PHILOSOPHY

Friday, August 13, 2021 4:41 PM

PHILOSOPHY
→ etymologically, it came from greek words , PHILO and SOPHIA = love of wisdom
→ LOVER OF WISDOM
→ The goal of Philosophy is wisdom

Wisdom
- helps us to choose, reinforcement of the knowledge, and use the knowledge in decision making.
- Leads us to use our knowledge properly

Philosophy is a search for meaning

- Experience from a wider perspective
- Not only for Philosophers, every person has the capacity to find the value of philosophy in our
life.
- Philosophical questions can be answered Human reason and experiences in life

*The only solution to such philosophical questions is to ask them. The search for answers only
begins the moment we ask a philosophical questions.
- U can answer ur questions through you, your experiences In life

4 importance of Philosophy according to Zunjic 2011

1. Enlarges our understanding of the world. Expands our intellectual horizons and freedom of
thought
2. Philosophy raises public awareness and helps in forming engaged and responsible citizen
3. Can increase our sensitivity for universalistic moral values and stimulate our readiness to
stand up for the principles of justice and fairness
4. Can give one self-knowledge, foresight, and a sense of direction in life.

PHILOSOPHY - is also defined as the science that by natural light of reason studies the first
causes or highest principles.

SCIENCE - because the investigation is systematic.

NATURAL LIGHT OF REASON - investigates things, not by using any other laboratory instrument
or investigate tools, neither on the basis of supernatural revelation, otherwise it becomes
theology.
- Instead the Philosopher uses his natural capacity to think or simply, human reason alone or
the so-called unaided reason.
STUDY OF ALL THINGS -Some sciences, it concern with a particular subject of investigation.
- a philosopher studies human beings, society, religion, language, God and Plants, among other
concerns. Different aspects of Life
FIRST CAUSE OR HIGHEST PRINCIPLE
 • PRINCIPLE OF IDENTITY - whatever it is, and whatever is not is not; everything is what it
us. (, identity of subject or person. ) Ex: Table - kahit anong function neto, table is always be
a table. EX: Ur cat became part of your family, still, itÕs a cat
• PRINCIPLE OF NON-CONTRADICTION - it is impossible for a thing to be and not to be at
the same time, and at the same respect. (if the two statement contradict when you're talking
to the same topic or event, automatically, it is invalid) (If they are talking to different topic,
they are not contradicting)
○ It is important because its how we tell the truth from a lie. A lie is that which
contradicts the truth.
• PRINCIPLE OF EXCLUDED MIDDLE - a thing is either is or is not, everything must be either
be or not be; between being and not being, there is no middle ground possible. (wala dapat or,
but)
• PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON - nothing exists without a sufficient reason for its
being and existence.
*dapat masatistify ung human reason or rationalization in human mind - mahalaga sa
Philosophy

PNC - P is not non P; it cannot be raining or not raining at the same time in the same
place
PEM - either P or non P

WHAT IS METAPHYSICS
○ Deals with the fundamental questions of reality and existence.
○ "we can see things made of matter such as a book or a chair, but we can't see the
underlying matter itself" related to u cant judge a book by its cover
○ Ex: Sight, it requires not only the eye and the object, but also light

THALES - everything is water (in connection into the reality)

 Water is the fundamental substance or constituent of the Reality.
 If everything is water, then water is the underlying existence and reality of
everything in the universe.
 The permanent entity is water. Earth floats in the water
 The nature of all matter - that the originating principle of nature was a single
material substance: Water
 Answered the question of the originating substances of matter
 Water is considered is also non- physical forms

PLATO - ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE

 Socrates, Plato, Aristotle…
 Plato explained reality based on the allegory of cave
 The reality we know is just an illusion and we don't know yet the true reality.
 The reality is non- physical forms,
 Reality is just an illusion
 Nothing we experience in the physical world with our five senses

 **PLATO AND THALES REALITY Cannot be perceived by using our 5 senses only.
(go outside the box)
Nothing we experience in the physical world with our five senses in real, according to Plato

WHAT IS ETHICS
• the nature of moral virtue and evaluates human actions.

