The Meaning and Process of Doing Philosophy

Meaning of Philosophy
PHILOSOPHY or Love of Wisdom comes from two classical Greek words:
Philos meaning Love and Sophia meaning Wisdom
• Philosophy, as a term, has no fixed meaning or definition because once a word is defined, it creates limitations.

SOCRATES (Greek)
• Father of Western Philosophy

PLATO (Greek)
• Considered the preeminent Greek philosopher, known for his Dialogues and for founding his Academy north of
Athens, traditionally considered the first university in the western world.
• combined the approaches of Thales and Pythagoras.

ARISTOTLE (Greek)
• the founder of the systematic, scientific examination in literally every area of human knowledge
• "The Man Who Knew Everything".
• first philosopher who systematically studied, recorded, and criticized previous philosophers’ work. He mentioned
that Socrates focuses on ethics rather than studying the world of nature.

Socratic Questioning Abilities - called a dialectic method of teaching or discussion. This is a disciplined,
systematic form of questioning. Coined after Socrates who taught the youth of Athens by asking questions. He
intends to expose contradictions in the students’ minds and ideas to lead them to valid arguments.

Process of Doing Philosophy

A. Wonder

In the first book of Metaphysics, Aristotle says “through wonder, one begins to philosophize”. The fulfillment is not
from having the answers, yet through the reason that makes an answer correct and appropriate.

B. Engaging in Reflection or Thinking

GABRIEL MARCEL (1889–1973)

• philosopher, drama critic, playwright, and musician
• converted to Catholicism in 1929, and his philosophy was later described as “Christian Existentialism

Primary Reflection - examines its object by abstraction. It is concerned with definitions, essences and technical
solutions to problems. It is a fragmented and compartmentalized thinking. It utilizes its object as a tool or
instrument. It capitalizes the “means-end thinking.”

Secondary Reflection - treats the primary reflection as a fulcrum. It restores the unity of the fragmented
experience into a whole. Reflection is consummated in the secondary reflection.

A philosophical reflection is a tool for doing philosophy. It deepens our understanding of ourselves as well as our
role and place in this world.
C. Formulation and Evaluation of Argument
Thinkers find the answers. Yet, the answers need to be critiqued, reformulated, and challenged and so forth. The
process of philosophical inquiry requires a wondering and self-critiquing skill or ability. As a thinking being, a human
person can reflect (primary and secondary), formulate an argument, and evaluate its soundness and validity.

Methods of Philosophizing
Critical thinking is the best way of determining what is based on truth and what is based on opinion.

Source of Truth
1 Knowledge - clear awareness and understanding of something that is based on reality. It simply means that what
we know is what is observable or evident in the real world.
ex. I know that the Kadayawan Festival is celebrated every month of August.

2 Facts - propositions or statements which are observed to be real. It is something that has been proven correct.
ex. The planet earth is round.

3 Claim - statement that is not evidently or immediately known to be true.

Forms of Claim

Claim of Fact - Something Claim of Value - Judges Claim of Policy -

that has existed, and will whether it is good or bad Something that should be
exist. ex. Chess is boring. or should not be done.
ex. Social distancing is ex. We should respect our
important during the parents.
coronavirus pandemic.

A statement is true if it can be proven through the use of senses, according to Aristotle.
A statement is true if it is based on facts.

Philosopher’s Notion on Truth

1. Plato Truth is objective, which our reason apprehends.
2. St. Thomas Aquinas Truth is the conformity of the intellect and things.
3. George Hegel Truth is its self-movement within itself.
4. Immanuel Kant Truth consists in the agreement of mind and rationality with its object.
5. Soren Kierkegaard Truth agrees on mathematics, science, and history.

Distinguishing Truth from Opinion

Truth
• Actuality of events • It tells on specific information
• Can be verified with evidence • Can be checked through observation
• Based on facts, events, and happenings • Often contains numbers, dates or ages

Opinion
• Personal view or thoughts • It tells what someone thinks
• Statement that cannot be proven • It tells what someone feels.
• Based on thoughts, feelings • It tells what someone believes
5 Helpful Tips to Guide Us Better To Evaluate an Opinion

1. Source – origin of the material. Some sources are more credible than others. Knowing where the
information came from will help us determine the accuracy, correctness, and soundness of information.

