What is Philosophy?

Who are you?

Is there a god? heaven? hell?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

What is evil?

If we are moving towards a place and time is also moving, then it must mean that we never really reach our destination…

Why do people love?

Why is there evil and suffering ?

If reality is what is perceived by our senses then could we consider the things that we do not perceive as real?

Why are you here?

How do we attain happiness?

What do philosophers do?

WONDER

Philosophy in the Philippine Context

The negative image of a philosopher (pilosopo) could be traced to the influence brought about by the misreadings of Rizal’s novels, Noli and El Fili

Philosophy in the Philippine Context

Instead of taking the criticisms of Pilosopong Tasyo, What was inculcated in the mind of the Filipinos was the image of a person who is annoying (“makulit”, “matanong” at “nakakainis”)

Philosophy was taken as a decadent and evil way of thought which should be avoided

Sorting out the mess…

Philosophy is historically situated

Philosophy is not a singular ideology

Philosophy is not a stand alone discipline

Philosophy does not provide the solution to the problems of the world

Sorting out the mess…

There is no such thing as an irrefutable philosophy

Philosophy is not intellectual masturbation

Not all philosophers are atheists

Defining Philosophy Etymological

Definition

I am not a sophist, I am only a

philosopher- Pythagoras

Philo/ philein – to love + Sophia – wisdom

= philosophy (love of wisdom)

Defining Philosophy

Nominal Definition

Philosophy is the science of all things in their ultimate causes and principles as known by the

light of natural reason

Defining Philosophy

Science – it is a science in as much as it tries to investigate things (beings and entities) in a methodic organized manner

Defining Philosophy

It is concerned with all things which can be comprehended by the human mind

e.g. the trees, the sun, heavenly bodies, god, love, death, right and wrong

Defining Philosophy

In their ultimate causes and principles – because philosophy is concerned with the “why” as pertaining to the reason / meaning/truth behind things

Defining Philosophy

Natural Reason – the only tool that philosophy uses is “reason”

It does not use faith in dealing with its investigations but it can possibly re-inforce faith (e.g. medieval philosophy)

Knowing is different from Believing

Other definitions…

Philosophy is a personal attitude towards life and the universe

It is a method of reflective thinking and reasoned inquiry

An attempt to gain a view of the big whole

Other Definitions…

The logical analysis of language and the clarification of meaning of words and concepts

A group of problems as well as theories or solution

Why study philosophy?

If philosophy is so good then how come your teacher is not earning much from it? If it is so good then how come the world is as terrible

as it is? And if philosophy is so good, why isn’t everyone

interested in it?

Why… Philosophy will enable you to

systematize all the important knowledge in the domain of reason

It will guide you in distinguishing truth from error and help you search for truth

It will provide you with the ability to analyze and understand things not only as they are but also with what lies beneath these things

Why…

Philosophy will give you insights about your nature as a human being; it will help you understand yourself and others, and in turn helps you improve yourself

Philosophy will guide you in your search for meaning and the cause of your existence

at some point in time, everything must have come from something…

The first philosophers were the Milesians and the Pre-Socratics

What is the ultimate stuff which comprise the universe?

Where did everything begin?

COSMOCENTRIC

A Brief History

Thales

Anaximander

Anaximenes

A Brief History

Pythagoras

Heraclitus

Parmenides

A Brief History

Empedocles

Leucippus

Democritus

The Triumvirate

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

Fides et Ratio…

Marriage of faith and reason

St. Thomas’ 5 proofs of God’s existence

THEOCENTRIC

AUGUSTINE

THOMAS

Enlightenment Period

How do we know?

How do we attain certainty?

IDEOCENTRIC

Contemporary

Anthropocentric?

Pastiche?

Postmodern?

Phenomenological?

Branches of Philosophy

Philosophy is generally concerned with three things

-the world -the human being -the transcendental realm

Branches

*Metaphysics – deals with the study of the nature of beings as it tries to answer questions like “What is being?” and “What are the fundamental properties of being?”

Branches

• Epistemology – comes from gk. Episteme which means “knowledge” and Logos – study

-What is knowledge? How do we know and is knowledge possible?

Branches

• Ethics- study of morality of human acts. It deals with the axioms in which man would consider his moral activity

• Cosmology - the science of the nature of the world. How the universe came to be and how the world operates.

Branches

Aesthetics – the philosophical study of art and of value judgments about art, and of beauty in general

Rational Psychology – the study of human beings particularly their existence. Topics such as freedom, love death, responsibility etc. are discussed.

Branches Social Philosophy / Political

Philosophy – study of man and society (social organizations, government)

Logic – the science and art of valid inferential reasoning. It is the technology of judgment in which thoughts are communicated and he same time validated in its processes

Current Traditions

Analytic Philosophy – logic, testability, precision and clarity

-close linguistic analyses Existentialism – fundamental

questions of meaning and choices as they affect individuals

Phenomenology – “going back to the things themselves”