NO.

1.

CONTENTS

Pages.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

2-7

1.1 WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY

2-3

1.2 WHAT PHILOSOPHERS DO

2.

1.3 WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE AND MIND

2.0 CONTENT

5-7
8-16

2.1 EPISTEMOLOGY

2.1.2 The justification of belief and the source of knowledge

9-11

2.2 THE BRANCHES OF EPISTEMOLOGY

3.

12-14

2.2.1 Rationalism

12

2.2.2 Empiricism

13

2.2.3 Scepticism

14

2.3 KNOWLEDGE

15

2.4 MIND

16

3.0 ANALYSIS

17-18

3.1 RELATING KNOWLEDGE AND MIND

4.
4.0 CONCLUSION

19

5.0 REFRENCESS

20

5.

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1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
LOVE OF WISDOM

The word philosophy is derived from the Greek words philo that give a meaning of love and
Sophia thats mean wisdom and it give a mean of the love of wisdom. The term philosophy
means the love of wisdom which means, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they
seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their
relationships to the world and to each other.
According to the Chambers Concise Dictionary, philosophy is, the search for truth and
knowledge concerning the universe, human existence, perception and behavior, pursued by
means of reflection, reasoning and argument. The books also said that philosophy is any
particular system or set of beliefs established as a result of this and it is a set of principles that
serves as a basis for making judgments and decisions.
Philosophy also means the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and
existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline. From what I learnt in my
philosophy class, I understand that philosophy is about thinking about thinking, it is a
formulated answered to a problem, and philosophy gives an unanswered question.
Philosophy is very important in our life because it enables us to think carefully and clearly
about important issues and philosophy it enables us to learn not what to believe, but how to
think. Secondly, philosophy can help us to sharpen our analytical abilities, enabling us to
identify and evaluate the strengths and weakness in any position. The importance of
philosophy by the view from Al-Ghazali and St.Augustine is philosophy can explain and justify
certain religious points of view while, Descartes had said that philosophy can interpret the
meaning and importance of various scientific discoveries and theories. To gain the insight into
questions about knowledge, truth, reason, reality, meaning, mind and value are one of the
important of philosophy. Philosophy also can hone our ability to construct and articulate our
own cogent arguments. Last but not least, philosophy can help us to seek for the truth, such as
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validity. For me, philosophy is important in our life because it is related to our existence and
our daily life.
Nature of philosophy means that philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and the
universe, which are often held uncritically. Secondly, philosophy is a process of reflecting on
and criticizing our most deeply held conceptions and beliefs. Then, philosophy is a rational
attempt to look at the world as a whole and philosophy also is the logical analysis of language
and the clarification of the meaning of words and concepts. Last but not least, philosophy is a
group of perennial problems that interest people and for which philosophers always have
sought answer.
Pure philosophy deals only with a priori concepts, which is, the concepts that occur to us
independents of any experience or perception. There are four branches that are generally
recognized in pure philosophy. Firstly, it is logic which is the study of reasoning. Secondly, it is
epistemology that is the theory of knowledge and this is one of the topics that I will discuss and
discover in my assignment. Then the other branch is metaphysics which is the theory of being
and lastly it is ethic and aesthetics which discover about the theory of value. Actually, pure
philosophy is not just about this four branches, but there are many branches outside there such
as theology, cosmology, realism and idealism.
Applied philosophy is marked out from philosophy in general by its focus on matters of
practical concern. From what I understand in Dr. Munif lecture, applied philosophy is origin
from the pure philosophy and the four branches of the pure philosophy have a relationship with
each other. There are many branches in applied philosophy, as there are occasion for human
folly. The branches of applied philosophy is philosophy of science which is the study of
science work or should work, philosophy of religion which discover the problems about
religion and God and the philosophy of language that have relation with logic, epistemology
and metaphysics. Then, there is also the philosophy of mathematics which study the concepts
and system in mathematics, while the philosophy of law is the study of problems concerning
prescriptive law. Last but not least, the political philosophy which is the study of authority and
sovereignty of a group of people.

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1.2 WHAT PHILOSOPHERS DO?

