PHILOSOPHY 101

LOGIC
Mr. Timothy Philip Mallari
HOMEWORK #1
Choose (3) from words below that best describe your future. Write your
choices in your notebook. Explain your answer.

a. Success
b. Fortune or Money
c. Fame
d. Power
e. Recognition
f. Happiness
g. Meaning or Purpose
h. Sickness
i. Contentment
j. Faith
k. Love
l. Death 
What is your personal
definition of life? How do
you appreciate life?
What is
HOLISM?
THE
SIX
BLIND
MEN
 - Is a way or attitude of
HOLISM viewing life or situation
in a more
encompassing way.
- It is not a one-sided
view, but looks at a
wider perspectives or
beliefs.
- This includes our views
about life, culture, and
what is right or wrong.
WHAT IS
PHILOSOPHY?
What is Philosophy?

▪ Philia- love
▪ Sophia- wisdom
“love of wisdom”

Philosophy is defined as a science that

studies beings in their ultimate causes,
reasons, and principles through the aid of
human reason alone.
 What is Philosophy?
▪ A. Science- systematic investigation
▪ B. Natural Light of Reason
▪ C. Study of all things- material and immaterial
▪ D. First Cause or Highest Principle
– Principle of Identity-whatever is is; and whatever is not is not; everything is what
it is
– Principle of Non-Contradiction-it is impossible for a thing to be and not be at the
same time and at the same respect
– 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
– Principle of Sufficient Reason-nothing exists without a sufficient reason for its
being and existence
 What is the
Is Why
there
What God?
is the
do these If so,
If one is sufferingorigin
from of the
world, of
an unbearable pain,
how meaning
can we and suchthat
justify
everything
things exist, rather
as cancer, is it morally
exists?
What
purpose
the
right to am
goodness
of life?
resort I?Why
to
of
than not exist at
God? in
do wethe
euthanasia have
orface toof
assisted
all?
suffer?
evil?
suicide?
Philosophy and its Holistic Approach
▪ A philosopher’s way of thinking is
ABSTRACTIVE
▪ Seeing in a HOLISTIC
PERSPECTIVE is viewing in a
wider perspective, all at the same
time, and knowing that they are
connected to one another.
▪ Example is the story of THE SIX
BLIND MEN
BRANCHES OF
PHILOSOPHY
 studies the nature of
Metaphysi reality

cs
Aesthetics
studies the nature of
beauty
studies and evaluates
human conduct

MAJOR BRANCHES
Ethics
OF PHILOSOPHY

Logic
studies the principles and
studies the nature and
criteria of a valid
argument
Epistemol scope of knowledge

ogy
 METAPHYSICS
▪ Meta = beyond / after
▪ Physika = nature / physical
study of things beyond physical; concepts or things that cannot be
experienced (examples: god, freedom, soul).
Divide into two:
1. GENERAL METAPHYSICS / ONTOLOGY - studies being in their ultimate causes,
reasons and principles through the aid of reason alone.
2. SPECIAL METAPHYSICS
1. Cosmology – studies the world including its origin, dynamics and characteristics as well as the laws govern them.
2. Psychology – study of the nature and dynamics of the human person as a whole.
3. Theodicy – study of god and the justification of its goodness in the face of the existence of evil
ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
 EPISTEMOLOGY
▪ Episteme = knowledge
▪ Logos = study
study of nature and scope of knowledge and justified belief.
Basic Questions in Epistemology:
1. What is knowledge?
2. What do we know?
3. How is knowledge acquired?
4. What are the structures and limits of knowledge?
5. What makes justified beliefs justified?
 EPISTEMOLOGY
• It deals with nature, sources, limitations, and validity of
knowledge.
• It explains: (1) how we know what we claim to know; (2)
how we can find out what we wish to know; and (3) how
we can differentiate truth from falsehood.
• It addresses varied problems: the reliability, extent, and
kinds of knowledge; truth; language; and science and
scientific knowledge.
 EPISTEMOLOGY

