PHIL 201 Study Guide Lesson 1: What is Philosophy? Points 1) Three preliminary qualifications in studying philosophy – 1) it is impossible to distinguish rigidly and conclusively between what counts as a philosophical problem and what does not – borderline cases / 2) none of the characteristics we shall examine is unique to philosophy; each by itself may be found in another discipline (approximations that, when applied collectively, describe reasonably adequately a broad range of philosophical issues) / 3) when it comes to describing what all (or nearly all) philosophical problems have in common, it is useful to bear in mind that philosophy always begins in wonder (asking what everything is made of or debating the ethical implications …show more content…
A fundamental idea is one upon which the truth of many other, more specific, ideas depend. The belief that God exists, for example, is a fundamental belief underlying the truth of many Christian scriptures. 9) Logical Relations – two beliefs are logically related if the truth or falsity of one determines or depends upon the truth of the other – linked by a usually unstated if-then inference / Asking whether one of the beliefs is true requires that we ask the same of the other – if “sightings of UFOs all have natural or scientific explanations” is true, then “sightings of UFOs provide evidence for extraterrestrials” must be false 10) Logically Incompatible – Logical Incompatibility – if two beliefs are incompatible, then both cannot be true. If one is true, the other must be false. > If Bill is a feminist, then it is false that he is opposed to greater equality for women. 11) Logical Implications – Logical Implication – If A
Nearly half of our dear earthlings believe that extraterrestrial creatures and UFOs are real, but we still do not have a single piece of solid evidence that proves, aliens and flying saucers are in fact real. For the past few years people have been reporting alien sightings, but none of them have been fully proven. Scientists and other officials have proven them to be wrong again and again with government explanations. Aliens are extraterrestrial creatures that do not exist. In the cases of Roswell, area 51, and alien abduction, actual facts have proven that they were indeed misunderstandings by the public that caused people to think that there were alien and UFO sightings.
To begin, it is important to understand and analyze what philosophy is and ultimately what a philosophical question is. Philosophy is a quest after knowledge. Philosophy is the action of thought and analysis, in fact, it is a pretty unique type of
According to Simon Blackburn, philosophy can be different things depending on how it’s used, and it can be used many different ways. When used as a method, philosophy studies the same world as science, but uses rational arguments as proof rather than scientific observations. Although, when thought of as a subject matter rather than a method, philosophy becomes a specific area of study, trying to answer questions that have not yet been answered and concern humanity using the three foundational philosophical questions: what exists, what do we know, and what should we do. These are the basic questions philosophers use to prove their arguments. The third way to use philosophy, according to Blackburn, is
Philosophy is defined by Webster as "Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline" or "Investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods." This essay is a general look at those who pursued that intellectual means, those who investigated, even those who reasoned Reason. Because volumes could be written and this is a rather quick, unworthy paper: apologizes.
The meaning of philosophy is the love of wisdom, questioning everything including ourselves. Philosophizing is about questioning the meaning of life.
Philosophy is one of the most important subjects taught today. Philosophy can teach us things as broad as secrets of the universe and as personal as knowing right from wrong. In the following paragraphs, I will explain each concept, as well as its importance to myself.
The main goal in philosophy is to shows us the right way on how to live a great life and to understand its meaning and purpose. Every philosopher has their own blueprint, which includes different methods and rules on how to reach that goal; these include backing up your opinions with reason, seeking secure foundations in ‘objective truth’, thinking outside of your own perspective, and seeking intellectual and moral excellence, wisdom and prudence. Philosophy will help you analyze and learn about your own knowledge, freedom, morality, religion, and the meaning of life.
Let’s review the problems of philosophy, and then make conclusion, what is the value of philosophy.