Pythagoras is the first man, who call himself as philosopher and the world is indebted to him
for the word philosopher. He coined the word philosopher, which he defined as one who is
attempting to find out. According to him, men and women of the world could be classified
into 3 groups, which is, those who love pleasure those who love activity and those who love
wisdom.
Here is some of the list of the famous philosopher:

Karl Marx (1818-1883)The

Communist Manifesto, cofounder and father of Socialism
& Communism
1.

Socrates (c. 469-399 BC)

2.

The Socratic Method of logic

and a founder of Western
philosophy

Plato (c. 428-348 BC)

Platonic idealism & the
theory of forms
3.

John Locke (1632-1704)

Theory of mind & Father of
Classical Liberalism
4.

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1.3 WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE AND MIND?

Knowledge

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, teach him how to catch fish, and
you feed him for a lifetime.

This idioms show that knowledge is really important to every person. Look at the first part,
Give a man a fish it means we have fed him for today or we can say that if we give a human
an object he wants, he will not gain the necessary knowledge to be able to get it himself. Teach
him how to catch fish it means we give him knowledge or we give the man knowledge on how
to get things for himself, and he will be able to get the fish for himself. It just likes writing an
essay for our kid. If we write it for them, they wont learn how to write an essays but if we
teach him how to write it, then they will be able to write essays on his own. Generally, the word
knowledge is known as facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or
education and the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
In philosophy, knowledge is something that we called as epistemology. Epistemology is the
philosophical subarea that focuses on the nature, extent, and origin of human knowledge.
Episteme is the Greek word for knowledge, and logy essentially means study of. So,
episteme-ology is the study of knowledge. The epistemologist, address three central
questions:
1. What is knowledge?
2. What can we know?
3. How is knowledge acquired?

What is knowledge?

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The sample answer for this question is that a statement is known by someone only when she
believes the statement. One example from Plato (b.ca. 428 B.C.), is no one can know a
falsehood, for example, no one can know that two is an odd number. If we didnt believe
something it means that we didnt know it, while if we belief something without any reason or
specific evidence it means we didnt know anything and the belief is unjustified.
What can we know?
The sample answer for this question is just simple because the answer is human being cannot
know anything and in certain area of inquiry, nothing can be known. For example, one might
maintain that nothing can be known about the external world or nothing can be known about
other peoples mental states (feelings or desires).
How is knowledge acquired?
The sample answer for this question is one from the rationalism which said that all knowledge
starts with the mind and another one is from empiricism which said that all knowledge starts
with the sense. Rationalism is the characteristic of a philosophical theory which claims that by
pure reasoning, without appeal to any empirical premises, we can arrive at substantial
knowledge about the nature of the world. Empiricism is from the Greek word that is empeiria
which means experience. Empiricism is the philosophical theory that all knowledge is derived
from experience through the sense.

MIND

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Mind is the element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their
experiences, to think, and to feel or the faculty of consciousness and thought. In other word,
mind is a person's ability to think and to give reason. Its questions include these:
1. What is a mind?
2. How are minds related to bodies?

What is a mind?
Mind is a thing that thinks. From the Greek view, mind is the rational part of the soul. Thinking
are including a lot of thing such as, perceiving, believing, reasoning, having sensations, and
being conscious. All of these are mental states and events.

How are minds related to body?

The relationship between mind and body can be show when a person drink a lot of alcohol (a
physical event), he become confused (a mental event) and when he being completely drunk, he
eventually fall down (a physical event), and he hurt (a mental event). Rene Descartes (b.
1596), who is the founder of the modern philosophy of mind, stated that mind and body were
two wholly different kinds of things.

2.0 CONTENT
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2.1 Epistemology
Knowledge and mind is related with epistemology, while epistemology has close ties with the
metaphysics. If metaphysic is the study of the fact and reality of something, epistemology is the
study about the justification can be made based on the metaphysic. The epistemologist, have
different view about the relationship of epistemology and metaphysic. The idealist trust, that
someones knowledge cant exist alone without the permission of the mind to give reflection
towards the information that has been received. The realist said that the sensuous object exist
freely from the mind and its knowledge, while the dualism view is different. They argue that
knowing something and the object of knowledge is two facts that are surely different. The
outside object is the reflection of the image that exist in the mind. The epistemologist, define
the knowledge as true faith can be proved. Based on this definition, there are three things that
involved which is, knowing something means someone must trust it, the trust also have to be
something that is truth and right and the trust also must have reason or it can be justify.