 Rationalist – advocates of deduction method

 For a rationalist, real knowledge is based on
the logic, the laws, and the methods that
reason develops.
 Pragmatism – the meaning and truth of an idea
are tested by its practical consequences.
 EPISTEMOLOGY
• Sources of knowledge
 Induction
 gives importance to particular things seen, heard, and touched
 forms general ideas through the examination of particular facts
 Empiricist – advocates of induction method
 Empiricism is the view that knowledge can be attained only
through sense experience.
 Deduction
 gives importance to general law from which particular facts are
understood or judged
 LOGIC
• Logos = science of correct thinking
• It is a study of the principles and criteria of valid argument.
• Distinguish good to bad reasoning.
Basic Questions in Logic:
1. What is correct reasoning?
2. What distinguishes good argument to bad one?
3. How can we detect a fallacy in an argument?
4. What are the criteria in determining the validity of an argument?
5. What are the types of logic?
 LOGIC
• Reasoning is the concern of the logician.
• It comes from the Greek word logike, coined by Zeno, the
Stoic (c.340–265BC), which means a treatise on matters
pertaining to the human thought.
• It does not provide us knowledge of the world directly and
does not contribute directly to the content of our
thoughts.
• It is not interested in what we know regarding certain
subjects but in the truth or the validity of our arguments
regarding such objects.
 LOGIC
• Aristotle
 First philosopher to devise a logical method
 Truth means the agreement of knowledge with
reality.
 Logical reasoning makes us certain that our
conclusions are true.
• Zeno of Citium
 One of the successors of Aristotle and founder of
Stoicism
• Other influential authors of logic
 Cicero, Porphyry, and Boethius
 Philoponus and Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes
 ETHICS
• It explores the nature of moral virtue and evaluates human actions.
• It is a study of the nature of moral judgments.
• Philosophical ethics attempts to provide an account of our
fundamental ethical ideas.
• It insists that obedience to moral law be given a rational foundation.

• Socrates
 To be happy is to live a virtuous life.
 Virtue is an awakening of the seeds of good deeds that lay
dormant in the mind and heart of a person which can be
achieved through self-knowledge.
 AESTHETICS
• It is the science of the beautiful in its various manifestations
– including the sublime, comic, tragic, pathetic, and ugly.
• It is important because of the following:
 It vitalizes our knowledge. It makes our knowledge of the
world alive and useful.
 It helps us to live more deeply and richly. A work of art
helps us to rise from purely physical existence into the
realm of intellect and the spirit.
 It brings us in touch with our culture. The answers of great
minds in the past to the great problems of human life are
part of our culture.
 AESTHETICS
• Hans-Georg Gadamer
 A German philosopher who
argues that our tastes and
judgments regarding beauty
work in connection with one’s
own personal experience and
culture.
 Our culture consists of the
values and beliefs of our time
and our society.
HISTORY
OF PHILOSOPHY
 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
1. Ancient Philosophy (7th century B.C. – 5th century A.D.)
– philosophy in antiquity / ancient Greek philosophy
a. Pre-Socratic - philosophers before Socrates (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, etc.)
b. Socratic – era in time of Socrates (Plato, Diogenes and Aristotle.)
c. Hellenistic – in this era, Stoicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism and Neo-Platonism flourished.
d. Roman – continues Classical Greek tradition & ends w/ the Fall of Rome in 5th AD (Cicero, St. Augustine, etc.)

2. Medieval Philosophy (6th century – 16th century)

– from a state of polytheism to a belief in one god. God is the center of man’s life.
a. Medieval Era – from a state of polytheism to a belief in one god. God is the center of man’s life.
b. Renaissance – rebirth of classical civilization of learning (movement away from Christianity to Humanism.)
3. Modern Philosophy (17th century – 20th century)
- revival of EPISTEMOLOGY as one of its central features.
a. Age of Reason – development of science and art (Hobbes, Pascal, Locke, Leibniz, Spinoza).
b. Age of Enlightenment – faith in human rationality; defying tradition. (Rousseau, Hume, Berkeley)
c. Modern – characterizing scientific and political revolution. (Marx, Nietzsche, Sarte)
ACTIVITY #2

How do you define “happiness”? Do

you support the view of Socrates:
“To become happy, a person must
live a virtuous life”? Explain.