Introduction to Philosophy | Study notes Philosophy

Answer: Introduction to Philosophy

Nature of Philosophy

- Originating from Greek “philosophia,” the word literally means “love of wisdom.”

- Is an attempt to arrive at a rational conception of the reality as a whole, can also be

called as the art of thinking logically, systematically and persistently of the reality as a

whole

- Philosophy is the criticism of life. Enquires into the nature, meaning, purpose, origin,

and destiny of human life. It is the interpretation of life, its value, and meaning. It is

an enquiry into its source and destiny.it investigates the nature of the supreme norms,

ideals, or values of life. Philosophy investigates the relation of values to reality. In this

way, philosophy is the interpretation of life.

- Is a critical analysis of the popular and scientific concepts, and the discovery of their

relations to one another. It is a rational attempt to integrate our knowledge and interpret

and unify our experiences

- Systematizes our scientific knowledge, and moral, aesthetic and religious experiences.

- It analyses the popular and scientific concepts, examines their validity in the light of

reason, and interrelates them to one another.

- Enquires into nature of the universe, nature of the human soul and its destiny, nature of

God (the Absolute) and their relation to one another.

- Enquires also into the nature of matter, time, space, causality, evolution, life and mind

and their relation to one another

- Plato conceived philosophy as the persistent attempt to seek clear notions. It examines,

clarifies, and explains popular and scientific concepts of matter, space, time, causality,

evolution, mechanism, teleology, life, mind or soul, ‘God or the Absolute, right and

wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, and the like, and arrives at a rational

conception of the reality.

- Clarification of concepts is the task of philosophy

- Philosophy 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, for e.g., mathematics deals with numbers

and figures, physics with heat, light, motion, sound, electricity and magnetism,

chemistry with chemical phenomena, astronomy with heavenly bodies, etc. The

sciences give a sectional view of the world but philosophy harmonizes the highest

conclusions of the different sciences, co-ordinates them with one another and gives a

rational conception of the whole world.

- When man consciously reflects upon his life and experience, and makes an intellectual

effort to harmonize the various aspects of his experience, intellectual, aesthetic moral

and religious, with one another by a rational conception of the reality as whole, he

philosophizes.

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Answer: Introduction to Philosophy Nature of Philosophy

Originating from Greek “philosophia,” the word literally means “love of wisdom.”
Is an attempt to arrive at a rational conception of the reality as a whole, can also be called as the art of thinking logically, systematically and persistently of the reality as a whole
Philosophy is the criticism of life. Enquires into the nature, meaning, purpose, origin, and destiny of human life. It is the interpretation of life, its value, and meaning. It is an enquiry into its source and destiny.it investigates the nature of the supreme norms, ideals, or values of life. Philosophy investigates the relation of values to reality. In this way, philosophy is the interpretation of life.
Is a critical analysis of the popular and scientific concepts, and the discovery of their relations to one another. It is a rational attempt to integrate our knowledge and interpret and unify our experiences
Systematizes our scientific knowledge, and moral, aesthetic and religious experiences.
It analyses the popular and scientific concepts, examines their validity in the light of reason, and interrelates them to one another.
Enquires into nature of the universe, nature of the human soul and its destiny, nature of God (the Absolute) and their relation to one another.
Enquires also into the nature of matter, time, space, causality, evolution, life and mind and their relation to one another
Plato conceived philosophy as the persistent attempt to seek clear notions. It examines, clarifies, and explains popular and scientific concepts of matter, space, time, causality, evolution, mechanism, teleology, life, mind or soul, ‘God or the Absolute, right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, and the like, and arrives at a rational conception of the reality.
Clarification of concepts is the task of philosophy
Philosophy 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, for e.g., mathematics deals with numbers and figures, physics with heat, light, motion, sound, electricity and magnetism, chemistry with chemical phenomena, astronomy with heavenly bodies, etc. The sciences give a sectional view of the world but philosophy harmonizes the highest conclusions of the different sciences, co-ordinates them with one another and gives a rational conception of the whole world.
When man consciously reflects upon his life and experience, and makes an intellectual effort to harmonize the various aspects of his experience, intellectual, aesthetic moral and religious, with one another by a rational conception of the reality as whole, he philosophizes.

Life and philosophy react upon each other. A superficial life of mere pursuit of sensual pleasures and material comforts yields of a superficial philosophy of materialism. A deeper life of sense restraint, control of emotions and passions, and pursuit of human good, truth, beauty, and the Holy yields a deeper philosophy of idealism. Life is never complete, perfect and harmonious, so philosophy, also, which is a reflection upon life, can never be complete and all-embracing. Common sense, Science and Philosophy The philosophy of common sense is not based on critical reflection but rather derived from authority and tradition or imbibed from the social environment, it is dogmatic and uncritical. Human reason cannot be satisfied with just about anything. Hence, it passes from philosophy of common sense to that of the sciences. It builds the superstructure of philosophy on the solid foundation of the results of scientific enquiry. Science rationalises common sense and philosophy, science. Science and common sense - Facts of common sense are disjoined and isolated from one another. Common sense view of the world is unreflective and unsystematic. Science connects the seemingly independent and unreflective facts of experience, and explain them by discovering their causes and laws. It reduces seemingly unrelated plurality of facts of experience to a unified system. Features of Science:

Generality - common sense experience is concerned with particular facts but science is connected with the general features and relations of facts. Science seeks to discover the general laws of nature, and apply them to particular cases. Generalization is the goal of science.
Certainty - Common knowledge is uncertain and doubtful as it is based on mere opinion and not proven by scientific methods. Scientific knowledge is certain as it is based on rational grounds and verified by scientific methods.
Accuracy - Common sense is inaccurate and inexact while scientific knowledge is exact and accurate. Common knowledge is often based on mere conjecture but sk on accurate observation and experiment.
System - science organises the isolated facts of common experience and reduces them to a system. It systematises the particular facts of common experience. It connects them with one another by discovering their causes and laws. Philosophy and Science Science is a step beyond common experience, philosophy is a step beyond science. Science is organized common exp while philosophy is organized scientific knowledge. Sciences deal with sections of the world while philosophy deals with the whole phenomenon.

Epistemology - Enquires into the nature, origin, validity and extent of knowledge.

It means the “Science of Knowledge.” Epistemology is defined as ‘Theory of Knowledge’. It is a branch of philosophy which investigates the origin, nature, methods, and processes of acquiring knowledge. In other words, the nature and worthiness of knowledge, methods of acquiring knowledge, etc. fall under Epistemology. So this branch of philosophy considers important questions, such as:  How do we know?  What do we know?  What processes of knowing do we base our knowledge of the world and society?  What is the authority on which we base our claims to truth?  Do our knowledge claims derive from divine revelation, empirical evidence, or personal and subjective experiences? All the above questions address a knowledge pursuit. Exploring, experimenting, enquiring and examining the facts are the processes of acquiring knowledge that come under epistemology. Thus, epistemology addresses the cognitive aspect of domain It is the study of the nature of human knowledge and how it can be achieved. Human knowledge is a complex process and many activities are involved in it; seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting, inquiring, imagining, understanding, conceiving, reflecting, intuiting, judging etc. It is from all these activities taken together, that we acquire knowledge. In fact, human knowing consists of three main activities namely experiencing, understanding, and judging and all these three constitute the structure of human knowing.

Experiencing- It includes seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting, imagining etc.
Understanding- It includes inquiring, conceiving, formulating in concepts and hypothesis etc.
Judging- It includes reflecting, weighing of evidence, affirming etc. Ethics (Axiology)- theories of values ‘Axiology’ is one of the branches of philosophy which defines as ‘Theory of principles or values’. The sub-division of axiology is Ethics and Aesthetics. Ethics refers to the philosophical study of moral values and conduct. Aesthetic is concerned with the study of values in the realm of beauty and art. Some school subjects such as art, drama, music, dancing etc. fulfil aesthetic sense and make human life, harmonious, balanced and beautiful. So, on one hand where metaphysics attempts to describe the nature of reality, axiology refers to prescriptions of moral behaviour and beauty. These discussions also affect educational perspectives such as discipline, school environment, student-teacher relationships, etc. Axiology deals mainly with the affective domain of knowledge.

Ethics is the science of what man ought to do in order to live as he should, in order to be what he ought to be, in order to attain his supreme value, in order to realize in his nature what presents itself as the justification of his existence, that towards which and for which he exists. In short, ethics is a categorically normative, practical science. Ethics is a science. It is a science in as much as it is a set or body of reasonable truths organized in a systematic way and having its specific material and formal objects. The material object of ethics is the conduct of man – the acts controlled by his will. The formal object of ethics is the rightness or wrongness, the goodness or badness of human conduct. Ethics therefore is a science in its own right, distinct from all others. Ethics is a categorically normative science because its directives are unconditional, absolute and obligatory. Ethics commands that all men, at all times, under all conditions ought to act as men that are faithful to and in conformity with their rational nature. Ethics is a practical science since it studies how human acts are directed towards man’s ultimate purpose or end. It not only treats of human activity but it aims at directing it. It does not stop at the contemplation of truth, but applies that learning to human acts, providing the necessary knowledge so that man may act in a morally upright way. Ethics is a practical science, i.e. it directs man’s life of action. It is the most important practical science, since it studies the ultimate end of man, which ensures his happiness as well as the means to attain it. Logic - By definition, ‘logic’ is a method of reasoning that involves series of statements, each of which must be true if the statement before it is true. Logic is the branch of philosophy that deals with correct and logical thinking. It is concerned with how one organizes and sequences one’s thinking and form arguments according to a coherent pattern and that one organizes his/her supporting evidences to make a case for or to explain something. The two major patterns of logic are deduction and induction. In deduction, one moves from general statement or principle to specific cases or examples, whereas in induction, one moves from particular examples to generalization i.e. to establishing theory or principle. Logic is best defined as the science of reasoning. Reasoning is a special kind of thinking in which problems are solved, in which inference takes place, that is, in which conclusions are drawn from premises. Logic examines how the mind functions in reaching valid arguments and what are the criteria for validity of these arguments. The logician is concerned with the correctness of the completed process of reasoning. The logician asks: do the conclusions reached from the premise used or assumed? Do the premises provide good reasons for accepting the conclusion? If the premises do provide adequate grounds for affirming the conclusion, then the reasoning is correct, otherwise it is incorrect Social and Political Philosophy- a field of study that explores the relationship between governments and societies. It also considers how to organize institutions that govern society. Read from Philosophy and common sense pdf Intro to Philosophy pdf

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