SOCRATES
 Father of ethics
 VIRTUE IS KNOWLEDGE
 VIRTUE CAN BE THOUGHT, because it can be learned
 VIRTUE LEADS TO HAPINESS
 To live a happy life, a person has to live a virtous life
 Practical Knowledge means that one does not only know the rules of right living, but
one lives them
 Courage is one of the prime component of virtue
 Socrates identifies knowledge with virtue. If knowledge can be learned, so can
virtue. Thus, Socrates states virtue can be taught.
ARISTOTLE
 Virtues and habits
 Acts - habits - character- state of mind
 Quest of living a moral life character
 Intellectual Virtue and Moral Virtues
 Actions become habits becomes a character, state of mind
 EUDAIMONIA - is not a state of happiness
- He search for highest good, desirable for itself.
- It is not desirable for the sake of other goods.
- EU - good DAIMONAI - spirit , Well-spirit
- Doing something happy and something well. Doing well requires virtue and excellence
- -AIM FOR HIGHEST GOOD, not pleasure, not material things
• GOLDEN MEAN - determining what is virtous
- Courageous with someone with good judgements regardless
Genuine courage is balance of too much braveness will become reckless and too much
cowardness
The middle or balance of two extremes.
Deficiency and excess of values
Immanuel Kant
- OBLIGATION OR DUTY

What is Epistemology?
• Deals with nature, sources, limitations, and validity of knowledge
It explains:
a. How we know what we claim to know
b. How can we find out what we wish to know
c. How can we differentiate truth from falsehood.
 JOHN LOCKE
• Empiricism and Induction
- What is the Philosophy of John Locke in validating the knowledge?
- We gain knowledge through experiences and senses, as we grew in life.
- Human as they were born are Tabularasa - blank state
- Source of knowledge, experience, senses
- He organizes in his mind what he learns through senses and experiences.
- Induction - specific to general. Where general ideas are formed from the examination of
the particular facts.
RENE DESCARTES
- Rationalism - Knowledge derives from reason rather than experience
- We validate knowledge through systematic approach, methods, and investigation
- Knowledge derive from intuition rather than sense perception
- Essence of humanity is thought and reason
- Knowledge can be attained through application of reason
- Deduction - where real knowledge is based on the logic, the laws and the method
- General to specific
LOGIC
• Concern is the truth of the validity of our arguments and correct reasoning
➢We use it when we make decisions or when
we try to influence the decisions of others or
when we are engaged in argumentation and
debate. Indeed, a person who has studied
logic is more likely to reason correctly than
another, who has never thought about the
general principles involved in reasoning.
Aristotle
- Logical reasoning makes us certain that our conclusions are true, (it must have true premises as
well) (you cant conclude without premises)
- ( proposition and conclusion)
- 4 principle of philosophy
- He dindnt believe logical arguments compose of words only, but also decision making.

Socrates
- Asking and answering to stimulate critical thinking skills
- King question that will lead us to another question, drawing out knowledge from the person.
- Hindi iniimpose ung knowledge, da inyo nanggagaling, through analyzing.

Aesthetics
• The establishment of the criteria of beauty

Plato
- Art weakens our critical thinking skills, " Art is imitation", sub concious mind
- Beauty of nature is proportion
Immanuel Kant
- Art is based on our faculty of judgement/aesthetic judgement
- Four moments of beauty
- Disinterested pleasure
 Gadamer
- Criteria of beauty depends on personal experience and culture

3 GREAT ORIGINAL CENTERS OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE WORLD

- GREEK (or western)

- Indian and Chinese
- Oriental ( or Eastern)

HISTORY
- Asians classics of the Indians (Mahamat Gandhi, Buddha) and the Chinese (confucius)predate the
oldest of the Western Classics
- During the first centuries, there was Philosophical Activity in the East than in the West
- From the time of the Greek triumvirate (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) (they live in same ERA), the
Western thinkers started to indulge in feverish philosophical speculation.
- During that Time, Asian thinkers began diminishing philosophical activity.

(mas mausbong ang pilosopiya sa Eastern kesa West nung 1st century)

In our present century, almost all the major philosophical ideas emanate from western thinkiers because of
the influence of SPAA. (quito,1991)

The culture of the East is very different from West. But does not mean each culture is incapable of
understanding certain features of the other.

