What is philosophy?

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What is philosophy?
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The word "Philosophy" comes from the Greek
f???s?f?a philosophia, which literally means
"love of wisdom.
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• Philosophy is the study of general and
  fundamental problems concerning matters such as
  existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and
  language.It is distinguished from other ways of
  addressing fundamental questions by its critical,
  generally systematic approach and its reliance on
  rational argument.

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Philosophical Questions

• Is there a best way to live?
• What do I owe other people?
• When, if ever, am I justified in breaking the
  law?
• How can I know what is real?
• How can I distinguish between legitimate forms of
  knowledge or science and pseudo-science?

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EmpiricismJohn Locke George Berkeley David
Hume Political philosophyThomas Hobbes John
Locke Jean-Jacques Rousseau Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels John Stuart Mill Jeremy
Bentham James Mill IdealismImmanuel Kant
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Arthur
Schopenhauer Francis Herbert Bradley
ExistentialistsSøren Kierkegaard Friedrich
Nietzsche PhenomenologyEdmund Husserl Martin
Heidegger PragmatismCharles Sanders Peirce
John Dewey William James
Modern Philosophers
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• Different Types of Philosophy
• Metaphysics is the study of the nature of being
  and the world. Traditional branches are cosmology
  and ontology.
• Epistemology is concerned with the nature and
  scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is
  possible. Among its central concerns has been the
  challenge posed by skepticism and the
  relationships between truth, belief, and
  justification.
• Ethics, or 'moral philosophy', is concerned with
  questions of how persons ought to act or if such
  questions are answerable. The main branches of
  ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and
  applied ethics. Meta-ethics concerns the nature
  of ethical thought, comparison of various ethical
  systems, whether there are absolute ethical
  truths, and how such truths could be known.
  Ethics is also associated with the idea of
  morality. Plato's early dialogues include a
  search for definitions of virtue.
• Political philosophy is the study of government
  and the relationship of individuals and
  communities to the state. It includes questions
  about justice, the good, law, property, and the
  rights and obligations of the citizen.
• Aesthetics deals with beauty, art, enjoyment,
  sensory-emotional values, perception, and matters
  of taste and sentiment.
• Logic is the study of valid argument forms.
  Beginning in the late 19th century,
  mathematicians such as Frege focused on a
  mathematical treatment of logic, and today the
  subject of logic has two broad divisions
  mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and
  what is now called philosophical logic.
• Philosophy of mind deals with the nature of the
  mind and its relationship to the body, and is
  typified by disputes between dualism and
  materialism. In recent years there has been
  increasing similarity between this branch of
  philosophy and cognitive science.
• Philosophy of language is inquiry into the
  nature, origins, and usage of language.
• Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy
  that asks questions about religion.

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Hellenistic schools of thoughtCynicism
Epicureanism Hedonism Eclecticism
Neo-Platonism Skepticism Stoicism Sophism
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• Socrates
• Classical Greek philosopher
• One of the founders of Western philosophy
• known only through the classical accounts of his
  students. Plato's dialogues are the most
  comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive
  from antiquity.
• Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues,
  Socrates has become renowned for his contribution
  to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic
  Socrates who also lends his name to the concepts
  of Socratic irony and the Socratic method.

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Philosophy of Socrates
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Socratic Method
Teaching through step-by-step questions that are
designed to lead the student to the truth
Socrates was a Greek philosopher who wanted
people to question and think for themselves
Athenians were afraid and threatened by his
ideas, so he was tried and put to death.
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The Death of Socrates
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Plato

• (427347 BC)
• Writer of philosophical dialogues - Socrates'
  point of view
• Founder of the Academy in Athens
• Lectured on politics, ethics, metaphysics,
  epistemology
• Themes in dialogues
• best possible form of government
• role of heredity the environment on human
  intelligence personality
• distinction between knowledge and true belief
• Most well known book The Republic

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• Plato
• One of Socrates students, became great
  philosopher in own right
• Left behind great number of writings that record
  ideas on wide variety of topics, from nature of
  truth to ideal form of government
• The Republic argues that government should be led
  by philosophers

• Theory of Government
• Philosophers most qualified to make good
  decisions
• Did not support Athenian democracy in which all
  men could take part
• Plato wanted to make philosophers education more
  formal
• Founded the Academy, which in Platos lifetime
  became most important site for Greek philosophers
  to do their work

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The Republic represents the 1st political
treatise, educational reform, systematic
psychological and epistemological theory,
aesthetics, and theory of virtue or the good
(just) life.
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Book I 3 Definitions of Justice

• Cephalus (327a-337d)
• Justice is honesty in word and deed or simply
  paying ones debts and obligations.
• Polemarchus (331e-336a)
• Justice is helping friends and harming enemies,
  or giving everyone his due.
• Thrasymachus (336b-354e)
• Justice is the interest of the strong (rulers)
  and is less profitable than injustice.

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Allegory of the Cave
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• Aristotle (384 BC 322 BC)
• Student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the
  Great
• Wrote books on physics, poetry, zoology, logic,
  rhetoric, politics,
  government and biology
• One of the few figures in history who studied
  almost every
  subject possible at the time

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Aristotle

• The Third Philosopher
• Aristotle was among students who studied at the
  Academy
• More concerned with nature of world that
  surrounded him
• Tried to apply philosophical principles to every
  kind of knowledge

• Emphasis on Reason and Logic
• Emphasis on reason, logic
• Reason, clear and ordered thinking use reason to
  learn about world
• Observe carefully, think rationally about what
  one has seen

• Inferring New Facts
• Aristotle also helped develop field of logic,
  process of making inferences
• Example birds have feathers, lay eggs owls have
  feathers, lay eggs therefore, owl must be a type
  of bird

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Philosophy
Love of wisdom trying to figure things out
through learning and reasoning
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle