ARNIE A.

VALDEZ
AR-5A
ASSIGNMENT IN PHILOSOPHY

1.DEFINE PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those
connected
with reality, existence, knowledge, values,reason, mind and language.
The Ancient Greek word (philosophia) was likely coined
by Pythagoras and literally means "love of wisdom" or "friend of
wisdom." Philosophy has been divided into many sub-fields. It has been
divided chronologically (e.g., ancient and modern); by topic (the major topics
being epistemology, logic, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics); and by style
2.NATURE AND FUNCTION OF PHILOSOPHY
1. Philosophy analyzes the foundations and presuppositions underlying other
disciplines.
2. Philosophy attempts to develop a comprehensive conception or
apprehension of the world.
3. Philosophy studies and critically evaluates our most deeply held beliefs
and attitudes; in particular, those which are often held uncritically.
4. Philosophy investigates the principles and rules of language, and attempts
to clarify the meaning of vague words and concepts.
3.DIFFERENT APPROACHES ON THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY
1. If you can not prove something is real, then it does not lead to a contrary
conclusion, but it is still seen as being harmonious in the aspects of method and
conception.
2. There is one thing in which a proposition should and will in most cases confirm.
This means that no one can doubt realities because it would not be a source of
dissatisfaction. The hypothesis is then something that everyone must agree on and
admit.
3. Everyone uses the scientific method for many things and only not use it when
one does not know how to apply it to the situation.
4. Using or gaining experience of the method does not make us want to use it but
helps us settle our opinions. Because of its many splendid triumphs, it has become
a permanent part of our lives.

4.COMPARISON BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER SCIENCES

The touchstone of the value of philosophy as a world-view and methodology
is the degree to which it is interconnected with life. This interconnection may
be both direct and indirect, through the whole system of culture, through
science, art, morality, religion, law, and politics. As a special form of social
consciousness, constantly interacting with all its other forms, philosophy is
their general theoretical substantiation and interpretation.

Can philosophy develop by itself, without the support of science?

Can science "work" without philosophy? Some people think that
the sciences can stand apart from philosophy, that the scientist
should actually avoid philosophising, the latter often being
understood as groundless and generally vague theorising. If the
term philosophy is given such a poor interpretation, then of course
anyone would agree with the warning "Physics, beware of
metaphysics!" But no such warning applies to philosophy in the
higher sense of the term. The specific sciences cannot and should
not break their connections with true philosophy.

Science and philosophy have always learned from each other.

Philosophy tirelessly draws from scientific discoveries fresh
strength, material for broad generalisations, while to the sciences
it imparts the world-view and methodological im pulses of its
universal principles. Many general guiding ideas that lie at the
foundation of modern science were first enunciated by the
perceptive force of philosophical thought. One example is the idea
of the atomic structure of things voiced by Democritus. Certain
conjectures about natural selection were made in ancient times by
the philosopher Lucretius and later by the French thinker Diderot.
Hypothetically he anticipated what became a scientific fact two
centuries later. We may also recall the Cartesian reflex and the
philosopher's proposition on the conservation of motion in the
universe. On the general philosophical plane Spinoza gave grounds
for the universal principle of determinism. The idea of the
existence of molecules as complex particles consisting of atoms
was developed in the works of the French philosopher Pierre
Gassendi and also Russia's Mikhail Lomonosov. Philosophy
nurtured the hypothesis of the cellular structure of animal and

vegetable organisms and formulated the idea of the development

and universal connection of phenomena and the principle of the
material unity of the world. Lenin formulated one of the
fundamental ideas of contemporary natural sciencethe principle
of the inexhaustibility of matterupon which scientists rely as a
firm methodological foundation.
5.IMPORTANCE OF PHILOSOPHY

A philosophic system is an integrated view of existence. As a

human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a
philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy
by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and
scrupulously logical deliberation -- or let your subconscious
accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false
generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans,
unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance,
but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel
philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, like a
ball and chain in the place where your mind's wings should have
grown

6. DIVISION AND BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY

Axiology: the study of value; the investigation of its nature,

criteria, and metaphysical status. More often than not, the term
"value theory" is used instead of "axiology" in contemporary
discussions even though the term theory of value is used with
respect to the value or price of goods and services in economics.
a) Ethics: the study of values in human behavior or the study
of moral problems: e.g., (1) the rightness and wrongness of
actions, (2) the kinds of things which are good or desirable,
and (3) whether actions are blameworthy or praiseworthy.

b) sthetics: the study of value in the arts or the inquiry into

feelings, judgments, or standards of beauty and related
concepts. Philosophy of art is concerned with judgments of
sense, taste, and emotion.

Epistemology: the study of knowledge. In particular,

epistemology is the study of the nature, scope, and limits of
human knowledge.

Ontology or Metaphysics: the study of what is really real.

Metaphysics deals with the so-called first principles of the natural
order and "the ultimate generalizations available to the human
intellect." Specifically, ontology seeks to indentify and establish
the relationships between the categories, if any, of the types of
existent things.