Ethics mVLE 2020 1

Invitation to Philosophy and Ethics

Philosophy was born in ancient Greece, at the City of Miletus in Asia Minor in the 6th Century
BCE. The term Philosophy is formed by two Greek terms, “Philos” (love) and “Sophia”
(wisdom). Etymologically, therefore, philosophy means “Love of wisdom”.

Philosophy then refers to that entire body of

knowledge of all things in their time which involved
questioning, critical thinking, rational argumentation, and
systematized presentation. Basically, all knowledge then
was under the term philosophy. For instance, all
knowledge pertaining to the world and nature then were
simply subsumed under the category “Natural
Philosophy”.

The ancient Greeks had very little knowledge of

their world in those times. Unlike in our time when accumulated information about our wide universe is
readily available and learned through a systematic process called formal education (attending school from
preschool to college), not to mention our access to a ton of this information on the internet. It is in this
context of a lack of knowledge in the ancient period can we understand why Philosophy has something to
do with love.

The Greek “philos” is understood in a different way. Love is basically the feeling of lack. Loving is
the process of acquiring something you lack. Once the object of lack is acquired, loving ends and the love
for that thing also ceases to exist. For instance, the pandemic forced us all to stay at home and to learn
at home. You realized that you lack the proper gadget to make online learning possible. This feeling of
lack is what love basically is. You volunteered to wash the dishes every
night in exchange for a new laptop soon. This is your way of getting that
desired laptop which is actually the process of loving. Your mother agreed
to buy you a laptop finally. Do you still feel the lack? Not anymore! There
is no more feeling of lack (kulang) since the new laptop now somehow
completes your needs at the moment. That is the end of love for now until
you feel the need for another thing that you lack… such as a fast internet
for example. Then love starts all over again.

The same is true if love is directed towards a person. You are

attracted to someone possessing qualities that you like. Sometimes, you
pursue a person who can complete you and make you whole. This, again,
is the feeling of lack (which you normally call love). Courtship or doing
things that would attract that person towards you is already what loving
is. When you both finally pledge mutual love for each other, you
somehow complete each other as it were. The feeling of lack is gone. This
means that our basic experience of love as lack has ended. But for
persons, love should progress to some higher level called commitment.

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 Ethics mVLE 2020 2

As “Love of wisdom”, Philosophy then begins as a feeling of lack. What precisely do you lack in
philosophy? It is the lack of wisdom! It is the acceptance that you know nothing—the acceptance of one’s
ignorance about many things. Wisdom is different from knowledge. Knowledge is knowing the nature
and relation of things, persons, events, and ideas around you. Wisdom however is about how to live your
life accordingly now that you know the nature and relation of things, persons, events, and ideas around
you. While knowledge about something is acquired through research and education, wisdom however is
something no one can acquire in its totality. This makes philosophy a lifelong process. Even a generation
of thinkers cannot acquire the totality of wisdom. Thus philosophy is still a constant pursuit and a constant
clarification of such wisdom from one generation to another.

The first object of lack the ancient Greeks were concerned of was the
nature of the universe which is in constant change. They raised the question, if
things are in constant change, “What is real?” This includes the reality not only
of things but of ideas, persons, events, and the like. This later developed into
the philosophical branch called Metaphysics which dominated how they
understood things, persons, events, and ideas from ancient period to early
modern period.

The second object of lack in philosophy was whether we can

know these things at all in their true reality or not. They raised the
question, if things are real, then “How can we know them?” This
developed into the philosophical branch called Epistemology. This
dominated the philosophical inquiry in the early modern period when
science emerged to challenge Metaphysics. Science seemed more
effective than metaphysics in unlocking the mysteries of the
universe. It claims to have direct access to the world and can show the
reality of this world through experience, investigation, and
experimentation; not through philosophical speculation. Thus
philosophers inquired into the nature and limits of our capacity to know things through Epistemology.

Third, philosophy is known to be concerned about a third important question that pervades the
entire human history of the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom from ancient period to present—if things
are real and we can know their nature, “do they have value?” This developed into the philosophical
branch called Ethics. This is the course you are now enrolled in.

Ethics is the branch of Philosophy concerned with the proper

distinction between what is good or bad, right or wrong, correct or
incorrect behavior, based on first principles or fundamental
causes. We can distinguish good from bad naturally because we
have our personal set of standards in determining what is right from
what is wrong. We call this morality. But there are times when what
is right for you may not be right to another person. There are times
even when abortion, for instance, is considered alright in another
country but not in ours. Even religions actually have different views about what is good or bad. Even
manners and right conduct differ from one country to another. Ethics is the discipline that attempts to

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resolve these differences by basing our moral decisions on reason, impartiality, and fundamental
principles.

