Introduction to and History of

Prof. Sam Bernales, Jr.

Introduction to and History of Philosophy
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Prof. Sam Bernales, Jr.
 1987 Philippine Constitution
• Article XIV
• Section 1
• Protect and promote the
right of all citizens to
quality education at all
levels
• Section 3
• All educational institutions
must develop in their
students critical and
creative thinking
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 Critical and Creative Thinking
• Philosophical Dimension
• Analytical
• Synthetic
• Process of inference

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 Philosophy?

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 Philosophy by Analogy
• Candlelight in a dark room
• World
• Dark room
• Student
• Blind
• Cannot see things clearly

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 Philosophy by Analogy
• Candlelight in a dark room
• Teacher
• Bearer of light
• Must show the way by guiding
students
• making sound judgment and wise
decisions
• Ordering priorities
• Knowing things that are worth
learning

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 Etymology
• Philos + Sophia
• Love
• Wisdom
• Practical knowledge
• Love for Wisdom
• Philosophy
• Not a subject
• Act (action like P.E. but mental)
• Act of Philosophizing
• Catching oneself with a serious
question that affects one’s life
• Act of intellectual quest that transcends the
limits of the science
• Endless search for meaning, ultimate reason,
cause, principle and absolute truth
• Weltanschauung (German) World view of
person
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 Etymology
• Pythagoras
• 580 B.C. – 497 B.C.
• Coined the term Philos and Sophia
• Mathematician
• Called himself as Lover of Wisdom
instead of Wise Man which is
commonly used in Greece

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 Branches of Philosophy
• Practical Philosophy/ Logic
• Reasoning and Argumentation
• Critical Philosophy/ Epistemology
• Concept of Knowledge
• Speculative Philosophy/
Metaphysics
• Fundamental questions of Reality
• Normative Philosophy/ Ethics
• Human Values
• Aesthetics
• Beauty and Art

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 Areas of Philosophy
• Philosophy of the Human Person
• Oriental Philosophy
• Western Philosophy
• Social Philosophy
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Education
• Political Philosophy
• Filipino Philosophy

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 Introduction to and History of Philosophy
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 Significance of Philosophy
• Philosophy
• Provides solutions to the
problems that concern
people of today.
• Religion
• Politics
• Education
• Language
• Arts
• Economy
• Morality
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 Philosophical Timeline
• Ancient
• What is the basic stuff of the
universe?
• Medieval
• Does God exist?
• Modern
• What is the meaning and the
purpose of the Human Person?
• Contemporary
• What is?

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 Ancient Philosophers
• COSMOCENTRIC
• 600 B.C. – 600 A.D.
• Thales of Miletus (624 B.C. – c. 546 B.C.)
– Water
• Anaximander (610 B.C. – 546 B.C.) -
Apeiron
• Heraclitus (574 B.C. – 540 B.C.) – Logos
(change)
• Anaximenes (585 B.C. – 525 B.C.) – Air
• Anaxagoras (500 B.C. – 428 B.C.) – Fire
(change)
• Parmenides (515 B.C. – 485 B.C.) –
Change is unreal; universe has no
beginning and no end
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 Great Philosophers
• Socrates
• Plato
• Aristotle

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 Socrates
• Socrates
• 469 BC – 399 BC
• Father was a Stonemason and mother was a midwife
• Has an ugly physical appearance but claimed to have inner
beauty of the soul
• Classical Greek Athenian Philosopher
• Maxim: “An unexamined live is not worth living. Know
thyself”
• Roamed and taught in Agora
• Uses Socratic Method
• Dialectic/ Question and Answer Method
• Teacher of Plato
• Prosecuted by Meletus from the accusation of Anytus
• Impiety
• Corrupting the minds of the minor
• Was made to drink the chalice of Hemlock
• Ethics
• To know the good is to do good
• Father of Moral Philosophy (Ethics)

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 Activity
• Topic
• Who am I?
• Situation
• As a Human Person
• Instruction
• Discussion
• Essay (15 Points)
• Three paragraphs
• Minimum of five sentences each
• Maxim
• An unexamined life in not worth
living. Know thyself. - Socrates

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 Activity
• Topic
• Who am I?: Examining Life
• Situation
• As a Human Person
• Instruction
• Discussion
• Essay (30 Points)
• Six paragraphs
• Minimum of five
sentences each
• Questions
• Am I my name?
• Am I my body?
• Am I my status?
• Am I my religion?
• Am I my dress?
• Am I what you think I am?
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 Activity
• Topic
• Who am I?: Knowing Self
• Situation
• As a Human Person
• Instruction
• Discussion
• Essay (20 Points)
• Four paragraphs
• Minimum of five sentences each

• Questions
• Who am I to myself?
• Who am I to my parents?
• Who am I to my classmates?
• The warrior is a child
• Who am I to God?
• Story of the wemmicks
• Search for Self ultimately ends
with the Absolute

