all philosophical. The attempt to seek answers
or solutions to them has given rise to theories and systems of thought,
such as idealism, realism, pragmatism, analytic philosophy,
existentialism, phenomenology, and process philosophy. Philosophy also
means the various theories or systems of thought developed by the great
philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas,
Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Royce,
James, Dewey and others. Without these people and their thoughts,
philosophy would not have the rich content it has today. Even though we
may be unconscious of the fact, we are constantly influenced by ideas
that have come down to us in the traditions of society.
1.3 Core Fields of Philosophy
1.3.1 Metaphysics
This is the branch of philosophy that studies reality in its most
comprehensive scope and fundamental principles. It is the science that
tries to determine the real nature of things. Metaphysics studies the
totality of things in the universe both the possible and the real, the
visible and the invisible. Metaphysics is a general study of existence and
reality
Metaphysics discusses such problems as the problem of substance,
appearance and reality, essence and existence, freewill and determinism,
human destiny, and many more. Various questions that are generated by
metaphysicians includes the following among other ones: Why
something instead of nothing? Is reality one or many?” Is the universe
self-caused or does it involve the concept of a creator? What is the
transcendent origin and foundation of this existence? Is reality
essentially spiritual or material? Do persons have minds distinct from
their bodies? What is mind? Is it a series of experiences? What is
matter? Which is primary? What are their relationships? Are men free?
Does God exist? What is the divine? If you look deep into these
questions, you will discover that the answers lie beyond the boundaries
of our experience.
You should also bear in mind that even if Aristotle is considered as the
founding father of metaphysics as a science of reality he was not the first
to raise metaphysical problems. Metaphysics as an intellectual enterprise
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dates back to the pre-Socratic philosophers such as Thales,
Anaximander, Anaximenes as well as Pythagoras, Parmenides and
Heraclitus. The concern of these philosophers was the search for the
primary stuff of the universe. They were also concerned with
determining the ultimate constitutive elements and grounds for the unity
of things.
1.3.2 Epistemology
Epistemology is also one of the traditional branches of philosophy. It is
the branch of philosophy which investigates the scope, source and
limitations of human knowledge. In this branch of philosophy, the
philosopher wishes to know what knowledge means. Is knowledge
different from opinion and belief? Thus, epistemology tries to discover
what knowledge is and how it differs from mere opinion or belief. It
examines what constitutes belief and what constitute knowledge? How
does knowledge differ from belief? What does it mean to know and how
do humans know what they claim to know? What can we know? Can we
know anything with certainty or must we be certified with mere guess
and opinion? Is there any limit to what we can know? What is the
relation between knowledge and reality? Does all knowledge of the real
world arise out of experience or do we have knowledge that is in some
degree independent of experience? How does knowledge differ from
belief?
knowledge implies being sure, being certain. Also, believing is a pre-
condition for knowledge. Because, when you know something, you have
a right to a certain confidence in your belief as a true and reliable guide
to action. Thus, you cannot say you know something which you are not
sure of. But it is possible to believe something you are not sure of. You
can believe in the existence of God, yet you are not sure of his existence.
There is no problem in a statement such as “I think that God exists, but I
am not sure”. But you cannot say for instance that “I know he will come
but I am not sure”. Knowledge is more qualitative than opinion and
belief. An opinion or belief cannot be true unless it is grounded or
supported with evidence. Evidence is the unique characteristic of
knowledge. That is why customs and some hereditary matters are always
at odds with knowledge. You should know that it is not because some
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customs, beliefs or hereditary affairs are unquestionable that they are
synonymous with knowledge. Some unquestionable beliefs are not well
founded or grounded in evidence. Therefore, they do not constitute
knowledge. Always remember that the knower must not only be able to
adduce enough evidence but must also know that he knows his beliefs.
For to know is to know that you know. It must be clear to you now that
knowledge is quite different from opinion or belief. We have knowledge
only when we can provide reasons and evidence for our claims. On the
contrary, belief or opinion is based on inner, personal certainty and
conviction. Knowledge is objective i.e. it must be communicable and
verifiable.
1.3.3 Ethics
Ethics is mostly known as “the branch of philosophy which deals with
the morality of human actions in society”. Etymologically ethics derived
from the Greek Word Ethos which means “custom” or “character”- it is
a customary or acceptable way of acting. It is the philosophy of the
morality of human conduct. Sometimes it is called “moral philosophy”.
It is the branch of philosophy that concerns itself with right, or wrong,
and other issues related to evaluating human action.
