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GDI Lecture Notes – PHIL 101
Philosophy 101
"The unexamined life is not worth living." – Socrates (Apology 38a)
Philosophy and its (Dis)Contents:
What is Philosophy?
While you’re here at Gonzaga University, understand one thing about philosophy itself: What we know of
it often becomes what we know of previous philosopher’s ideas. In Academia and Debate, philosophy is
treated as a subject rather than a practice. Gonzaga stresses the element of philosophy which questions so
that one may understand. Philosophy itself is often attributed to the Greek roots “Phil” which translates as
love and “Sophia” which is wisdom. A philosopher seeks to understand more, the study of that process is
philosophy in its barest form. What philosophy is, however, concerns not only what it has been, but also
what it could become.
A Brief History of Western Philosophy:
Ancient Philosophy:
The Greeks dominate ancient thought in western philosophy, but this usually refers to the entire history of
thought before the fall of the Roman Empire. They were concerns with questions of what is, how we can
know, how we can make arguments and individual ethics.
Hallmark Philosophers –
Thales
Pythagoras
Parmenides
Socrates (figure)
Plato
Aristotle
Epicurus
Archimedes
Marcus Aurelius
Medieval Philosophy:
Medieval Philosophy often times is seen as starting with the decline of Hellenistic (Roman thought).
Naturally this puts Augustine of Hippo at the change in ideas. This thought is heavily influenced by the
Judeo-Christian influence of monotheistic ideas about the world. As such, much of medieval philosophy in
the west concerned theology and how Judaism/Christianity/Islam dealt with questions of individuality,
Faith, Reason, Knowledge and Being
Hallmark Philosophers:
Augustine
Boethius
Anselm
Maimonides
John Duns Scotus
William of Ockham
Dante Alighieri
John Wyclif
Albert the Great
St. Thomas Aquinas
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GDI Lecture Notes – PHIL 101
“Modern” Philosophy: Modern Philosophy takes up traditionally with the likes of Descartes. This period is
defined by competing views of knowledge: Empiricism and Rationalism. They are concerned with the
different means by which human reason can inform politics, ethics and seek to find truths about the
universe as the basis for thought and value.
Hallmark Philosophers:
Rene Descartes
Baruch Spinoza
Gottfried Leibniz
John Locke
George Berkeley
David Hume
Thomas Hobbes
Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
John Stuart Mill
Jeremy Bentham
James Mill
Immanuel Kant
“Contemporary” Philosophy: Probably the most difficult delineation line in the history of philosophy.
Some believe it starts with everything post-Kant, while others accept the Triad of Freud-Marx-Nietzsche as
the breaking point. Contemporary philosophy basically starts at the beginning of the 19th century and deals
with questions of social value, alienation, existentialism, logical analysis, social structures and the nature of
language.
Hallmark Philosophers (By no means a complete list):
Karl Marx
William James
John Dewey
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Bertrand Russell
Friedrich Nietzsche
Edmund Husserl
Martin Heidegger
Emmanuel Levinas
Jacques Derrida
Michel Foucault
Theodore Adorno
Giorgio Agamben
Hannah Arendt
Alain Badiou
Simone de Beauvoir
Albert Camus
Jean Paul Satre
Ernst Cassirer
Gilles Deleuze
Luce Irigaray
Elements of Philosophic thought:
Though at its heart philosophy seeks to ask any question, human understanding in philosophy has been
neatly bracketed into a few easy categories:
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GDI Lecture Notes – PHIL 101
Metaphysics: the study of What Is – These questions deal with everything from “What is the world made
of?” to “What is existence?” “Metaphysics” comes from the similarly named title from a work of Aristotle,
which sought to explain the universe beyond physical fact. What makes up all this stuff? What is the
universe? How does it function?
Epistemoloy: the study of How we Know/ What we can Know – These questions originate with good ole’
Plato. What can we as humans know? Is memory possible? Can we express what we think we know into a
structure that’s communicable and shareable? Epistemology often times concerns a theory about how we
know what we know and how we can know what we know.