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 !Plato
• Plato (Aristocles)
• 427 BC — 347 BC
• Relative of Solon, Lawgiver
• Student of Socrates
• Mathematician and Poet
• Founded Academia
• From Greek hero Academus
• Lasted almost 900 years until closed by Emperor
Justinian in 529 A.D.
• Teacher of Aristotle
• World of Forms
• Unchanging
• Human Person
• Rational, Spirited and Appetitive
• Soul
• Intellect, Will and Emotion
• Virtues can be taught
• Prudence/ Wisdom , Fortitude, Temperance and
Justice
• Ethics
• To know the good is to do good
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 Plato
• Works:
• Symposium
• Genesis
• The Republic
• Ideal Society
• Phaedrus
• Platonic Love
• Allegory of the
Cave
• Imprisonment
in Ignorance
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 Plato
• Kinds of Good
• Essential
• Satisfies the need of the human person e.g.
food, shelter et al
• Accidental
• Satisfies the wants of the human person e.g.
money, cars, et al
• Real
• Intrinsic value e.g. Persons and Relationship
• Apparent
• Evil which is subjectively viewed as good e.g.
drinking, smoking, drugs, et al
• Perfective
• Integral growth and development of the
human person e.g. education, sports,
medicines, et al
• Non-perfective
• External appearance of the human person e.g.
title, dress, et al
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 !Aristotle
• Aristotle
• 384 BC – 322 BC (Died in Chalcis at age 62)
• Lived in Stagira in Thrace
• From lineage of physicians
• Student (17 years old) of Plato (61 years old)
• Learned and taught in Academia
• Teacher of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy
• The Father of Logic
• Organon (Greek) Instrument
• Founded Lyceum, a Peripatetic School of Philosophy
• Nicomachean Ethics
• Happiness is the goal of life not as means
• Not just an emotion but a state of being
• Attainable by habitual virtue
• Kind of Habit
• Mental Activity e.g. Contemplation
• Practical Action e.g. Courage
• Golden Mean
• Principle of Moderation

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 Golden Mean of Aristotle
Vice of Deficiency Virtuous Mean Vice of Excess
Cowardice Courage Rashness
Want of Ambition Right Ambition Over-ambition
Ironical Depreciation Sincerity Boastfulness
Boorishness Wittiness Buffoonery
Humble-mindedness High-mindedness Vaingloriness
Spiritlessness Good Temper Irascibility
Insensibility Temperance Intemperance
Illiberality Liberality Prodigality
Pettiness Munificence Vulgarity
Surliness Friendly Civility Obsequiousness
Shamelessness Modesty Bashfulness
Callousness Just Resentment Spitefulness
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 Aristotle
• Books
• Physics
• Poetry
• Music
• Politics
• Biology
• Zoology
• Categories
• Elements
• Causality
• Material
• Formal
• Efficient
• Final
• World of Matter
• Senses

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 Aristotle
• Treatises
• Nicomachean Ethics
• Eudemian Ethics
• Magna Moralia
• Great Ethics

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 Medieval Philosophers
• THEOCENTRIC
• 600AD - 1600AD
• St. Augustine of Hippo
• Boethius
• Peter Abelard
• St. Anselm of Canterbury
• St. Bonaventure
• St. Thomas Aquinas
• John Duns Scotus
• William of Ockham
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 !Modern Philosophers
• ANTHROPOCENTRIC
• 1600AD - 1900AD
• David Hume
• Sense Impression
• Moral Sense Theory
• Sympathy

• Rene Descartes
• Reason
• Immanuel Kant
• Categorical Imperative
• Unconditional Goodness

• George Hegel
• Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis

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 Contemporary Philosophers
• HOLISTIC
• 1900AD - Present
• Michel Foucault
• Jurgen Habermas
• Jacques Derrida
• Martin Heidegger
• Karl Popper
• Bertrand Russell
• Jean-Paul Sartre
• Peter Singer
• Alfred North Whitehead
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Jean Paul Sartre
• Gottlob Frege
• Jean Francois Lyotard
• Karl Marx
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 Three methods in earning wisdom
• Confucius
• Imitation
• Easiest
• Experience
• Most Bitter
• Reflection
• Most noble

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 3 Levels of Inquiry
• Common Sense
• Scientific
• Philosophical

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 Philosophizing
• Steps in Philosophizing
• Wonder
• Starting point of Philosophy
• Doubt
• No believing what is already presented
• Limit Situations
• Man is bound to here and now
• Metaphysical Uneasiness
• Knowing beyond physical attributes
• Philosophical Questions
• Human Person’s deepest quest for
Answers
• Philosophy does not grant that we arrive
to the Answer per se, but it guarantees
that it will lead us to the path going there

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 Philosophical Questions
• Epistemology
• What is reality?
• What is knowledge?
• How do we know that we
know?
• Metaphysics
• Who am I?
• Does God exist?
• Ethics
• Is good and evil limited to
humanity?
• Where does life begin?
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