What is Philosophy?

• Greek: Philos – Love; Sophia – Wisdom (coined by Pythagoras)

• The definition of Philosophy is one of the problems of philosophy

• Philosophy is the study of those subjects which may be understood only by

considering the ways in which they are talked about.1

• Philosophical Subjects have life in our Language.

o Speaking

o Writing

• What make these considerations philosophical?

o The investigation of the meaning of terms or a proposal of a new term to

advance some area of philosophical enquiry

 Philosophy as speculation

o The criticism of the use of some term

 Philosophy as Criticism

• Similarities of Philosophy to Other Subjects

o We find out about them by learning how to talk about them.

o Useful in organizing our experience of the world.

• Differences of Philosophy to other subjects

o Fundamental importance of philosophical subjects to a reflective

person.

o Lack of general agreement about how a given philosophical

subject is to be defined.

• Some Philosophical Questions

o What is knowledge?

o What is reality?

o Is there a God?

o What makes actions good?

• How to Read Philosophy

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C.f. Sprague and Taylor
 o Get clear what the author is saying

o Evaluate what the author said

 Is it consistent with the world?

 Is it consistent with itself?

• Some Other Characteristics of Philosophy

o Philosophy itself is a chorus of many voices saying many different things.

o Philosophical thinking is a lifetime activity.

o We can only live according to tentative conclusions, re-examining them as our

philosophical thinking develops. “the life of reason”

o To live this kind of life is to live as a thinking being.

Branches of Philosophy2

Metaphysics

 Concerns

o nature of reality

o “What it means to be?”

 Some basic questions/ Subjects talked about

o What is reality?

o What is being?

o What is the nature of God?

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C.f. Mourant and Freund
 o Are we free or determined?

 Philosophical Movements and traditions/ How are they talked

about?

o Materialists contend that everything is material (manifestation of

matter).

o The analysis of being distinguishes between appearance and reality.

Aesthetics

 Concerns

o the nature of aesthetic experience

o the idea of the beautiful

 Some basic questions/ Subjects talked about

o What is beauty?

o What is art?

o Are there standards of beauty?

 Philosophical Movements and traditions/ How are they talked about?

o Aesthetic experience may be an evaluation of emotions and

sentiments

o The idea of beautiful may be analyzed in terms of utility, truth,

pleasure expression and form

Philosophy of Science

 Concerns

o the nature of scientific knowledge and the methodology of the sciences

o analysis of basic theoretical concepts of science

o nature of hypothesis and the laws of nature

o method of induction

 Philosophical Movements and traditions/ How are they talked about?

 o David Hume on Causation

 Science as C-E oriented – “There is a necessary connection

between C & E”

C à E

 (egg will break when dropped on the floor)

 Hume: “ There is only a seeming necessary connection between

C & E”

 “habit of anticipation”

Philosophy of Religion (does not rely on faith or revelation)

 Concerns
o the nature of religion
o the relationship of man to God

o the existence/nature of God

o the meaning of religious experience and the various forms such an

experience may take

o the meaning of good/evil from the religious point of view

o the nature of religious beliefs/religious language and the validity of

religious knowledge

 Some basic questions/ Subjects talked about

o Does God exist?

o How can God’s existence be proved?

 Philosophical Movements and traditions /How are they talked about?

o Spinoza (pantheistic view) – God is in everything and everything is

God.

o Descartes (personal/Christian God) – God, the most perfect being,

cannot be deceived and cannot deceive. Thus the veracity of God
serves as a guarantee for the entire series of clear and distinct ideas.
Social and Political Philosophy

 Concerns

o general problems and principles that affect the entire political society
of men (presents landscape of problems, methods of analysis and
solutions)

o meaning and ethical bases of law

o analysis of the origin of social order

o rights and duties of individuals in a political society

o determination of the form of society/government

o origin, uses & limitations of political power; who should rule?

o reflections on “justice”

 Some basic questions/ Subjects talked about

o What is the best form of government?

o Who should rule?

o Do we have basic rights?

o What is justice?

 Philosophical Movements and traditions/ How are they talked about?

o Thomas Hobbes

 “Leviathan” (on the origin of social order/ on man’s state of

nature)

 man’s state of nature: wild, savage, dangerous; a condition of

war (everyone against everyone)

 3 PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF QUARREL (Competition, Diffidence and

Glory)

 propounded a social contract theory

• first state was created by a contract

• state was created to escape the travail of man’s natural life
 • agreed to create a monarch (with absolute power over them)
whose primary purpose is to keep peace
• absence of state will mean chaos
o NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

 “The Prince”

 describes the method by which a prince can acquire and maintain

political power

 prince should be concerned only with power and be bound only by

rules that would lead to success in political actions

 “the end justifies the means”