Ethics/Morality: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – These questions are the most formulaic of any category
thus far as they are concerned with Value. The Greeks focused on Happiness, others focused on the value
of life, what meaning is, etc. Questions of value implicate the “Why should” of philosophy and the “Why
we should not” of criticism. Often times the Deontology vs. Utilitarianism debate is refrenced here, one
valuing the greatest good for the greatest number (Util) while the other values the “Truth” of value – that it
needs be consistent, rational and equally applicable to all human action (Deo).
Ontology: What does it mean to be? – Often an anthropocentric ideal, Ontological questions of human kind
concern what it means to be as humans. However, ontology as a concept is more concerned with the nature
of “being” itself. What being is/can/should be in some ways encapsulates ethics, epistemology and
metaphysics
These questions of “being” also become relevant in common discussions of “Kritiks” in debate because we
so often concern ourselves with the “beingness” of individuals
Philosophy, Jargon and Criticism: How Philosophy Is Used in Debate
The “Kritik”:
Why do these weird debate people use a K? Doesn’t “Critic” sound more appropriate? Really, Kritik and
Critic mean the same thing, only one uses a non English preference for its spelling.
The Kritik is a philosophical idea – the idea that with criticism we can produce, procure or discover an
alternative to a problematic mode of thought. This is quite the helpful tool for the negative, for as the
history of philosophy demonstrates, the flaws within previous types of thought constitute a necessary break
for new kinds of thoughts. The ability for the Negative to criticize the 1ac is dependent on this idea that one
can argue against so as to produce something better.
Most DAs and CPs test the “desirability” of a Plan and argue why it produces undesirable outcomes. A
Kritik seeks to question why the value of desirability in the 1AC was created in the way it was presented. In
this sense, Philosophy allows the negative to question, yet still argue.
If Socrates were still alive, every hippie K debater you can think of would be in the image of his approach
to human understanding.
A Kritik in debate has (traditionally) three parts:
The Link – What the plan does that we are trying to question (Questions of Epistemology/Metaphysics)
The Impact – Why the questioning is important (Questions of Ethics/Ontology)
The Alt – How the act of criticism accesses a new solution, thought or understanding so as to avoid the
problems we question
Kritiks in Debate: The questions we commonly ask
Some criticisms will focus entirely on one of these questions (Metaphysics/Epistemology/Ethics/Ontology)
but will most likely always take a stance on each of these issues. Kritiks in debate often find the most
overarching philosophies as a result.
Common Criticisms in debate include:
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GDI Lecture Notes – PHIL 101
Questioning:
Politics
Social Organization
Language
Morality
Essences … and much more
(Brainstorm types of K w/ Kids)
Fighting Fire with Fire: Philosophy for the Aff
Just because the neg uses the criticism element of philosophy, it doesn’t mean the aff misses out on the cool
new approach to arguing. Instead, affirmative cases always use some philosophic principles to carry out the
persuasiveness of their argument. We as affirmatives have the ability to create the first question: why we
should change from the status quo.
The Permutation and Philosophy:
Recognize, many of the authors in these notes will never write the perfect debate criticism. Many of them
are concerned with not just a topic like the topic of space, but also with many, many other elements of
human experience. Instead of closing them into a box, philosophy shows us that each one attempts to take
in what has been learned, and use critical thought to produce new questions and new knowledge. In most
cases the proponents of the Neg’s K author will be used for debate but won’t be the author’s complete
intention. The aff should realize this and get back to philosophy and questioning for itself.
Always remember, philosophy is both and activity and a resource. We learn from and about philosophy, but
the essential nature of examining our life comes from the willingness to question in the first place. Every
criticism you will face at some point will have a slightly different spin, a slightly different value and
sometimes radically varying degrees of explanation. Using the philosophic mindset can help you as
foundational questions that create arguments – no matter the K.
WHAT?
WHY?
HOW?
WHEN?
WHO?
IF?
These all will provide you with the necessary cross examination questions and rebuttal arguments you
need. Why is the Plan good? What is a Plan? How does a Plan work? Who does the Plan affect? What if we
vote Aff?
Answer these ideas and you will be easily ahead of most your peers – without having to read hundreds of
books!
The Philosophic Life:
Descartes Excersise:
Doubt to understand – Skepticism as a philosophic activity. Descartes sought to understand by reaching a
single point of truth in the universe.
Let’s try it!