2. Reliability – credibility is also required when checking the accuracy of the person giving the opinion.
Consider the reputation and the expertise of the person about the topic.

3. Purpose – Identify the main reason why the opinion is given. Evaluate if it is intended to inform or persuade.
Consider reason and evidence in doing this step.

4. Bias – prejudice in favor of or against one person compared with another, usually considered to be unfair.

5. Assumption – ideas that one accepts as facts but makes no effort to prove it.

Philosophizing – to think or express in a philosophical manner

- discusses an issue or topic from a philosophical standpoint
- to reason out, conceptualize, grasp mentally, intellectualize

Methods of Philosophizing

1 Phenomenology - reality is made up of events perceived and by human consciousness

Proponents:
1. Edmund Husserl (Father of Phenomenology) – Truth is dependent on the human mind, which has a
consciousness faculty.
2. Immanuel Kant (German Philosopher) – Phenomenology is relevant to our experiences.

2 Existentialism - Truth is a product of rational choice. Man is viewed as a free agent and is capable of
making choices.
Proponents:
1. Jean Paul Sartre (French Philosopher) – Existence precedes Essences. It is by existing and acting a certain
way do we give meaning to our lives with freedom.
2. Soren Kierkegaard (Father of Existentialism) – Each person is solely responsible for giving meaning to life
with passion and sincerity.

3 Logic and Critical Thinking - focuses on the analysis of arguments. It requires reasoning and critical
thinking in analyzing and evaluating an idea.
Proponents:
1. Aristotle (Father of Logic) – Logic aims to investigate, and evaluate good and bad forms of reasoning.
2. Parmenides (Ancient Philosopher) – Advocated logos as the means to Truth.
3. Thales (Ancient Philosopher) – Used deductive reasoning in geometry.
4. Immanuel Kant (German Philosopher) – Debated the attainment of truth by asking “What can we know?”

13 Fallacies - Arguments that are based on faulty and incorrect reasoning. These are intentional and are
designed to persuade or to convince people.

Ad Hominem Attacking the person Fallacy of What is true for a part is

Attack against person instead of the issue Composition true for the whole

Ad Misericordiam Pleading for sympathy Fallacy of What is true for the whole is
Appeal to pity and while disregarding Division also true for its parts
emotion the issue
Ad Populum Presumes that Fallacy of Using a word that has the
Appeal to people something is true Equivocation same spelling or sound, but
because most believe it it
to be true. has a different meaning.

Ad Baculum Threatening a listener on Fallacy of Word Because

Appeal to force a physical or Construction of the grammar or double
psychological force as a meanings, the statement is
justification for accepting understood in two ways.
the conclusion.

Ad Verecundiam Making an appeal using Post Hoc Cause and effect

Appeal to misplaced alleged advice that is not False cause relationship between
authority in proper authority. unrelated events.

Ad Ignorantiam Claim that must be Petitio Principii It takes for granted what it’s
Appeal to accepted because no Begging the supposed to prove.
ignorance one else can prove question
otherwise.

Fallacy of Sweeping
Accident generalizations
Destroying the exception cause an error in
reasoning.

Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

Man is the general term commonly used to refer to the entire human race.
Human refers to man as a species - homo sapiens sapiens.
The term human being is also used to distinguish man from other animals.
Person is a much more complex term that refers to a human being granted recognition of certain protections.
Human nature are characteristics that distinguish humans from all other creatures. These traits are assumed
to arise independently of the influence of culture and society.

Man is an embodied spirit – man has a body and a soul

Understanding Human Person as Embodied Spirit from Different Perspectives

A. Dualistic Point of View of Human Being

“The Body as Prison to the Soul.” - Plato in Phaedo
For Plato, the body is material; it cannot live and move, mutable and destructible. The soul is immaterial and
can exist apart from the body. When we die, our physical body dies while our soul continues to live.

This doctrine is connected to Plato’s theory of Forms where the material world is just a mere illusion while the
Real-world is found in the world of Ideas.

