Philosophy 1010
Hand in Class Syllabus Quiz.
Reading Assignment for Class #3:
Read Velasquez, Philosophy: A Text With
Readings, 9th Edition, Chapter 1 Section
8 Only, pp. 50-71 (Available on Quia)
Logic Homework Assignment
Worth 5 points in Participation Category
Download from Quia.
Writing Assignment
Worth 5 points in Participation Category
1) Compose a definition of “Philosophy” that
will work for you in this class.
2) Pose a philosophical question that is
important to you and attempt to answer it in
250 words or less. Please do not use any
sources. Just use your own reflection.
Philosophy Begins
with Wonder!
Wonder is an emotion comparable
to surprise and awe that people feel
when perceiving something rare or
unexpected. It is the emotion or
passion leading to philosophy and
science.
The feeling of wonder is the
mark of the philosopher, for
all philosophy has its origins
in wonder. …. Plato
What is a Philosophical Question?
What is true love? – Is beauty a matter of fact or a matter of taste?
– Is there a God? – What do I want to do with my life? – What is
the purpose of art? – Is there a difference between health and
beauty? – Do I want to be beautiful? – Is everything I think I know
true? -- Is lying always wrong? -- Does every question have an
answer? – Do I have to accept reality or can I determine my own
reality? -- Why can’t people just get along together? – Who should
take care of the environment? -- What would happen if there were
no government? – Why do bad things happen to people? -- What
is the meaning of my life? – Will getting married make me more or
less free? Is love more important than freedom? …. What is true
love? …..
Why are these questions philosophical questions?
What the characteristics of these questions so that we say they are
philosophical?
Is there a difference between philosophical questions and scientific
questions?
Is there a difference between philosophical questions and
speculation?
Questions, So Many Questions …
What Kind of Questions are These Anyway?
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May be deeply personal
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Answers cannot be “proven” but some opinions make more
sense than others and generally arguments can be given for
our views (thus, they are not entirely subjective)
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Necessary to ask for our world to “make sense”
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Often confuse us
•
We have to answer for ourselves.
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We cannot expect everyone to agree with us and they may
also have good arguments for their views
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Throughout our life we may have to reconsider our answers
Some Shots at Defining Philosophy . . .
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Do these definitions give YOU a satisfactory
understanding of what the lady on the beach is
doing?
•
Philosophy is an activity people undertake when they
seek to understand fundamental truths about
themselves, the world in which they live, and their
relationships to the world and to each other.
…www.fsu.edu (Florida State University)
•
Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence,
of man, and of man's relationship to existence. … In the
realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but
philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible.
…Ayn Rand, Philosophy, Who Needs It (p. 2)
What is Philosophy?
Well, maybe….
•
Philosophy is the “audacity of hope” for obtaining
knowledge and wisdom about the world and about
ourselves. – Yes, we can! (Thanks, Barack.)
•
Philosophy is the application of critical reasoning to
our wonder about the world and ourselves.
•
Philosophy is the willingness to ask questions about
what we have assumed we already know.
•
Philosophy is each individual person’s opportunity
and responsibility to live their own life, to be who
they are, to become autonomous.
Is Philosophy Unavoidable?
Philosophy is not a bauble of the
intellect, but a power from which no
man can abstain. Anyone can say that
he dispenses with a view of reality,
knowledge, the good, but no one can
implement this credo. The reason is
that man, by his nature as a conceptual
being, cannot function at all without
some form of philosophy to serve as his
guide.
…Leonard Peikoff
So How Should We DO Philosophy?
Not “just anything goes!” Philosophy is guided by
the commitment to careful reasoning which is
“playing by the rules.”
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five
players try to score points by throwing or "shooting"
a ball through the top of a basketball hoop ...
Ten Minute Break!
Plato & the Allegory
of the Cave
•
Plato was a student of Socrates. To better understand
what philosophy is, he describes the nature of
philosophy in the Allegory of the Cave.
•
Plato compares the state of man’s ignorance to living
at the bottom of an underground cave chained so that
such men cannot move. All they see are shadows
created by a fire behind them.
•
Through this symbolism, he then describes the act of
philosophy which he likens to the prisoners being
freed from their chains.
•
Plato is suggesting to us that this process is the
“ascent of the mind into the domain of true
knowledge.” Plato suggests that the aim of
philosophy is freedom from unwarranted belief.
The Allegory of the Cave
Video
The Matrix / The Allegory of the Cave
The Matrix Trailer
Video
The Allegory of the Cave:
The Metal Version (OPTIONAL)
Video
Content begins at 10:00
Caution: R-Rated
(Language)
What is Philosophy?
(30 minutes)
Manuel Velasquez
Plato – The Allegory of the Cave
What Are the Major Fields of
Philosophy?
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
(or rather, in contrast to other areas of study
such as biology where biology studies a
particular domain, Philosophy does not
necessarily have agreed upon assumptions that
it can rely on to define any domain of study.
Thus, metaphysics is more accurately “a
collection of questions that seem to group
together about what is real and what reality is
like.”
NOTE: Biology is the study of life or living matter in all its
forms and phenomena. To do biology, scientists thus must
work with an agreed upon view of what is life.
What Are the Major Fields of
Philosophy?
1. Epistemology is “the study of knowledge.”
(or rather….)
What is the structure, reliability and kinds of
knowledge we have?
What is the meaning of truth?
Is scientific knowledge different than other forms
of knowledge?
Is the nature of knowledge different based on
gender?
