CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCING PHILOSOPHY

Chapter Outlines:
 Understanding the meaning, nature and features of philosophy;
 Recognizing the major fields of philosophy; and
 Understanding why it is so important to learn logic and philosophy.
 1. Meaning and Nature of Philosophy
 Because of its universal nature, it is difficult to define philosophy in
terms of a specific subject matter.
 It studies about philosophical problems/issues like Existence, Essence,
Knowledge, mind-body, language and ultimate reality.
 Etymologically, the word philosophy comes from two Greek words:
‘philo’ and ‘sophia’, which mean ‘love’ and ‘wisdom’ respectively.
 Philosophy, which literally means the ‘love of wisdom’, is therefore,
begins with wonder/curiosity about our most basic beliefs.
 Its goal is to help us achieve autonomy by making us more aware of
our own beliefs and encouraging us to reason and think through issues
for ourselves.
 Cont.
 Philosophy is a rational and critical enterprise that tries to formulate
and answer fundamental questions through an intensive application of
reason “an application that draws on analysis, comparison, and
evaluation”.
 Accordingly, we can say that Philosophy has:

 A constructive side, for it attempts to formulate rationally defensible

answers to certain fundamental questions concerning the nature of
reality, the nature of value, and the nature of knowledge and truth.
 A critical side is manifested when it deals with giving a rational
critic, analysis, clarification, and evaluation of answers given to
basic metaphysical, epistemological, and axiological questions
 2. Basic Features of Philosophy

The followings are salient features of philosophy:

 Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and the universe,
which are often held uncritically
 It is a process of reflecting on and criticizing our most deeply held
ideas and beliefs
 It is a rational attempt to look at the world as a whole.
 It is the logical analysis of language and the clarification of the
meaning of words and concepts.
 Philosophy is a group of perennial problems that interest people
and for which philosophers always have sought answers.
 Core Fields of Philosophy
There are Four Branches of Philosophy
A. Metaphysics
 The term metaphysics is derived from the Greek words “meta” means
(beyond, upon or after) and physika, means (physics).
 The etymological meaning of this term is that which transcends the
physical realm.
 Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the ultimate
nature of reality or existence.
 It deals with issues of reality, God, freedom, soul/immortality, the
mind-body problem, form and substance relationship, cause and effect
relationship, and other related issues.
 Cont.
 Here are some of the questions that Metaphysics primarily deals with:
What is reality?
What is the ultimately real?
What is the nature of the ultimate reality?
Can reality be grasped by the senses, or it is transcendent?
What is mind, and what is its relation to the body?
Does God exist, and if so, can we prove it?
Are human actions free, or predetermined by a supernatural
force?
 Cont.
 Metaphysical questions may be divided into four subsets or aspects.
These are:
o Cosmological Aspect:
o Theological Aspect:
o Anthropological Aspect:
o Ontological Aspect:
 I. Cosmological Aspect:
 Is the study of theories about the origin, nature, and development of the
universe as an orderly system. Questions Like:
 How did the universe originate and develop?
 Did it come about by accident or design?
 Does its existence have any purpose?
II. Theological Aspect:
 Theology is part of religious theory that deals with conceptions of and about
God.
 Is there a God? If so, is there one or more than one?
 What are the attributes of God?
 If God is both all good and all powerful, why does evils exist? Etc.
 III. Anthropological Aspect:
 Anthropology deals with the study of human beings and
asks questions like:
 What is the relation between mind and body?
 Is mind more fundamental than body, with body depending on
mind, or vice versa?
 What is humanity‘s moral status?
 Are people born good, evil, or morally neutral?
 To what extent are individuals free?
 Do they have free will, or are their thoughts and actions
determined by their environment, inheritance, or a divine being?
 IV. Ontological Aspect:
 Ontology is the study of the nature of existence, or what it
means for  anything to exist.
 Several questions are central to ontology:
Is basic reality found in matter or physical energy (the
world we can sense), or is it found in spirit or spiritual
energy?
Is it composed of one element (e.g., matter or spirit), or
two (e.g., matter and spirit), or many?
Is reality orderly and lawful in itself, or is it merely
orderable by the human mind?
Is it fixed and stable, or change its central features?
Is this reality friendly, unfriendly, or neutral toward
humanity? 
 B. Epistemology
 Epistemology is a field of philosophy that studies about the nature, scope,
meaning, and possibility of knowledge.

