Republic of the Philippines
CAVITE STATE UNIVERSITY
Block 5 Lot 9 Phase 2,
Soldiers Hills IV, Molino VI, City of Bacoor
CvSU Vision
Th e p re mi e r U n i ve rsi ty i n h isto ri c C a vite re co g ni ze d fo r e xce lle nce
i n th e d e ve lo p me n t o f g lo b a lly co mp e ti ti ve a n d mo ra lly u p ri ght
i n d i vi d u a ls.
CvSU Mission
CvSU Bacoor City Campus
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
HUMN 6
2nd Semester, A.Y. 2017-2018
C a vi te Sta te U n i ve rsi ty sh a ll p ro vi d e e xce lle n t, e q u i ta b le and
re le va n t e d u ca ti o na l o pp o rtun iti es in th e a rts, sci e n ce s an d tech nology
th ro u g h q u a li ty i nstru cti on a nd re sp on si ve re sea rch a nd d eve lo p ment
a cti vi ti e s.
It shall produce professional, skilled and morally upright
individuals for global competitiveness.
HUMN 6 L01: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
“You can always disagree, provided you do not become disagreeable”. – Jorge Revilla (Past President
of the Philosophical Association of the Philippines
“Contumelian si dices audies” / If you speak insults, you will hear them too
“All men desire happiness and all virtuous men are the truly happy men” (Aristotle) vs. toda y’s
practicality and pragmatism (no place for crazy philosophers)
“Science without philosophy is blind science and philosophy without science is empty”
Purpose: values formation and moral development to help the educand “live”
I. THE EDUCATION ACT OF 1982
Formation of “moral and spiritual values” as national dev’t goal + socioeconomic growth
“Moral integrity” + “Spiritual vigor”
X now, when (1) lack of Social and Moral philosophy courses, (2) lack of unity among the
discipline >>> “tunnel-vision” specialization
“sub specie aeternitatis” – Spinoza
-ideal curriculum should be PERFECTIVE, not PRACTICAL! Educand first!
-Education of the mind and heart: Philosophy frees men because of knowledge
Man is the measure of all things – Protagoras
THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY AS AN AUTONOMOUS BRANCH OF KNOWLEDGE
“the human mind is like a parachute; it functions only when it is open” – Dr. Leslie E. Bauzon (UP CSSP)
“Furiosus solo furore punitur” – a madman is punished only by his madness
HUMANITY: the common thing among men (rational and moral being), e.g., us living according to a
code of right and wrong
II. NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY (from Cicero, Leontius asked what makes Pythagoras state the art
giving value to his life (he’s a philosopher)
Aristotle: knowledge (scientia) of things by their ultimate causes or reasons (per ultimas causas vel
rationes)
*anthropocentric
1. search for total human meaning of man’s existence and experience (no initial
weltanschauung)
2 eminently practical, (The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the
point, however, is to change it – Karl Marx, 1945, Thesis on Feuerbach) (we are built in actionreflection – Paulo Freire) ACT BEFORE YOU SPEAK
3. critical: discern reality, discover meanings/possibilities, criticize others
4. reliant of all the other sciences about man
III. PHENOMENOLOGY AND METAPHYSICS – experience is the starting point of philosophical
reflection then go back to causes)
IV. PHILOSOPHY: SOME DEFINITIONS – science of all things studied from the viewpoint of
their ultimate causes under the light of human reason alone / it is a science (has orderly body of
knowledge)
A. Causes – explanation of something, i.e., being
1. Kinds of causes
Republic of the Philippines
CAVITE STATE UNIVERSITY
Block 5 Lot 9 Phase 2,
Soldiers Hills IV, Molino VI, City of Bacoor
CvSU Vision
Th e p re mi e r U n i ve rsi ty i n h isto ri c C a vite re co g ni ze d fo r e xce lle nce
i n th e d e ve lo p me n t o f g lo b a lly co mp e ti ti ve a n d mo ra lly u p ri ght
i n d i vi d u a ls.
CvSU Mission
CvSU Bacoor City Campus
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
HUMN 6
2nd Semester, A.Y. 2017-2018
C a vi te Sta te U n i ve rsi ty sh a ll p ro vi d e e xce lle n t, e q u i ta b le and
re le va n t e d u ca ti o na l o pp o rtun iti es in th e a rts, sci e n ce s an d tech nology
th ro u g h q u a li ty i nstru cti on a nd re sp on si ve re sea rch a nd d eve lo p ment
a cti vi ti e s.
It shall produce professional, skilled and morally upright
individuals for global competitiveness.
a. Material cause (Gk. Hyle) – determinableness/potentiality INT
b. Formal cause (Gk. Morphe) – whatness/form of being INT
c. Efficient cause (Gk. Aitia) – origin/howness
d. Final cause (Gk. Telos) – existence/whyness (first cause of being)
Why do we exist? How are we products of the forces?
