Learning Guide Unit 1: Introduction | Home https://my.uopeople.edu/mod/book/view.php?

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Learning Guide Unit 1

In Sahakian & Sahakian (2005) the authors write, “If all men thought alike, their intellectual and material progress would slow down or cease
altogether” (p. 147). Thank goodness then, that we do not. Measured argument and calculated discourse are at the heart of human
development on every continent and in every age. In this course, we will learn and celebrate the core schools of Philosophy from a global
perspective. Your University of the People Introduction to Philosophy class will include a broad picture of these principles in the �rst weeks and
then, grounded in that understanding, will �nish the last two weeks exploring the great works of Philosophical thought from around the
continents. The center of gravity for the Unit Quizzes is the data and ideas presented IN THAT UNIT. The Final Exam at the end of Week 8 is
CUMULATIVE and will be based on the Self-study Quizzes and the Graded Quizzes. That is, all information in the Final will be something we
have covered in the Discussion Forums or in some form within the Quizzes. We are here to support you, not surprise you.

We start with Pragmatism not because it is the “beginning,” but because something must be. As the recognized father of modern Pragmatism
(Charles Peirce, 1839-1914) would have wanted, we are starting our discussions of Philosophy with the goal trying to de�ne the meaning of
truth in practical, realistic, and pragmatic terms. In a general sense, Pragmatism insists that any theory which can prove itself truer than its
competing theories is nearer the truth. Of course, it is, it said so… But Pragmatism explains that the value (truth) of any theory is dependent
upon the plausible use or practical consequences of however it is employed. In everyday language that means that Pragmatism tells us to be
practical about forming opinions and making choices.

Throughout this course, you will be asked to be pragmatic about your judgments formed during the Philosophical Discourse in the Discussion
Forum in the Written Assignments. While your “truth” may be the closest to the truth you can imagine, a Pragmatist accepts that other people
may have a more practical explanation of the truth or phenomena. Whether we are discussing truth from a single point of view or exploring
the dimensions of truth cultural approaches, Philosophy requires we attempt to remain patient and practical while arriving at conclusions.

Positivism confuses new students of Philosophy because it sounds like the result of a Self-Help Book. It is not. Positivism is closer to “Are you
positive about that?” than it is to “think positive!” It is the view that the avenue to authentic knowledge is via testing and proving it; what some
would call scienti�c knowledge. It was coined by the 19th century, French sociologist and philosopher named Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857).

In the epistemological sense, “positive” means “value-free.” For Philosophers, Positivism is an objective approach to the study of humanity in
that it withholds judgment until “proof” (at some level) is accepted. To Comte, this meant treating Philosophical discourse with much the same
rigor as one would treat scienti�c inquiry. He viewed the scienti�c method as replacing the less-structured Metaphysics and Theology which
necessarily required a certain level of faith in truths to move forward. Comte wrote:

“It must be understood that I advocate simply a suspension of judgment where there is no ground for either a�rmation or denial. I merely
desire to keep in view that all our positive knowledge is relative; and, in my dread of our resting in notions of anything absolute, I would
venture to say that I can conceive of such a thing as even our theory of gravitation being hereafter superseded. I do not think it probable, and
the fact will ever remain that it answers completely to our present needs. It sustains us, up to the last point of precision that we can attain. If a
future generation should reach a greater, and feel, in consequence, a need to construct a new law of gravitation, it will be as true as it now is
that the Newtonian theory is, in the midst of inevitable variations, stable enough to give steadiness and con�dence to our understandings. It
will appear hereafter how inestimable this theory is in the interpretation of the phenomena of the interior of our system. We already see how
much we owe to it, apart from all speci�c knowledge which it has given us, in the advancement of our philosophical progress, and of the
general education of human reason. Descartes could not rise to a mechanical conception of general phenomena without occupying himself
with a baseless hypothesis about their mode of production. This was, doubtless, a necessary process of transition from the old notions of the
absolute to the positive view; but too long a continuance in this stage would have seriously impeded human progress. The Newtonian
discovery set us forward in the true positive direction. It retains Descartes’ fundamental idea of a Mechanism but casts aside all inquiry into its
origin and mode of production. It shows practically how, without attempting to penetrate into the essence of phenomena, we may connect and
assimilate them, so as to attain, with precision and certainty, the true end of our studies,—that exact prevision of events which à
priori conceptions are necessarily unable to supply 

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Learning Guide Unit 1: Introduction | Home https://my.uopeople.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=417389&chapterid=503919

The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte freely translated by Harriet Martineau (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1896), p.198-199

Realism, in the simplest and most general terms, is the view that all phenomena and entities have an objective reality. That is, a reality
completely independent of our understanding of it/them. Your vocabulary, religious background, personal theories, schemas, etc. have no
e�ect on reality. This sounds simple enough, but when understood as a factor de�ning “truth” one is forced to reconcile that the truth he or
she holds may not be the ultimate real truth of the matter.

Sahakian, W, & Sahakian, M. (2005) The Ideas of Great Philosophers. New York: Fall River Press.

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