 The word epistemology has been derived from the Greek words “episteme’’,
meaning ‘knowledge’, ‘understanding’, and “logy’’, meaning ‘study of’.

 Epistemology or theory of knowledge envisages the messages about the

methods and techniques involved in knowledge itself.

 It is a deep study about the origin of knowledge, nature of knowledge,

relevance of knowledge and validity of knowledge.

 Epistemologists examine & recognized sources of knowledge, including

perceptual experience, reason, memory, and testimony.
 Cont.
 One of the most notable epistemological debates is between empiricism
and rationalism.
 Empiricism places emphasis on observational evidence via sensory
experience as the source of knowledge.
 Empiricism is associated with a posteriori knowledge, which is
obtained through experience (such as scientific knowledge).
 The second source of knowledge is rationalism which assumes
knowledge as an outcome of rational reasoning.
 Rationalism places emphasis on reason as a source of knowledge.
 Rationalism is associated with a priori knowledge, which is
independent of experience (such as logic and mathematics).
 Cont.
 A third source of human knowledge is intuition the direct
apprehension of knowledge that is not derived from conscious
reasoning or immediate sense perception.
 It is an “immediate feeling of certainty.
 A fourth influential source of knowledge throughout the span of
human history has been revelation.
 Revealed knowledge has been of prime importance in the field of
religion.
 It differs from all other sources of knowledge because it presupposes
a transcendent supernatural reality that breaks into the natural order.
 A fifth source of human knowledge, is authority.
 Authoritative knowledge is accepted as true because it comes from
experts or has been sanctified over time as tradition.
 C. Axiology
 The term Axiology stems from two Greek words “Axios” meaning value,
worth, and “logy’’, meaning reason/ theory/ symbol/ science/ study of.
 Hence, axiology is the philosophical study of value, which originally
meant the worth of something.
 Axiology asks the philosophical questions of values that deals with
notions of what a person or a society regards as good or preferable, such
as:
 What is a value?
 Where do values come from?
 How do we justify our values?
 How do we know what is valuable? etc.
 The distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic value is central to
axiology:
 Cont.
 Intrinsic Value: we say things are intrinsically valuable because we
value these things not for what they lead to but for what they are.
Therefore, something is intrinsically valuable if it is good in itself or
good for its own sake.
 Instrumental (extrinsic) Value: we say things are Instrumentally
valuable because the goodness of these things lies in their being
instruments towards the attainment of the other things which are
considered good not simply as instruments.
 Axiology is intimately connected with various other philosophical
fields that crucially depend on the notion of value, like ethics,
aesthetics and social/ political philosophy.
 I. Ethics/ Moral Philosophy

 Ethics is derived from the Greek word “Ethos” which means customs,
character, usages or habits.
 Thus, ethics literally means the science of customs, ways of behavior,
character or the science of human behavior.
 Ethics is the area of philosophy which investigates the principles
governing human actions in terms of their goodness, badness,
rightness, and wrongness, duties and obligations.
 It is the philosophical study of moral principles, values, codes, and
rules, which may be used as standards for determining what kind of
human conduct/action is said to be good or bad, right or wrong.
 Philosophers today usually divide ethical theories into three general
subject areas: meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics.