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2.1.2 The justification of belief and the source of knowledge:

KNOW

1. People said they know something when they use to it or to someone.

2. People know something when they have the ability and the skills to do something.
3. People also know something based on their knowledge about something.
For the example people A said: Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
Sensation is an information that being processed by brain as a result of experience
(information) obtained from the sense such as sense of touch, smell, taste , sight and
hear. It is the first source to justify someones trust about something .

THE FIRE IS HOT

The statement above is one of the examples, of sensation. As we know the fire is hot.
So, how we know it is hot? The answer is we touch it, our brain processed it and we feel the
fire is hot. So, that is sensation because we know something based on our sense of touch.
Brain is the place where information that being received is processed and it is the basic
of the trust strength of someone to something, object or an event. There are three type of data
that based on the sense:
1. SENSE DATA ( Sense Datum)
- Same as the sensation.
- It is the process of receiving the information from the sense; send it to the
brain to be processed, catalogue or being assessed.
- St.Thomas Aquinas name the process as phantasmata, it is senseappearance or sense impression. Based on him, intellectual activity is
related to the experience of the sense.
2. SOMATIC DATA
- Information as a result when the brain does it activity by processing the data
from the inside of our body such as sick, pain and the waves from our
stomach.
- The characteristic of the data may be fun, not fun or interesting.
3. HALLUCINATION DATA
- Information resulting from the brain such as someone is dreaming,
daydreaming, see or hear something that is not exist.
- This type of data, give excitement, fear and something that cant be
predicted.
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The knowledge that based on the sense only told about the appearance of something but not
about the fact of something.
Proposition or belief that being justified based on the intuition (instinct), can be known directly
and absolute can be considered as something that is right and true. In philosophy, intuition is
the knowledge that can be received directly by the sense reasoning process and the inference
technique (deduction and induction process). There are seven type of intuition that usually
being used to justified belief based on Herbert Feigl that joined Vienna Circle (Blackwood
1975,209-221):

1. The sense awareness. (Direct experience)

- The sense awareness about the quality of an object such as red, pink, hot,
cold, the shape or the image that can be seen by someone.
2. The idea that being claim directly.
- Based on the using of intuition by Immanuel Kant and Plato.
3. Self-Evident Truth.
- In the context of moral, there are intuition that being call as conscience that
help a person to difference between good things or bad things and truth or
wrong.
4. Instinctive knowledge.
- As an example, person A can understand the feeling of person B and person
C can feel the pain that being face by person D.
5. Extrasensory perception.
- Clairvoyance (the ability to know what happen in another places)
- Telepathy (transferring knowledge from one person to another without going
through the intermediate sense.)
- Precognition (forecast)
6. Instinct that involving the process of value something based on the past impression and
memory.
7. Trans-empirical intuition.
- Cant be observes empirically.
Revelation (wahyu) is used by a person to justify belief especially that related to
religion. It is used to know the existence of God, angels, the end day, heaven, hell and many
more. There are two ways how revelation is transferred:

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God
inspirati
on
The inspiration is

Holly
Book
- Zabur, injil,
Taurat and AlQuran
To the God
messengers
such as Nabi
Muhammad

revealed to a
messenger and
then it will be
transfer to the
others

Also known as Hadis

Authority is accepted without being questioned about its validity by some people. Meanings of
authority:
1. God as the author of the revelation.
2. The information that being received based on the fact and the source is something like
magazine, newspaper, television and media.

Belief (keimanan) are justified as something that is true in religion, medical or daily quotes.
There are three aspect of belief but the first and the second aspect are not the type of belief that
is based on epistemology. The aspects are:
1. Believe in something because of following others without knowing the source and
reason.
- Believe that ghost is exists because the parents state that it is exist.
2. Believe in something based on hopes.
- Believe that Imam Mahadi will come one fine day.
3. Believe something and including the process of thinking.
- I believe in Allah it is not just a statement but this statement are including
the argument of how Allah is the Greatest, Know everything and have
Power.
- It means we trust Allah because of some knowledge that has been proves
that it is true.

