Transcript Chapter 1: What is Philosophy?

Chapter 1:
What is Philosophy?
Objectives:
I. What Do Philosophers Do?
A. The Study of Human Nature
B. The Study of the Universe
C. Human Nature and the Universe
II. Rationality, Universality, and Objectivity
III. The Limitations of the Western
Philosophical Tradition
Philosophy is:
• Love of wisdom; the systematic, critical
examination of the way in which we judge,
evaluate, and act, with the aim of making
ourselves wiser and more self-reflective.
The Socratic Method
• A process of questions and answers by which
we systematically reach deeper and deeper
insights into the principles of truth and
goodness.
– Ken Samples isolated 5 characteristics of the
method:
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Skeptical
Conversational
‘definitional’ or conceptual
Deductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning
Socrates Theory
• A theory about how each of us ought to examine his or her
life, subjecting it to critical analysis and questioning.
• It was his style of teaching and philosophizing and it rested
on 4 basic principles (pg.7):
– The unexamined life is not worth living
– There really are valid objective (true for all men and women)
principles of thought and action that must be followed if we are
to live good lives-if we are to be, at the same time, genuinely
happy and good.
– The truth lies within each of us, not in the stars, or in tradition,
or in religious books, or in the opinions of the masses.
– Some people can ask questions that prod men and women to
begin the task of self-examination. These people or teachers
may also be able to guide the process, at least in its early
stages…because they know where the pitfalls are.
The Study of the Universe
• Cosmology
– “kosmos” = world or universe
– The study of the nature of the world
– The study of the human condition and the study
of the cosmos are the two great branches of
philosophy and there is no division more
fundamental in philosophy
– Part of the subfield of “Metaphysics” or the study
of First Principles.
Human Nature and the Universe
• First strategy tried by a group called the Stoics.
– They claimed that the natural world exhibits a rational
order that can be explained by appeal to the existence and
operations of a power of reason, which they called “logos”
– Ex. of a Stoic is the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius
(A.D. 121-180)
Empiricism and Rationalism
• Two leading epistemological theories of the
past four centuries.
• Empiricism: the theory that all human knowledge comes from
the evidence of our five senses, and therefore that we can
never know more, or know with greater certainty, than our
senses will allow.
• Rationalism: is the theory that at least some human
knowledge comes from reason, unaided by the senses, and
therefore that we can know about things that the senses do
not reveal to us, and can know with greater certainty than the
senses will allow.
Epistemology
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Literally, the study of knowledge
The study of how we come to know things
What the limits are of our knowledge
What sort of certainty or uncertainty attaches to
our knowledge
– Side note: Psychology also studies how we come to
know, but epistemology is not so concerned with the
mechanics of knowing but more with the possibility of
defending, proving, or justifying what we think we
know.
II- Rationality, Universality, Objectivity
• One of the few things that philosophers do
agree on is that philosophy ought to be these
three things.
• Rationality: the mind’s ability to present
reasons, evidence, and arguments in support
of our beliefs. Our willingness to set aside
prejudice, passion, and self-interest and use
our intelligence to understand the world and
ourselves.
Cont…
• Universality: applying everywhere and always.
Being true for everyone and not just me or a
particular race, gender, or economic class.
• Objectivity: being true to the way the world
really is, not merely reflecting the inner nature
of an individual subject.
III- Limitations on Western
Philosophical Thought
• Despite the fact that it is largely the product of “dead
white males”...this tradition presents itself as the
philosophical tradition of Western Civilization.
• Yet, in this tradition, the voices of women and persons
of color are scarcely ever heard.
• Major thinkers present their doctrines as universally
true-true for all human beings, or even, in the case of
Kant, for example, true for all rational beings whether
human or not.
• Shakespeare’s character of Hamlet, “there are more
things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in (this)
philosophy”
Enlightenment
• Period during the 18th and 19th century
• When orthodoxies of religion, science, and
politics were called into question and the
authority of tradition was replaced by the
claims of reason.
David Hume
• Read pg. 28
• Major works include A Treatise of Human
Nature
• His view on Africans
• The counter argument to Hume’s view by
Beattie. Beattie’s book was called Essay on the
Nature of Immutability of the Truth
W.E.B Du Bois
• Born 1868 in Western Massachusetts
• Doctorate from Harvard University-1st African
American to do so!
• Played a central role in founding the NAACP