Meta-ethics
 It focuses on the meaning of ethical terms themselves (for instance,
‘what is goodness?’), and on questions of how ethical knowledge is
obtained (for instance, ‘how can I distinguish what is good from what is
bad?’), rather than on the more applied question of ‘what should I do in
a particular situation?’.
 Meta-ethics is therefore concerned with the nature of ethical properties,
statements, attitudes and judgments.
 It examines such themes as what moral questions mean, and on what
basis people can know what is ‘true’ or ‘false’.
 Normative Ethics
 It is the reasoned search for principles of human conduct, including a
critical study of the major theories about which things are good,
which acts are right, and which acts are blameworthy.
 The central question of normative ethics is determining how basic
moral standards are arrived at and justified.
 The answers to this question fall into two broad categories
deontological and teleological/consequentialist.
 Cont.
 The principal difference between them is that consequentialist ethical
theory stress on the morality of an action is solely determined by the
consequence it brings.
 This theory is based on the motto of "The end justifies the means".

 Besides, deontological theories claims that, although the consequence

of an act is good, some acts are always wrong.
 In deontological theories actions are judged as ethical or unethical
based on duty or the intentions of an actor.
 Applied Ethics

 Attempts to explain, justify, apply moral rules, principles, standards,

and positions to specific moral problems.
 In other words, the application of normative theories and standards to
practical moral problems is the concern of applied ethics.
 This sub-discipline of ethics deals with many major issues of the
contemporary scene, including human rights, social equality, legal
ethics, business ethics, animal rights, capital punishment, euthanasia,
abortion, and so on.
 II. Aesthetics
 Aesthetics is the theory of beauty.
 It studies about the particular value of our artistic and aesthetic experiences.
 It deals with beauty, art, enjoyment, sensory/emotional values, perception,
and matters of taste and sentiment.
 The following are typical Aesthetic questions:
 What is art?
 What is beauty?
 What is the relation between art and beauty?
 What is the connection between art, beauty, and truth?
 Can there be any objective standard by which we may judge the
beauty of artistic works, or beauty is subjective?
 What is artistic creativity and how does it differ from scientific
creativity?
 III. Social/Political Philosophy
 It studies about the value judgments operating in a civil society, be it
social or political.
 The following questions are some of the major Social/Political
Philosophy primarily deal with:
What form of government is best?
What economic system is best?
What is justice/injustice?
What makes an action/judgment just/unjust?
What is society?
Does society exist? If it does, how does it come to existence?
How are civil society and government come to exist?
Are we obligated to obey all laws of the State?
What is the purpose of government?
 D. Logic
 Logic is the study or theory of principles of right reasoning.
 It deals with formulating the right principles of reasoning; and
developing scientific methods of evaluating the validity and
soundness of arguments.
 The following are among the various questions raised by Logic:

What is an argument; What does it mean to argue?

What makes an argument valid or invalid
What is a sound argument?

What relation do premise and conclusion have in argument?

How can we formulate and evaluate an argument?
 Importance of Learning Philosophy

 Among the various benefits of learning philosophy is that:

 It provides students with the tools they need to critically examine their
own lives as well as the world in which they live since “The
unexamined life is not worth living”.
 Generally, the followings are among the major importance of
philosophy:

A. Intellectual and Behavioural Independence:-

 This is the ability to develop one‘s own opinion and beliefs.
 Helps us know the alternative world views.
 Helps us to know how philosophers have ordered the universe for
themselves.
 B. Reflective Self-Awareness:-
Philosophy helps us to intensify our self-awareness by inviting
us to critically examine the essential intellectual grounds of our
lives.

C. Flexibility, Tolerance, and Open-Mindedness:-

By studying different philosophical perspectives we can
understand the evolutionary nature of intellectual achievement
and the on-going development of human thought.
D. Creative and Critical Thinking:
 From the study of philosophy, we can learn how to improve
our powers of analysis, our abilities to think critically, to
reason, to evaluate, to theorize, and to justify. 
E. Conceptualized and well-thought-out value systems in morality,
art, politics, and the like:
Since philosophy directly deals with morality, art, politics,
and other related value theories, studying philosophy
provides us with an opportunity to formulate feasible
evaluations of value; and thereby to find meaning in our
lives
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION