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Class Lecture Notes By Chanda M.M. Erasto
Email: chandae2020@yahoo.co.uk
Cell: 0977886214/ 0968465520/0954236801
CUZ- 2015
LECTURE 1.
FUNDAMENTALS OF PHILOSOPHY
1.0 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY:
Philosophy is the root of all knowledge. It is considered as mother of all sciences. Philosophy has
interpreted man and his various activities in a comprehensive manner. It helps to coordinate the
various activities of the individuals and the society. It helps us to understand the significance of
all human experience. “It explores the basic source and aims of life. It asks and tries to answer
the deepest questions to life. It clarifies life and the basic values of life. This clarity is very
essential because it provides us with the wisdom to face the challenges of life. Wisdom is the
supreme instrument in the hands of man in the struggle for his successful existence.
1.1 NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY :
a) Meaning of philosophy: The word ‘Philosophy’ involves two Greek words – Philo meaning
love and Sophia meaning knowledge. Thus literally speaking, philosophy means love of wisdom.
Man is a rational animal. Desire for knowledge arises from this rational nature of man.
Philosophy is an attempt to satisfy this very reasonable desire. Philosophy signifies a natural and
necessary urge in human-beings to know themselves and world in which they live, move and
have their being. It is impossible for man to live without a philosophy. The choice is not
‘between metaphysic and no metaphysic ; it is between a good metaphysic and a bad
metaphysic’.
b) The origin of philosophy: According to Aristotle, philosophy arises from wonder. Man
experiences rains and drought, storms, clouds, lightning. At times, he is greatly terrified. Then
the events of life and death mystify him. He begins to reflect over the events. The sun, moon and
the stars appear to him wonderful and beautiful. As a result of his reflection, he thinks that the
events can be explained by powers akin to man. He proposes to control them by means of
magical spells. This magic gives way to science, philosophy and religion in due course. Magic
becomes science when natural events begin to be explained and controlled with the help of
natural causes. Magic, again, becomes religion when the powers are taken to be super natural
beings. The same magic flowers into philosophy when man makes an attempt to explain the
world as a whole.
c) The subject matter of philosophy : Philosophy is the rational attempt to have a world-view.
It endeavors to reach a conception of the entire universe with all its elements and aspects and
their interrelations to one another. It is not contented with a partial view of the world. It seeks to
have a synoptic view of the whole reality: it tries to have a vision of the whole. The different
sciences deal with different departments of the world Mathematical sciences deal with numbers
and figures. Physics deals with heat, light, motion, sound, electricity and magnetism. Chemistry
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deals with chemical phenomena. Psychology deals with the phenomena of mental life. Sociology
deals with the structure and growth of the society and its institutions. Economics deals with
welfare and wealth of man. Politics deals with the structure and functions of the State and its
various organs .
Thus sciences give us a sectional view of the world. But philosophy harmonizes the highest
conclusions of the different sciences, coordinates them with one another, and gives a rational
conception of the whole world. It investigates the nature of the fundamental concepts of matter,
time pace, life, mind, and the like and interrelates them to one-another. It enquires into the nature
of the universe, its stuff or material, its Creator or God, its purpose, and its relation to man and
his soul. It is the art of thinking all things logically, systematically, and persistently. It is the art
of thinking rationally and systematically of the reality as a whole.
d) Philosophical problems: The basic problems of philosophy have been same in the East as in
West. A general characteristic of these problems was that they were concerned with general and
universal questions and not with the questions and not with the questions of particular nature. In
this sense the philosophical problems are different from scientific problems which have their
origin in particular questions.
Some examples of philosophical problems are: What is knowledge? What is world? Who has
created this world? Is there a God? Who am I? What is the aim of my life? Why should I live?
What is the purpose of the world? etc.
e) History of Philosophy
i).Ancient philosophy
This is the study of the philosophers of the Greek and Roman world. The usual concentration is
on Greek philosophy from c.624BC, marking the birth of the Presocratic Thales, to 322BC as the
death of Aristotle. The most important figures are undoubtedly Plato and Aristotle. Often this
period is extended to include the Roman world. The significance of thought in the ancient world
cannot be overestimated. Here we find almost everything, developed to varying degrees, that
characterises the Western outlook. Indeed it represents a watershed in human history, where for
the first time reason alone is applied across the board to the solving of the deepest problems
rather than appeal to mere authority or an idea’s longevity.
ii). Medieval philosophy
This covers, we should note, the study of philosophers over a vast time of around one thousand
years, extending from St Augustine of Hippo (AD354–430) and William of Ockham (c.1285–
1349), and continuing beyond until at least the Renaissance. The connecting thread is the rise
and dominance of Christianity which permeates the philosophy done during this period. The
other most significant link throughout the period is the interpretation and adaptation of
Aristotle’s metaphysics.
iii). Modern philosophy: the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
It may seem strange to call philosophy done in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ‘modern
philosophy’. It indicates a period of astonishing fecundity in philosophical thought and a new
way of doing philosophy that was a significant break from what had gone before. Moreover
many of the ways that philosophy is presently done still derive from thought in this period. The
central figures are Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume.