With the notion of philosophy and the studying of philosophy it is well known that it is powerful and dangerous. Philosophy has many reasons for its importance such as how to understand your ideas, the origin of your ideas, how to contrast arguments. Philosophy can also help you defend arguments, read it, build your position and understand it. Philosophy is used for the betterment of the world, gender, race, civilization, town, state, country, etc. But in order to practice philosophy you need parrhesia and you need philosophy to practice parrhesia, they come hand in hand with each other. There have been many imperative philosophers that gave us the knowledge and foundation for our study of
Without philosophy the world would be incomplete. It is common knowledge that there is gray in every argument, even the most miniscule, it is never black or white. Philosophy is what the gray area consists of, different beliefs and ideas that cannot fit in either of the two groups. That is what makes philosophy significant; there are no limits to it. There are no boundaries to what the
Allow me to begin this paper with a quick story. Going into this semester, I knew absolutely nothing about philosophy, and I thought that with this class being a Gen Ed, that it was going to be a cakewalk on my way to just getting it out of the way. I quickly learned how wrong that my mind frame going into the class, as it was quickly finding itself digging me a deep hole to crawl into, grade wise. I never realized how deep the roots of philosophy ran, from government to art. This class has opened my eyes to the world around with more depth than I thought was possible. From Plato’s dualism to Nietzsche’ tragic optimism; there are just so many different facets to the realm of philosophy that I have just started to learn about. All in all, Its been successful semester and taking this course has helped open my eyes to the larger world around me, as well as help me decide where I stand on my own philosophy. But before I get into that, allow me to describe to you a few of the things I learned in this class, as well as where I stand on a few of the hotter topics in the world of philosophy.
For half a century the subject of UFO has been discussed by scientists, ecologists, politicians, and common people around the world. It seems paradoxical, but the main question of their discussion concerns existence or non-existence of UFO itself, so many people is not sure that the very subject of their debate really exists. I share the opinion of those who do not believe in UFO saying that this phenomenon has not been scientifically proved, and everything its adherents operates is conjecture and fantasy, and disconnected stories of those who allegedly have seen UFO are far from scientific explanation of the event.
Philosophy is defined as the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. It has been studied by well-known philosophers such as Aristotle, John Locke, and David Hume. Aristotle is famous for his belief in the golden mean which is the Greek philosophy believing in the desirable middle between two extremes. John Locke developed his own theory of mind, which is often mentioned as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and self. Philosophers over the stretch of time have developed, and fine-tuned, their theories and conceptualized their own ideas on how and why all things in the universe work. From these different theories three examples of these ideas that stand out are determinism, compatibilism, and
This essay is reflection about my understanding from what I have learned during this class about what philosophy is. Philosophy is a broad topic and can be hard to understand. What we learn is class about philosophy defiantly makes me think and makes my brain turn all the time, but so far, my understanding is that philosophy is the study of knowledge. It breaks down what everything is. Examples used in class are chariness, deskness, and the main one sued in class “cupness”.
Doing philosophy as many philosophers demonstrate over time and in the present is to simply question the understanding of what is known and not known or accepted and unaccepted. This is to say, that philosophers must question all aspects of life and all the surrounding dimensions of the world. In doing so, the philosopher is trying to grasp a firmer or different understanding of the truth that is either presently or not presently known; whether comforting or not comforting. One of the world’s most famous and original philosophers Socrates, had a student named Plato who explains this very concept of philosophy in the “Allegory of the Cave” when describing what it would be like for the newly free prisoner to realize the actual true reality in which the prisoner lives in. “[The prisoner would] be pained and dazzled and unable to see whose shadows [the prisoner had] seen before”, but the prisoner would now see reality more clearly than previously seen before. (Plato) Though the prisoner’s revelation seems to be uncomforting, Plato follows this newly sorrowful seen reality by asserting that the prisoner’s next steps in continuing would be to “see the sun, not images of it in water or some alien place, but the sun itself, in its own place, and be able to study it.” (Plato) The prisoner could now expand on this new realization of reality and allow this new view to further carry the prisoner to future and further understandings of reality and its