B. Union Between Body and Soul

Aristotle asserts that there is no division between the body and the soul. The body and the soul are in the state
of unity. The soul “acts as the perfect realization of the body.” It is the soul that gives life to the body.
The soul is the principle in life; it causes the body to live.

C. Man as a Rational Being

Man is equipped with rationality. According to Aristotle, rationality is what separates man from all other animals.
What makes us different from animals is our ability to think and reason out.
Limitations of Man

a. Facticity - The quality or state of being a fact. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2020). These are the things in
our life that are already given. It points-out to the things in our life that are already given, like our life, gender,
parents, and status in life.

b. Spatial-Temporal Being - We are limited by space and time. At times, we are too engrossed in our past or
very anxious about what will happen to us. We failed to see the significance of the present.

c. The Body as Intermediary - Our body serves as an intermediary between us and the physical world. It
imposes limitations concerning communication and expression. We communicate with others using words. But
words are limited. We cannot tell other people what we have in mind or what we feel.

Possibilities and Transcendence

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, transcendent means exceeding usual limits, surpassing, or
extending or lying beyond ordinary experience. Man can overcome his own limit. By using his intellect, he can
innovate, invent and recreate to surpass his limitations.

The Human Person and the Environment

The Unity of the Cosmos

The Milesians thought of nature as without boundaries.

Anaximander, the first philosopher to develop a cosmology, supports the idea of the indeterminate expanse of
nature in the philosophy of Creation and Destruction.

Apeiron is the indefinite or infinite and everything emanated from it according to Anaximander. He believed in
eternal motion along with the apeiron, which caused the world to exist.

Pythagoras, another thinker in antiquity, thought of the world as the embodiment of nature’s order, harmony,
and beauty. Our relationship with the cosmos, according to him, involves the love of other things (biophilia) and
the love of other beings (cosmophilia).

The theocentric (God-centered) period or the medieval period also postulated their understanding of nature.
Kingdoms of Nature: the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral.

Beauty, according to Immanuel Kant, is a symbol of morality.

Herbert Marcuse thought that nature is under the dominance of humanity. The way we see the world impacts
how we act and react to the things around us.

Environmental Philosophy:
Defining Humanity’s Relationship with the Environment

Environmental Ethics - discipline in philosophy that studies human beings’ moral relationship with the
environment and its non-human contents.

• All nonhuman elements of the world have intrinsic value and should be preserved.
• Preservation of the environment will provide for the needs of present and future generations.
• Humankind has a responsibility to safeguard the planet as stewards of creation.
Humanity and Environment Relationship: Three Major Views

Anthropocentrism focuses on humanity’s role in the world. The utilization of nature’s resources is one of the
central drives that this idea is clinging into as much as man’s survival is taken from the environment.

Biocentrism asserts that all living things found in the cosmos are equally important. It means that human life is
equally important with all life forms in the ecosystem.

Ecocentrism asserts the importance of the ecosystem as a whole. It includes the abiotic environment.
Meaning, ecocentrists include in their study the non-living elements.

Humanity and the Order of Nature – a philosophical view that emerged in the late 20th century. Its focus is
on the issues arising from the appreciation of the whole cosmos.

• Social ecology seeks to provide plausible solutions to problems emanating from the environment.
• Climate ethics and climate justice arose from the growing concern with climate change, and consider it a
significant ethical, social, and political issue. These were influenced by the concept of environmental justice.

The Care for the Environment

The problems in our environment need an urgency for response. This call does not exclude anyone as often
thought to be the concern only of the government and advocates of the various environmental movements. In
this way, nature can be sustained as it provides humanity’s needs not only today but also for the future
generations.

Environmental Sustainability - Man needs sustenance to survive and so does our environment. It will ensure
both short and long-term quality of life.

Three Principles of Sustainability

1. Environmental integrity which calls to maintain the environment’s state without being destroyed by
human activities.
2. Economic efficiency underlies the value of prudence in making decisions in the use of natural
resources. It calls us to avoid wastes.
3. Equity underlies the efficient use of the natural resources conserving it for the future.

2 Values essential for Environment Care:

Prudence - self-regulation, to regulate our actions and behavior.
Frugality - mindful of what we need, thrifty. To be thrifty with the use of our nature’s resources.