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f) Main Branches of philosophy :
1) Epistemology :- Philosophy is the search for knowledge. This search is critical. Hence, the
first problem which arises before a philosopher is about the nature of knowledge and its
limitation. Therefore, epistemology is the most fundamental branch of philosophy. It discusses
philosophically truth and falsehood, validity of knowledge, limits of knowledge and nature of
knowledge, knower and known, etc.
2) Metaphysics :- Metaphysics is the main branch of philosophy. It is the science of reality. Its
main problems are; What is Reality? Is the world one or many? What is space? What is the
purpose of creation? Is there a God? In brief metaphysics discusses the three aspects of Reality,
viz, the world, the self, and the God. Its scope includes ontology, philosophy of self, cosmogony,
cosmology and theology
3) Axiology:- This branch of philosophy philosophically studies value. It has been divided into
the following three branches;
i) Ethics: It discusses the criteria of right and good. This is concerned with values (normative as
opposed to factual matters) with respect to human actions. What is it for something we do to be
counted good or bad? What is it to say we ought to do or not do something? It is not enough to
talk of what we do, we need to address what we should do and what saying this means.
ii) Aesthetics :It discusses the nature and criteria of duty.
iii) Logic : It studies truth. The subject matter of logic includes This is concerned with the nature
and identification of good inferences: those circumstances in which one statement is said to
follow from another. It seeks to understand and classify the cases where statements, if true,justify
to whatever degree the truth of other statements, the methods of judgment , types of propositions,
hypothesis, definition etc
4).Philosophy of mind
What kind of entity are we referring to when we talk about the ‘mind’? How does talk of the
mind relate to talk of what we normally call our bodies? Are the mind and the body one or is the
mind non-physical? How can conscious awareness and understanding whereby we refer to things
arise from inert matter? What do we mean by, and can it justify, saying that someone is the same
person throughout his life?
5). Philosophy of language
What is it for an expression, spoken or written, to have meaning and the capacity to refer to
things? What constitutes a person’s understanding the meaning of a word, at which point they
know how it ought to be used correctly?
6). Philosophy of science
What defines a law of nature? How does it differ from other claims about the world? How if at
all are scientific theories justified by evidence? How can we know that our laws of nature
describe features of the world that will persist next time we examine it?
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7). Political philosophy
How ought society to be organised? What justifies the existence of the state that can rightly
usurp power from people? How should the state be controlled? What justifies private property, if
anything? How do people acquire rights that cannot be transgressed apart from exceptional
circumstances, if at all?
8). Philosophy of arts
Can what a work of art is be defined? What do we mean when we say some work has a certain
aesthetic quality, such as beauty? What determines the meaning of a work of art? What, if
anything, justifies our valuing works of art differently?
9). Philosophy of religion
How good are the arguments justifying the existence of God? Are arguments for the existence
of God required, or is faith enough? What is the nature of God and how does that relate to the
sort of creatures we are?
10). Continental philosophy
It is controversial to claim that the group of philosophers often brought together under this title
can be done so coherently, and the chapter here deals mainly with this matter. Negatively the title
may indicate a divergence of methods and philosophical concerns between philosophers in
Continental Europe and English-speaking philosophers in Britain, North America, New Zealand
and Australia. Positively there is perhaps a thread that runs from the philosopher Immanuel Kant
(1724–1804) to the present with such thinkers as Jacques Derrida, and this can be seen as various
ways of responding to the philosophical outlook of transcendental idealism. The recent
philosophers here are often marked by the most fundamental questioning of the nature, and
indeed existence, of philosophy itself.
11). THE FUTURE OF PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy will go on just as long as some people hold the view that thinking things through for
themselves is important. It is hard to say what philosophical concerns will be the centre of
people’s attention in the future. But it looks as if there will always be someone trying to struggle
with the deepest questions and unwilling to take on trust the answers that happen to be around.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS.
1 Explain the meaning of philosophy.
2. Describe the nature of philosophy.
3. What are the various branches of philosophy.
 SUGGESTED READING :
1. Fundamentals of Philosophy - John Shand
2. Bennington, Geoffrey (2001) ‘For the sake of argument (up to a point)’, in S. Glendinning (ed.) Arguing with
Derrida, Oxford: Blackwell.
3. Critchley, Simon (1998) ‘What is Continental philosophy?’, in S. Critchley and W. Schroeder (eds) A Companion to
Continental Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell.
4. Samuel E. Stumpf(1993)'Elements of Philosophy',(3rd Ed), New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc
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