2. Sources of causes
a. Intrinsic – whatness of man, matter with form
b. Extrinsic
3. Levels of causes
a. Primary – ultimate, philosophy
b. Secondary – proximate, sciences
All about REASON, as opposed to theology’s revelation
B. Philosophy
1. Definitions
a. body of knowledge acquired and ordered which undertakes to give the
fundamental explanation of all things
b. reflective technique (reflection upon lived experience), e.g., wondering on
life’s man and animal dimensions
2. Branches
a. Social philosophy – sociality of man/nature of human society
b. Logic (Lat. Logik e, by Zeno the Stoic – treatise on human thought) – science
and art of correct inferential thinking (scientia scientiarum, ars artium)
c. Cosmology – material world/beings, origin/nature of universe
d. Psychology – life of living beings
e. Ethics or Moral Philosophy – human acts, morality + Natural law
f. Ontology/General Metaphysics – beings in general, nature of existence
(meta ta physik a – Aristotle, 384-322 B.C.)
g. Theodicy – First Cause of Contingent Beings and of emergent reality
h. Epistemology – valid knowledge (episteme – knowledge)
i. Axiology - values
j. Hermeneutics – uncovering meaning requiring dialoguing
V. PHILOSOPHY’S ACCEPTANCE TODAY
-has stood still due to its speculative nature (vs. science’s practicality)
-much disagreement
-inspiring but intangible
-a continuous dialogue for metanoea (e.g., Three blind men)
“All men by nature desire to k now” – Aristotle
People have lived and died for philosophical values.
“For want of a hail, the shoe is lost; For want of a shoe, the horse is lost; For want of a horse, the rider
is lost”
I. POSTULATES OF SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
*Postulate – truth proven by a science and has been taken into or used by another science
1. Human reason is a reliable and trustworthy source/instrument of human knowledge
that is true and certain
2. Infinitely intelligent, good, and just God exists
3. Man has free will and is, therefore, responsible for his human actions
Republic of the Philippines
CAVITE STATE UNIVERSITY
Block 5 Lot 9 Phase 2,
Soldiers Hills IV, Molino VI, City of Bacoor
CvSU Vision
Th e p re mi e r U n i ve rsi ty i n h isto ri c C a vite re co g ni ze d fo r e xce lle nce
i n th e d e ve lo p me n t o f g lo b a lly co mp e ti ti ve a n d mo ra lly u p ri ght
i n d i vi d u a ls.
CvSU Bacoor City Campus
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
HUMN 6
2nd Semester, A.Y. 2017-2018
CvSU Mission
C a vi te Sta te U n i ve rsi ty sh a ll p ro vi d e e xce lle n t, e q u i ta b le and
re le va n t e d u ca ti o na l o pp o rtun iti es in th e a rts, sci e n ce s an d tech nology
th ro u g h q u a li ty i nstru cti on a nd re sp on si ve re sea rch a nd d eve lo p ment
a cti vi ti e s.
It shall produce professional, skilled and morally upright
individuals for global competitiveness.
4. Man has a rational soul and has intellect whose object is the truth and a will whos e
object is the good
5. Man is a social being and has relatedness as his essence
A. The Nature of Philosophical Inquiry (integration; transforming a problematic situation into a
resolved one)
Experience: interactive process whereby the human self is in dynamic relation with the
whole range of the other
Starting point: past habits cannot apply to new situations
Context and Scope: historical, communal, evolutionary, developmental: i.e., tradition is
shared, tradition’s content’s adequacy is intent-based
Common sense inquiry – prone to error
Scientific inquiry – instrumental, world as means
Philosophic – human life as an end
Modes:
1. Logic – theoretical coherence and self-consistency of thought
2. Phenomenology – practical thought > action
3. Meta-pragmatics – thoughtful action > for human growth
Task s:
1. Ideal formation
2. Criticism of common sense and philosophy
3. Contribution validity test
4. Reconstruction of life: ontological pragmatism (in moral theory, to know good
is to do good)
OP: TO KNOW IS TO DO! (practical philosophy)
II. ROLES AND CONDITIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
“The peculiar evil of silencing any opposition to an idea is that we are exchanging error
for truth” – Thomas Jefferson
A. Roles
1. To provide critical basis for our worldview
2. To give meaning to science and technology
3. To provide a “map of living”
4. To uncover a phenomenon’s meaning, e.g., hermeneutics
THEREFORE: IT UNIFIES!
B. Conditions
1. It must lead to knowledge (e.g., opinion as reasoned understanding:
testable/verifiable, subject to rational criticism, rectifiable/corrigible, falsifiable), such that truth is in the
mind
2. It must stand as an autonomous branch of knowledge (so it must have unique
questions: purely philosophical (metaphysical, what is/have – problems of permance/change) vs. mixed
questions (ethical and practical – what should be)
C. David Hume’s Disjunction of Knowledge
1. (a priori) knowledge is abstract reasoning about quantity and number (math)
2. (a posteriori) knowledge is experimental reasoning about fact and existence (history
and science)
3. Philosophy? No! But YES! Experience as special (a posteriori) or common (a priori)