Introduction to Philosophy
PART ONE
The Nature & Value of Philosophy
 What is Philosophy?
 Love of Wisdom
 Subject Matter
 Questions
 Science
 Religion
 Branches of Philosophy
 Introduction
The Nature & Value of Philosophy
 Aesthetics
 Defined
 Problems
 Questions
 Aestheticians, Critics & Artists
 Epistemology
 Defined
 Problems
 Questions
The Nature & Value of Philosophy
 Ethics
 Morality
Descriptive
 Meta
 Normative
 Applied
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Problems
Questions
 Logic
 Defined
 Varieties
 Questions
The Nature & Value of Philosophy
 Metaphysics
 Defined
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Ontology
Problems
Questions
 Social Philosophy
 Defined
 Problems
 Questions
The Nature & Value of Philosophy
 Other Branches
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Regional
Gender/Ethnic Based
Feminism
 Hispanic
 African-America
 Native American
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Other
History of Philosophy
 Philosophy of Language
 Philosophy of Literature
 Philosophy of Mathematics
 Philosophy of Mind
 Philosophy of Religion
 Philosophy of Science

Popular Misconceptions Regarding Philosophy
 Philosophy is Just a Matter of Opinion
 Opinions
Misconception
 Assumptions
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Assumptions
Opinions?
 Are all opinions equally good?
 Relativism & Subjectivism
 Plato’s Reply
 Conclusion

Popular Misconceptions Regarding Philosophy
 Philosophy is Useless

Useful or Useless?
Useless
 Useful
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Contributions of Philosophy/Philosophers
Science
 Logic & Math
 Society
 Ethics
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Benefits of Philosophy
Skills
 Broadens the Mind
 Side effects

Argument Basics
Argument Basics
 Argument Concepts
 Defined
Premise
 Conclusion
 Inductive
 Deductive
 Fallacy
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General Assessment: Reasoning
General Assessment: Are the Premises True?
Deductive Arguments
 Introduction to Deductive Arguments
 Defined
 Use
 Assessment
 Valid/Invalid, Sound/Unsound
 Some Common Valid Deductive Arguments
 Reductio Ad Adsurdum
 Defined
 Form #1/Form #2
 Example
Inductive Arguments
 Introduction to Inductive Arguments
 Defined
 Assessment
 Strong & Weak Arguments
Analogical Argument
 Introduction
 Definition
 Uses
 Form
 Informal
 Strict Form
Premise 1: X has properties P, Q, and R.
 Premise 2: Y has properties P, Q, and R.
 Premise 3: X has property Z as well.
 Conclusion: Y has property Z.

Analogical Argument
 Assessment
 The strength of the argument depends on
The number of properties X & Y have in common.
 The relevance of the shared properties to Z.
 Whether X & Y have relevant dissimilarities.
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
Example
Argument from/by Example
 Introduction
 Defined
 Form
 Informal
 Form
Premise 1: Example 1 is an example that supports claim P.
Premise 2: Example 2 is an example that supports claim P.
Premise n: Example n is an example that supports claim P.
Conclusion: Claim P is true.
Argument from/by Example
 Standards of Assessment
 Standards
The more examples, the stronger the argument.
 The examples must be relevant.
 The examples must be specific & clearly identified.
 Counter-examples must be considered.

Argument from Authority
 Introduction
 Defined
 Use
 Form
 Premise 1: Person A is an authority on subject S.
 Premises 2: Person A makes claim C about subject S.
 Premises 3: Therefore, C is true.
Argument from Authority
 Assessment
 Standards
The person has sufficient expertise in the subject.
 The claim is within the expert’s area of expertise.
 There is an adequate degree of agreement among experts.
 The expert is not significantly biased.
 The area of expertise is a legitimate area or discipline.
 The authority must be properly cited.

The Origin of Western
Philosophy
The Origin of Western Philosophy
 Greek Poets
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Poets
Greek Gods
 Homer & Other Poets
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Background
The Natural Order
Morality
Four Concepts of Order
Purposeful Agents
 Random, purposeless events.
 The amoral fates
 Gods sometimes acting on the basis of objective moral principles.
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
Starting Point for Greek Science & Philosophy
The Origin of Western Philosophy
 The Origin of Western Philosophy
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Introduction
Thales
Influences
 Thales
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Background
Problem of the One & The Many
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Water
The Problem of Permanence & Change
Importance
Monism
 Materialism
 Theoretical understanding
 No appeal to tradition or authority.

The Sophists
 Historical Background
 An Age of Gold
 An Age of Irony
 Causal Factors
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Decline of traditional authority
Relativism
Democracy & individualism
Skepticism
Practical
The masses
 Rise of the Sophists
 Rise of the Sophists
 Skepticism, Relativism & Success
 Nomos vs. Physis
 Importance of the Sophists
 Influence on Socrates & Plato
 Important contributions
Socrates
 Background
 Life & Death (470-399 B.C.)
 Wisdom
 The Real Socrates?
 Socrates & the Sophists
 Ignorance
 The Socratic Method: Questioning
 The Dialectic
 Stages
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Philosophical conversation
A key concept
Ignorance & confusion
Clarification
A better definition & repetition
Realization of ignorance
Socrates
 The Socratic Method: Argumentation
 Finding Flaws
 Finding a Structural Flaw
The definition is circular
 The definition takes a part to be the whole
 The definition is a list of examples


Reductio Ad Absurdum (Reducing to Absurdity)
Assume P
 Derive Q from P
 Show that Q is absurd or contradictory
 Conclude P is false.