It is the philosophical study of the so-called moral facts: namely such
things as moral evaluations, commandments, norms, virtuous acts, the
manifestations of conscience. The philosophical study of voluntary
human action, with the purpose of determining what types of activity are
good, right and to be done, or bad, wrong and to be avoided, so that
humans may live well. Thus, ethics is the philosophical study of the
activities that secure the good life for man. Its concern is with judgments
of approval or disapproval, rightness or wrongness, goodness or
badness, virtue or vice, desirability or otherwise of human actions or
state of affairs. Ethics compare what you do and what you ought to do.
Ethics is not primarily concerned with facts or the “is”, but rather with
the “ought”.
1.4 Sources of Knowledge
One of the perennial questions in the history of epistemology that is
theory of knowledge has always been: How does knowledge come
about? How do we know propositions to be true? Or by what means do
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we come by our knowledge of the real world? Answers to these
questions have been given through the following means: (a)
Rationalism, (b) Empiricism (c) Authority (d) Intuition (e)
Revelation/faith
1. Rationalism
The view that reasoning, thought, or logic is the central factor in
knowledge is known as rationalism. The rationalist, in emphasizing
humanity’s power of thought and the mind’s contributions to
knowledge, is likely to claim that the senses alone cannot provide
universal, valid judgments that are consistent with one another. From
this perspective, the sensations and experiences humans obtain through
their senses are the raw material of knowledge. These sensations must be
organized by the mind into a meaningful system before they become
knowledge. Rationalism in a less extreme form claims that people have
the power to know with certainty various truths about the universe that
the senses alone cannot give. In its extreme form, rationalism claims that
humans are capable of arriving at irrefutable knowledge independently
of sensory experience.
Rationalism is a school of thought in epistemology which holds that
human beings can acquire knowledge of reality using our minds alone,
by thinking or pure reason. To any rationalist, reason is a necessary
ingredient for all our knowledge claims. This is one of the reasons why
Aristotle defines man as “a rational animal”. Thus, the ability to think is
what is called reason. Any serious rationalist agrees that we cannot
acquire knowledge through sense experience without the powers of
reason. For them, it is true that our perceptual experience provides the
raw material for judgments, but without reason, we cannot make
judgments at all.
2. Sense Experience
Sense experience is another source of knowledge. The Empiricists are
the proponents of sense experience theory. To any empiricist, as far as
knowledge is concerned, only sense experience matters. In other words,
empiricism is the philosophical theory which denies reason while
insisting that experience is always the necessary ingredient in our
knowledge claims of the natural world. Sensory knowing for humans is
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immediate and universal, and in many ways forms the basis of much of
human knowledge.The existence of sensory data cannot be denied. Most
people accept it uncritically as representing “reality.” The danger of
naively embracing this approach is that data obtained from the human
senses have been demonstrated to be both incomplete and undependable.
(For example, most people have been confronted with the contradiction
of seeing a stick that looks bent when partially submerged in water but
appears to be straight when examined in the air.) Fatigue, frustration,
and illness also distort and limit sensory perception. In addition, there
are sound and light waves that are inaudible and invisible to unaided
human perception.
Humans have invented scientific instruments to extend the range of their
senses, but it is impossible to ascertain the exact dependability of these
instruments since no one knows the total effect of the human mind in
recording, interpreting, and distorting sensual perception. Confidence in
these instruments is built upon speculative metaphysical theories whose
validity has been reinforced by experimentation in which predictions
have been verified through the use of a theoretical construct or
hypothesis. In general, sensory knowledge is built upon assumptions that
must be accepted by faith in the dependability of human sensory
mechanisms. The advantage of empirical knowledge is that many
sensory experiences and experiments are open to both replication and
public examination.
3. Authority
Authoritative knowledge is accepted as true because it comes from
experts or has been sanctified over time as tradition. In the classroom,
the most common source of information is some authority, such as a
textbook, teacher, or reference work. Accepting authority as a source of
knowledge has its advantages as well as its dangers. Civilization would
certainly stagnate if people refused to accept any statement unless they
personally verified it through direct, firsthand experience. On the other
hand, if authoritative knowledge is built upon a foundation of incorrect
assumptions, then such knowledge will surely be distorted.

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 4. Intuition
Intuition is the direct apprehension of knowledge that is not derived
from conscious reasoning or immediate sense perception. In the
literature dealing with intuition, one often finds such expressions as
“immediate feeling of certainty.” Intuition occurs beneath the threshold
of consciousness and is often experienced as a sudden flash of insight.
Intuition has been claimed under varying circumstances as a source of
both religious and secular knowledge. Certainly many scientific
breakthroughs have been initiated by intuitive hunches that were
confirmed by experimentation. The weakness or danger of intuition is
that it does not appear to be a safe method of obtaining knowledge when
used alone. It goes astray very easily and may lead to absurd claims
unless it is controlled by or checked against other methods of knowing.
