• Philosopher - does not play with words or twists reasonings just for the fun of it.

Raise questions
often with the intention of showing off that he/she is singularly smart and inquisitive.

• Pilosopo connotes an image of a comical, and sometimes annoying character.

• But a pilosopo is a philospher if the questions he asks stem from a genuine confusion,
astonishment and wonder.

- questions are personal because they deeply touch on or has a bearing on the philosopher’s
understanding of the meaning of life.

Philosophy- is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially
when considered as an academic discipline

- way of thinking about certain subjects such as ethics, thought, existence, time, meaning
and value

pursuit of wisdom, truth and knowledge. The word itself means “ Love of wisdom” (Greek)

- philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental

truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world
and to each other.

Wholistic approach- abstractive

- rises from the level of everyday life to a higher level that gives a bird’s eye view of the
whole.
- must learn to look beyond what is immediately before you.
- looking at reality from a holistic perspective and not from a partial point of view.

3 meaning of philosophy?

a. a pursuit of wisdom.

b. a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than
observational means.

c. an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs

purpose of philosophy?

enhances a person's problem-solving capacities. It helps us to analyze concepts, definitions,

arguments, and problems. It contributes to our capacity to organize ideas and issues, to deal with
questions of value, and to extract what is essential from large quantities of information.

Philo – comes from the Greek words Philo which means love and Sophia which means wisdom.
Literally means the love of wisdom.

Socrates – father of western philosophy, claims that philosophy is the endless quest for truth.

philosopher is a lover of truth

does not stop searching for what is true, what is right and what is good.
philosopher abhors falsity, lies and evil.

keeps on asking, discovering, creating, innovating and improving.

The Major Branches of Philosophy

1. Epistemology - studies knowledge

2. Metaphysics - studies reality and being

3. Logic - studies argumentation and reason

4. Axiology - studies valuation within aesthetics and ethics

5. Political philosophy -which studies government.

Philosophy in the West begins in the Ionian Greek colonies of Asia Minor with Thales of Miletus(Thales
of Miletus was a naturalist philosopher -A naturalist is any person who studies the natural world.
Naturalists make observations of the relationships between organisms and their environments, as well
as how those relationships change over time.)

- materialist thinker since he attributed everything to one element, water

Three main philosophical statement of Thales?

(1) The world derives from water;

(2) The world rests on water;

(3) The world is full of gods;

(4) Soul produces motion.

- According to Thales, " The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself "

• History of Philosophy (continued)

Philosophy has been around since the dawn of western civilization. The golden age of Greek
philosophy took place in Athens in the 5th century BC. The works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

- Socrates was a moral philosopher. He was not interested in mathematics or science but
was concerned with the quality of his soul and that of others

Socrates famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Plato is one of the world's best known and most widely read and studied philosophers. He was the
student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle

“Love is a serious mental disease.”

Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, who made important contributions to logic,
criticism, rhetoric, physics, biology, psychology, mathematics, metaphysics, ethics, and politics. He was
a student of Plato for twenty years but is famous for rejecting Plato's theory of forms.
Metaphysics is his “first philosophy” and defines it as the discipline that studies “being as being.” He
is known as the father of political science

Aristotle's philosophy about? He claims that there must be a separate and unchanging being that is
the source of all other beings.

Aristotle's quote “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”

Knowing yourself lets you live the life you truly want — you know who you are, what you want, and
what brings out the best in you.