Socrates

The Method of Counterexample
Too broad
 Too narrow

 Reasoning & Definitions
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Introduction
Inductive Reasoning
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Generalization
Universal Definitions

Natural categories
 Metaphysics

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Introduction
Greek accounts of the soul/psyche
Socrates’ Account
Socrates
 Ethical Theory
 Virtue
 Why be moral?
 Ethical Intellectualism
 Knowledge & Goodness, Ignorance & Evil
 Social & Political Philosophy
 Distrust of Democracy
 Laws
 Social Contract Theory
 Natural Law Theory
 Socrates’ Contributions
 Plato
 Ethical Theory
 Personality
Plato
 Background
 The Death of Socrates
 Life 428/427-348/347 B.C.
 Comprehensive Philosophy
The Apology
 Opening of the Trial
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Charges
 Wisdom & Socrates’ Task
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Wisdom
Politicians
Poets
Artisans
Wisdom
 The Charges
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The Youth
A villainous misleader of the youth
Teaching
 Having no gods
 Making the worse appear the better cause.

The Apology

The Accusers
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Meletus-Poets
Anytus-craftsmen & politicians
Lycon-rhetoricians
Charges
 Meletus
 Charges
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The Corrupter of the Youth
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A doer of evil who corrupts the youth
Does not believe in the gods of the state but has his own divinities
Socrates will prove Meletus is
 A doer of evil
 Pretending to be earnest
 Is eager to bring men to trial
Questioning Meletus
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Meletus claims to think a great deal about the youth
Socrates asks Meletus to tell the judges who improves the youth
Every Athenian, except the sole corrupter Socrates, improves the youth
The Apology

Socrates’ Horse Trainer Analogy
One is able to do the horses good
 The trainer does the horses good
 Others injure the horses
 This is true of horses and any animals
 The youth would be happy with one corrupter and everyone else
improving them
 Meletus shows he has never thought about the young.

The Apology

The Unintentional Argument
Meletus Agrees
 It is better to live among good citizens than bad
 The good do their neighbors good, the evil do evil
 No one would rather be injured than benefited
 No on likes to be injured
 Meletus accused Socrates of intentionally corrupting the youth.
 Meletus admitted the good do good and the evil do evil
 Socrates knows that if he corrupts a man he has to live with, he is
likely to be harmed
 Socrates either does not corrupt or corrupts unintentionally.
 Either way Meletus is lying
 If his offense is unintentional, Meletus should have corrected him
 Meletus has no care about the matter.

The Apology

Religious Charges Against Socrates
Socrates teaches new divinities
 Socrates asks if Meletus claims he
 Believes in some gods and is not an atheist
 Or that they are not the gods the city recognizes
 Meletus claims Socrates is an atheist and teacher of atheism
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Socrates’ Reply
Meletus contradicts himself
 Analogy
 Human things and not human beings
 Horsemanship and not horses
 Flute playing and not flute players
 Spiritual and divine agencies and not spirits and demigods.

The Apology

Meletus: Socrates teaches and believes in divine beings
If Socrates believes in divine beings he must believe in spirits or
demigods.
 Meletus’s Facetious riddle: The demigods/spirits are gods, but
Meletus claims Socrates does not believe in gods
 Meletus claims Socrates believes in gods-if he believes in
demigods.
 If demigods are sons of gods, there must be gods.
 Otherwise, one might as well affirm the existence of mules and
deny that of horses and asses.
 Meletus cannot prove that one can believe in divine and
superhuman beings and not believe in gods, demigods and heroes.

The Apology
 Wisdom
 Fear, Wisdom & Death
Fear of death is the pretense of wisdom
 Socrates knows
 If they offer him freedom if he stops being a philosophy, he will
obey god.
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The Gadfly

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Why He Did Not Advise the State
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Socrates is the gadfly to the horse of the state
One who fights for the right, if he would live even briefly, must
have a private and not public station.
The Vote

Socrates is found guilty
The Apology
 Penalties & Death
 Penalty
Prytaneum
 A fine

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Life & Death
He would rather die than speak in their manner and live
 The difficulty is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness.

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Prophecy
By killing men they cannot prevent someone from censoring their
evil lives
 The easiest and noblest way is not disabling others, but improving
yourself.
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The Voice

His internal oracle did not give him any sign
The Apology

Death is Nothing to Fear
Death is a state of nothingness or a migration from this world.
 If death is a state of nothingness, it is an unspeakable gain.
 If death is a journey, no good can be greater.
 Death is nothing to fear.
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No Evil Can Befall the Good
No evil can happen to a good main, either in life or after death.
 The time has arrived
 So, the oracle gave no sign
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Favor

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To trouble his sons as Socrates troubled others.
The End
The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways-I to die and
you to live.
 Which is better, god only knows.