Western
- Think in a linear manner in terms of beginning and ending in a straight light
- Philosophy and Religion are different from each other
- Theorize, systematic, and speculate
- No application to life is necessary (its up to you if u apply it to ur life)

Eastern
- Think in a circular manner in which the end conjoins the beginning in a cyclic stle
- Philosophy is religion and religion is philosophy
- Does not follow structured mode
- Life must be the extension of thought, its fruit, and its application.

IN search for wisdom, you evaluates arguments and ways of expressing one's belief, emotions, and opinions.

WAYS OF PHILOSOPHIZING

A. Phenomenology: On Consciousness (the normal state of being awake and be able to understand what is
happening around)
- Founded by Edmund Husserl
- Comes from the greek word " Phainomenon" meaning "appearance"
- A method of finding and guaranteeing the truth that focuses on careful inspection and
description of phenomena or appearances.
 - This is the study of observed unusual people or events as they appear without any further
study or explanation.
• It was opposed by Rene Descartes…
• IN contrast, Phenomenology seeks to understand the outside world as it interpreted by and
through human consciousness. - Husserl
• It is the study of appearance as opposed to reality
• The phenomenologist can describe the content of consciousness without any commitment to
the actuality or existence of that object.

B. Jean Paul Sartre

Existentialism: On Freedom
- Our search for truth by means of critical thinking is a rational choice.
- Emphasizes the importance of free individual choice, regardless of the power of the other
people to influence and coerce our desires, beliefs, and decisions.
- TO be humans, to be conscious, is to be free to imagine, free to choose, and responsible for
one's life
- Argued that Consciousness is such that is always free to choose and free to negate the given
features of the world.

C. Postmodernism: On Cultures
- Postmodernists believe that Humanity should come at truth beyond the rational to the non-
rational elements of human nature, including the spiritual.
- Beyond exalting individual analysis of truth, postmodernists adhere to a relational, holistic
approach.

D. Analytic Tradition: On language

- For analytic philosophers, language cannot objectively describe truth because language is
socially conditioned.
- Is the conviction that to some significant degree, philosophical problem, puzzles, and errors
are rooted In language and can be solved or avoided by a sound understanding of language, ad
careful attention to its workings.

LOGIC and CRITICAL THIKING: TOOLS IN REASONING

Logic - centered in the analysis and construction of arguments

Critical Thinking is distinguishing facts and opinion or personal feelings

Fallacies
- A defect in an argument other than it's having false premises.
- To detect fallacies, it is required to examine the argument's content.

1. Appeal to Force ( Argumentum ad Baculum)

2. Appeal to the people (argumentum ad populum)
3. False Cause (post hoc)
 4. Hasty Generalization
5. Appeal to Pity
6. Appeal to Ignorance

Appeal to Pity
• A specific kind of appeal to emotion in which someone tries to win support for an argument or
idea by exploiting his or her opponents feelings of pity or guilt
Appeal to Force
• Argument where force, coercion, or the threat of force is given as a justification for a
conclusion.
Appeal to the People
• An argument that appeals or exploits people's vanities, desire to esteem and anchoring on
popularity. (bandwagon)
False Cause
• Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one.
• Sinisisi ng tao un nangyari sa kanila dahil sa nakaraang nangyari.
• Ex: Bumagsak ka, pero ang sabi mo, may dumaang pusang itim
Appeal to Ignorance
• What has not been proven false must be true and vice versa
• Unicorn " u can't prove I'm real, so I'm real"
Equivocation
• A logical chain of reasoning of a term or a word several times, but giving the particular word a
different meaning of time
(Play of words)
Ex: A; The trees are amazing because of its branches
B: my business is also amazing because it has many branches
A: ur business is a tree?
Composition
• Something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole
• (induction) Specific to General
Division
• Whatever is true of the whole, must be true of the parts
(deduction)
Hasty Generalization
- Related to composition
- Making an inductive generalization based on insufficient evidence
• (CONVERSE ACCIDENT) - one makes a generalization from a special or accidental case or
simply from insufficient number of cases
Against the Person/ Ad Hominem
• It links the validity of a premise to a characteristic or belief of the person advocating the
premise.
Begging the Question
• An argument where the proposition to be proven is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the
premise
• Ung conclusion kasi ay nasa premises na
Occurs when the conclusion is assumed to be true in the argument's premises.
Ex; people under the age of 18 should not have the right to vote because only adults should have
the right to vote.
• Reasoning is circular in that conclusion is already assumed in the premises.