In general, philosophers have
explained knowledge in two ways.
 Empiricists argue that all
knowledge begins with the senses.
 Rationalists argue that is
possible for the mind,
independently of the senses, to
gain knowledge.
What Are the Major Fields of
Philosophy?
2. Metaphysics is “the study of reality
or existence.”
Does God Exist? What is the nature of
the universe?
Does man have a soul? If so, is it
immortal?
Are humans free to choose for
themselves, or are all human acts
determined?
Monism
Monism is the view that all of reality is one kind of
thing. If, for example, you believe that all of reality is
matter, or that God is the only reality, then you are a
monist.
Typically, most monists are materialists. (But not all!)
In other words, they believe that the single unifying
feature of reality is matter. Holding this view,
materialistic monists argue that there is no God,
Heaven, Hell, soul, or any other "spiritual" part of
reality.
Dualism
Dualism is the view that all of reality is
divided into two kinds of things. Thus, if
you believe that all of reality is divided
between the realm of God and the
physical universe, or that there is a "higher
world" and a "lower world", or that reality
is composed of spirit and matter, you are a
dualist.
In general, most Christians are dualists.
They hold that reality is divided into two
parts. Our souls are eternal and nonmaterial; our bodies, like the physical
universe, are temporal and material.
What Are the Major Fields of
Philosophy?
3. Ethics is “the study of values and morality
and how they relate to conduct.” (or
rather….)
What is the nature of man’s obligation to other men?
How should we live to be good?
What responsibilities do governments have to their
citizens?
Is man essentially selfish? Or can he be motivated
by principles beyond his own self-interest?
Plato
Plato is history's first great philosopher
because, among other reasons, he provided
the first set of answers to some of the largest
and most difficult questions: What is the
structure of reality? What can be known for
certain? What is moral virtue? What is the
nature of the ideal state?
No philosopher before Plato had ever
attempted such a wide and deep exploration
of philosophical problems.
The Father of Western Philosophy
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Socrates, 460-399 B. C.
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Socrates' deserves credit for rigorous, ethical
investigation. His conversations with his fellow
Athenians are the first records we have of an
individual, by careful reasoning, trying to discover
the guiding principles of moral choices.
•
But be careful. There were many Greek thinkers
(actually known as “The Pre-Socratics”) prior to
Socrates who developed profound insights into the
nature of the universe and man’s place in it.
•
Socrates built a reputation on questioning
conventional beliefs, thus embodying the
nature of philosophy itself.
What is the Socratic method?
•
“Teaching by Asking Instead of by Telling”
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Socrates engaged himself in questioning students in an
unending search for truth. He sought to get to the foundations
of his students' and colleagues' views by asking continual
questions until a contradiction was exposed, thus proving the
fallacy of the initial assumption.
•
This became known as the Socratic Method, and may be
Socrates' most enduring contribution to philosophy.
•
Socrates was both a real philosopher and the major character
in Plato’s (his student’s) dialogues. Thus, it is not clear to what
degree Socrates was a precursor to Plato’s ideas or was a
mouthpiece for Plato to put forward his own views.
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S24FxdvfOko
Plato’s Dialogues &
the Socratic Method
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Plato’s dialogues demonstrate the Socratic Method.
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In The Euthyphro, Plato shows Socrates questioning traditional
religious beliefs and the nature of religious duty. He asks
“what is it to be holy” and Euthyphro says that being holy is
“doing what the gods love.”
•
Class, has Euthyphro given a good answer to the question?
Does he really understand or is he just assuming that he knows?
•
Socrates probes further: what makes a thing holy? Is an act holy
because it is loved by the gods or do the gods love what is holy because
it is holy?
•
If the first, are the gods capricious and random and be able
to select anything to be holy? If the latter, then we have not
answer the original question at all.
Plato’s Dialogues &
the Socratic Method
•
In Plato’s The Republic, Socrates questions
Thrasymachus who states that justice is whatever is
to the advantage of the strong, that “might makes
right.”
•
Socrates asks what if the powerful pass laws that in
error do not benefit themselves. Would not justice
then be following laws that do not benefit the
strong? Then justice would be in following laws that
do not benefit them.
•
Thus, Socrates has pointed out to Thrasymachus
that his commonly held view is quite likely
inconsistent, or at least needs to be qualified and
made clearer.
Plato’s Dialogues &
the Socratic Search for How to Live
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Plato’s dialogues demonstrate that Socrates was
not just trying to be “smart” but was in the profound
pursuit of how one should live.
•
In The Apology, Socrates defends his way of life.
He proclaims that his mission came from a divine
commandment to seek wisdom. Thus, he
questioned everyone he professed knowledge to
find wisdom, only to find that the wisest man is he
who knows he does not know.
•
Even in the face of death, Socrates proclaims he
can act no differently. It is better to obey the
gods than man. The unexamined life is not worth
living. His pursuit of philosophy is following the
instruction of the gods.
Video
Plato’s Dialogues &
the Socratic Search for How to Live
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In the Crito, Socrates is awaiting execution in his
prison. Crito suggests that for the benefit of his
friends and family, Socrates should escape. “It is
the opinion of all of your friends, Socrates.”
•
Socrates replies that in order to act on reason
alone, Socrates asks Crito what is right and wrong
and we must not follow the “morality of the many”
but follow what is truly right.
•
Socrates further argues that what is the right way
to live consists in obeying the state in which we
have contracted to live. Thus, we must obey the
laws of the society in which we live, even when
those laws and actions are unjust.