1.

Doing Philosophy

1.1 The Meaning of Philosophy

1.2 Recognize Human Activities that
Emanated from Deliberate Reflection
1.3 Why Become a Philosopher?
1.4 Philosophical Reflection
 Recognize Human Activities that
Emanated from Deliberate Reflection

After examining the definition of

philosophy, this section distinguishes its
branches from where recognition of
various human activities emanated from
the deliberate reflection and dialogs.
 Recognize Human Activities that
Emanated from Deliberate Reflection

In seeking “wisdom” one must have a

genuine sympathy and an understanding
of all diverse points of view (holistic
perspective)
 Recognize Human Activities that
Emanated from Deliberate Reflection

A real philosophical attitude is not

compatible with narrow-mindedness, one-
sided notions and one particular time
Recognize Human Activities that Emanated from
Deliberate Reflection
• Five Branches of Philosophy
– Metaphysics
• (Nature of universe)
– Ethics
• (The standard of justice)
– Epistemology
• (The validity of knowledge)
– Logic
• (The correct application of reason)
– Aesthetics
• (The criteria of beauty)
Metaphysics (Nature of universe)

It is an extension of a fundamental

and necessary drive in every human
being to know what is real.

To account what is real and unreal

An attempt to understand the world

in terms of appearance and reality.
 Metaphysics (Nature of universe)
Example 1:
For Thales, a Greek philosopher, everything is
water. He claims that everything we experience is
water – which we call “reality.” Everything else is
“appearance.” we then set out to try to explain
everything else (appearance) in terms of water
(reality). Clouds, form example, or blocks of ice do not
look like water, but they can be explained in terms of
water. When water evaporates, it becomes a cloud,
and when water freezes it becomes ice.
 Metaphysics (Nature of universe)

Example 2
Idealist and Materialist

They both base their theories on

unobservable entities

Idealist – mind
Materialist - matter
 Metaphysics (Nature of universe)

• Idealist
–We experience in our minds thoughts,
ideas, desires and fantasies but not the
mind having these thoughts, ideas, and
desires.
 Metaphysics (Nature of universe)

• Materialist
–We can see things like books
and chairs but we cannot see
underlying matter itself.
 Metaphysics (Nature of universe)

• Example 3
–Plato – a famous student of
Socrates
 Metaphysics (Nature of universe)

• Plato
– Reality is unchanging, eternal, immaterial and can
be detected only by the intellect.
– He calls these realities ideas or form
– These are meanings which universal, general
terms refer to and they are also those things we
are talking about when we discuss moral
mathematical, and scientific ideals.
 Metaphysics (Nature of universe)

• So metaphysics is an intellectual questioning

about the whole of reality.

• Pulling together the obvious multiplicity and

diversity into an intelligible unity.

• and articulated in a systematic way.

 Ethics
• It deals with the question how do we tell good from
evil or right from wrong?

• It is an attempt to provide an account of our

fundamental ethical ideas.

• Whereas religion has often motivated individuals to

obey the moral code of their society.

• Philosophy is not content with traditional or habitual

ethics but adopts a critical perspective.
 Ethics
• It insists that obedience to moral law be given
a rational foundation.
 Epistemology
• It deals with nature, sources, limitations, and validity
of knowledge.

• How we know what we claim to know?

• How we can find out what we wish to know?

• How we can differentiate truth from falsehood?

 Epistemology
• Epistemological problems
– Reliability, extent(degree), and kinds of knowledge
– Truth
– language
– Science
– Scientific knowledge
 Epistemology
• How do we acquire reliable knowledge?
1. Induction
2. Deduction
 Epistemology
• Induction
– Particular things seen, heard, and touched are more
important.

– General ideas are formed from the examination of

particular facts which can be learned through the senses.

– Philosophers who feel that knowledge is acquired in this

way are called empiricists. (John Locke)

– Empiricism is the view that knowledge can be attained

only through sense experience.
 Epistemology
• Deduction
– Other philosophers think it is more important to find a
general law according to which particular facts can be
understood or judged
– Its advocates are called rationalist (Rene Descartes)
– There is a distinction between real knowledge from mere
opinion.
– Real knowledge is based on the logic, the laws, and the
methods that reasons develops.
– Example of this is Mathematics.
 logic
• Reasoning is the concern of the logician.
• This could be reasoning in science and
medicine, in ethics and law, in politics and
commerce, in sports and games, and in the
affairs of everyday living.
• Logic comes from the Greek word “logike”
• Its concern is the truth or the validity of our
arguments regarding such objects.
 logic
• Aristotle understood truth to mean the agreement of
knowledge with reality.

• Truth exist when mind’s mental representations

known us ideas, correspond with things in the
objective world.(the connection of ideas in the objective world)

• Logical reasoning makes us certain that our

conclusions are true , and this provides us with
accepted scientific proofs of universally valid
propositions or statements.
 logic
• We are human beings possessed with reason.

• We use it when we make decisions or when we try to

influence the decisions of others or when we
engaged in argumentation and debate.

• A person who has studied logic is more likely to

reason correctly than another.
 aesthetics
• When humanity has learned to make something that
is useful to them, they begin to plan and dream how
to make it beautiful.

• What therefore is beauty?

• The establishment of criteria of beauty is the

function of aesthetic.
 aesthetics
• It is a science of the beautiful in its various
manifestation – including the sublime, comic,
tragic, pathetic, and ugly.

• It has relevance in our experience of arts.

 aesthetics
• Importance of aesthetics

– It vitalizes our knowledge.

– It helps us to live more deeply and richly.

– It brings us in touch with our culture.

 aesthetics
• Hans-Georg Gadamer, a German
philosopher, argues that our tastes and
judgements regarding beauty, work in
connection with one’s own personal
experience and culture.
Many of the most vital issue of philosophy
are still disputed and have unsettled
questions today.