Intuitive knowledge, however, has the distinct advantage of being able
to bypass the limitations of human experience.
5. Revelation and Faith
A fifth influential source of knowledge throughout the span of human
history has been revelation. Revealed knowledge has been of prime
importance in the field of religion. It differs from all other sources of
knowledge because it presupposes a transcendent supernatural reality
that breaks into the natural order. Believers in supernatural revelation
hold that this form of knowledge has the distinct advantage of being an
omniscient source of information that is not available through other
epistemological methods. On the other hand, it is generally realized that
distortion of revealed truth can occur in the process of human
interpretation. Some people assert that a major disadvantage of revealed
knowledge is that it must be accepted by faith and cannot be proved or
disproved empirically.
1.5 Importance of Learning Philosophy
Philosophy is both mentally and practically relevance to human
kinds.One of the usefulness of philosophy is that it helps to foster or
develop the habit of reflections and thus further help us to enlarge the
areas of our awareness to become more alive, more discerning, more
critical, and to be more enlightened. The age in which we live is an age
of uncertainty and change, when many of the older beliefs and the ways
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of doing things are inadequate. When this is the situation, we need a
scale of values and a sense of direction. Philosophy provides this sense
of direction. It provides us with a unity of outlook and response to the
reality of the world in which we live and operate. It provides us with the
parameters for discernment and for judging issues and articulating
problems intelligently and critically.
Philosophy in the intellectual realm trains one to think clearly, critically
and independently. Through, philosophy one can develop analytical
abilities with which one can effectively handle both practical and
abstract issues. At moral level, it helps to provide insight in
distinguishing among values and to identify for oneself what is best and
most relevant. It enables one to distinguish which human behavior is
good, moral, acceptable and praiseworthy as against those that are bad,
immoral, unacceptable and condemnable.
As a professional in any field, philosophy provides the intellectual
background helpful to success. It challenges one to come up with one’s
own effective ways of solving problems that do not have readymade
answer. Furthermore, it helps in the rationalization and organization of
results of human inquiry, religion historical and scientific into consistent
view world.
Among the various benefits of learning philosophy is that philosophy
provides students with the tools they need to critically examine their
own lives as well as the world in which they live. Let us clarify it more.
Some modern psychologists point out that human beings have both
maintenance and actualizing needs. The former refer to the physical and
psychological needs that we must satisfy in order to maintain ourselves
as human beings: food, shelter, security, social interaction, and the like.
The later appear to be associated with self-fulfillment, creativity, self-
expression, realization of one’s potential, and being everything one can
be. Although philosophy may not necessarily lead to this sort of self-
actualization, it can assist us to actualize ourselves by promoting the
ideal of self-actualization. There are many characteristics of self-
actualization to whose achievement studying philosophy has a
primordial contribution. Here below are some of them.

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 1) Intellectual and Behavioral Independence: - This is the ability to
develop one’s own opinion and beliefs. Among the primary goals of
philosophy, one is the integration of experiences into a unified,
coherent, and systematic world views. Studying philosophy helps us
not only to know the alternative world views but also to know how
philosophers have ordered the universe for themselves. As a result,
we can learn how to develop and integrate our experiences,
thoughts, feelings, and actions for ourselves, and thus how to be
intellectually and behaviorally independent.
2) Reflective Self-Awareness: -self-actualization cannot be realized
without a clear knowledge of oneself and the world in which one
lives. Philosophy helps us to intensify our self-awareness by inviting
us to critically examine the essential intellectual grounds of our
lives.
3) Flexibility, Tolerance, and Open-Mindedness: -by studying different
philosophical perspectives we can understand the evolutionary
nature of intellectual achievement and the ongoing development of
human thought. As we confront with the thoughts of various
philosophers we can easily realize that no viewpoint is necessarily
true or false- that the value of any attitude is contextual. Finally, we
become more tolerant, open-minded, more receptive, and more
sympathetic to views that contend or clash with ours.
4) Creative and Critical Thinking: - this is the ability to develop
original philosophical perspective on issues, problems, and events;
and to engage them on a deeper level. From the study of philosophy,
we can learn how to refine our powers of analysis, our abilities to
think critically, to reason, to evaluate, to theorize, and to justify.
5) Conceptualized and well-thought-out value systems in morality, art,
politics, and the like: -since philosophy directly deals with morality,
art, politics, and other related value theories, studying philosophy
provides us with an opportunity to formulate feasible evaluations of
value; and thereby to find meaning in our lives.

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