In our time, knowledge of things, persons,

events, and ideas are no longer called
philosophy. Various disciplines are already
separate from Philosophy after gradually
establishing themselves as distinct sciences having
their own method of inquiry. For example, the
knowledge of the physical world is now dominated
by Physics. The knowledge about the universe is
dominated by Astrophysics. The knowledge of
living organisms is now dominated by Biology and
its more specific branches such as Zoology and
Botany. Psychology became authority over human
behavior. Sociology is authority over society and
the implications of humanity’s social nature. There
are other sciences that we need not mention
here. So what area of specialty remained in
Philosophy? What kind of knowledge and wisdom
does philosophy offer now that almost all aspects of
human life are dominated by specific sciences and
disciplines?

Back in ancient Greece, Thales was identified as the first ancient philosopher not because of the
answer he came up with but because of a new type of question he started. He was in search of the
fundamental principle of all things called the “hyle” or the basic stuff all things are made of. This search
for first principles or fundamental cause of all things remains to be a unique preoccupation of philosophy
up to this day. These first principles seem to be impervious to all other sciences out there except
philosophy.

This gives us the basic definition of philosophy given to all beginners in a philosophy
course. Philosophy is the study of all things, insofar as they exist, in their ultimate causes or first
principles (Sangay iti adal maipanggep ti puon ken gapu iti amin a banag babaen ti pannakaipakat ti
panunot ken nakem ti maysa a tao [trans. Dr. Fides A. Bitanga]). This means that philosophy is concerned
with things that simply exist, no matter what these things are, and the first principle or cause for that
existence. This seems difficult to understand but try to remember when you were younger and how you
insisted on asking repeated and successive “why’s” to every answer your parents gave you. What you
really wanted was the ultimate answer to all your questions. In Filipino, you were asking for the “pinaka-
dahilan” or in Iluko, you were asking for the “puon ken gapu”.

This is so because you were so young and you knew very little about all things around you. You
were so curious that you really wanted to get into the very source or reason behind all those things; just
like the ancient Greeks who had very few knowledge about their world back then. The lack of ready
knowledge about all things around you made you wonder about a lot of things new to you as a kid. That

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precisely is the starting point of philosophizing—wonder and amazement. You wonder at something you
do not know at all.

This reminds us about philosophy as love of wisdom or the acceptance of one’s lack in wisdom. If
you do not know something, you want to know everything about that thing down to its ultimate
cause. Thus, philosophy as love of wisdom and the search for first and fundamental principles is so
defined.

Welcome to Philosophy!

Let us apply these definitions to Ethics. You know the difference between good and bad, right
and wrong even before you studied Ethics. You usually base what is right and wrong from principles of
good manners and right conduct. But manners and conduct differs from one culture to another. For
instance, slurping is bad manners in most western peoples but it is a sign of appreciation among the
Japanese. In cases like these, you are asked to respect the culture of another by not offering
judgment. That means, right conduct and etiquette are not the first principles for good and bad, right or
wrong behavior. There is a deeper and more fundamental principle that is of more value when manners
are in conflict with another. Respect for another’s culture has more value than cultural etiquette.

You base your judgment for what is right or wrong most of the time from rules and laws. But rules
and laws also differ from one country to another. For instance, death penalty is legal in some states in
America while it is illegal in our country. That means there is a deeper value involved in this case other
than killing the offender for reparation. We call this the dignity of life and the chance for conversion. Laws
are not the first principles for what is right or wrong. Laws rather are written based on deeper and more
fundamental principles of right and wrong.

Most of the time, what is good or bad to you is what you believe God tells you. But this actually
is what your religion tells you rather than what God tells you literally. And there are conflicting religious
laws out there such as prohibiting blood transfusion despite the fact that only transfusion can save life for
instance. Not to mention that religion has been the cause of lots of bloody wars from ancient to present
times. When religious laws are in conflict and somehow you intuitively sense that something is wrong
with some religious laws, this means that, there is still a deeper value than obedience to religious laws.

Did you notice how we argued deeper to more fundamental principles as we go along? Were you
able to realize that you lack these principles after all? You begin to philosophize when you accept this
ignorance—the lack of wisdom in the proper distinction between right from wrong. Studying Ethics will
give you access to these first and fundamental principles and methods in distinguishing what is right from
what is wrong. These fundamental principles of morality are right regardless of culture, laws, or
religion. What are these principles? Well, that is what this course has to offer.

Welcome to Ethics!

Rex-Belli L. Alejandro
August 2020

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Rex Alejandro | MMSU-CAS SOKSAY