2.2 The Branches of Epistemology

2.2.1 Rationalism (All knowledge starts with the mind)

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The philosophers for rationalism in 17 and 18 century are, Rene

Descartes(1596-1650 M.), Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677 M.) and G.W
Leibniz (1646-1716 M.)
The characteristic of a philosophical theory which claims that by pure
reasoning, without appeal to any empirical premises, we can arrive at
substantial knowledge about the nature of the world.
It refers to the view that faith in the supernatural is inadmissible and that
religious claims must be tested by rational criteria.
Rene Descartes is the founder of rationalism. He said that all knowledge
starts with the mind by using the technique of reasonable doubt. The result
of the process of thought is doubt:
I doubt, therefore I think
Conclusion: I think, therefore I

Example of the process of the reasonable doubt:

1. The problem of what there is:
1. I think

I think,
therefore
I am

2. I who
think
3. I exist

2. The existence of God.

Who create me?
Im not exist all by myself or independently.
So, there is something that creates me, which is really perfect and more
rational than me.
3. The existence of nature.

Descartes doubt theory, based on two principles:

1. Not willing to accept things are true unless it can be verified and the resulting truth is
not going to be wrong because it is based on the rational of someone.
2. It is start with a clear and smooth prove which then being continue with the right way in
every phase based on the previous phase.

Implication of the philosophy of rationalism by Descartes:

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The existence of human mind totality which is able to explain a natural

phenomenon.
Dismiss the God as the principle of explanation.
The things that exist are only human mind and the physical of the world
2.2.2 Empiricism (All knowledge starts with the sense)

From the Greek empeiria = experience.

The philosophical theory that all knowledge is derived from experience
through the senses.
It has been developed mainly by a succession of British philosophers of
whom the most important are John Locke(1632-1704), George Berkeley
(1685-1753), David Hume(1711-1776) and John Stuart Mill ( 1773-1836).
The general principles of empiricism are opposed primarily to those of
rationalism.
It was a reaction against the systems of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz.
It is primarily a theory of knowledge, but its influence has also been
considerable in the field of ethics.
Locke is the founder of the philosophy of empiricism.
IDEA

SENSE
sense of
sight
sense of
touch
sense of
smell

PERCEPTI
ON
Based on mind
or known as
internal sense

Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say white paper,

Idea comes from

experience.
there is no
knowledge that
exist without the
existence of
experince.

Empiricism has a relation with the philosophy of ethics or moral, where

ethics or moral are based on the experience.
David Hume said that morality is more properly felt than judged of

2.2.3 Skeptism (The real knowledge about a fact maybe can be search but cant be found)
-

No one does know, no one can know

Rejected the idea of rationalism and empiricism. Use the argument about
illusion to reject the information that is bring by sense cant be trust:
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1. Sense illusion, which is someone are not accurately identify an object or

things that they thinks.
2. The sense is relatives which can cause complication towards ones
perception.
3. Hallucination.
By Xenophanes (570-475 S.M), Protagoras and Giorgias.
Protagoras view is, all knowledge are based on sense, but sense is the factor
of lies but we also cant trust our mind because the source of mind also is
sense. Example: Man is the measure of all things
Giorgiass philosophy is a radical sceptism that doubt all existence. There is
no existence, if there is existence then, it cant be known but if it can be
known, it cant be elaborate.
In Islamic philosophy, Al-Ghazali is a sceptist that rejected knowledge are
resulting from sense and thinking

2.3 Knowledge

1. Knowing the external world (Argument for external world skepticism)

Premise1: All you directly know is how things seem to you.
Premise2: If all you directly know is how things seem to you, then you cant
know things really are outside of you.
Conclusion: Therefore, you cant know how things really are outside you.
2. Knowledge of language. (Language has been an object of study)
Chomsky on linguistic competence. Chomsky coined some terminology.
He suggested that human beings come to have linguistic competence (Some
sense of internalize, a body of linguistic rules) and this linguistic
competence contributes to the observed behavioral performance. Linguistic
competence is the agents information about grammar while, linguistic
performance is what the agent does with that information.

The acquisition of linguistic knowledge. Extreme empiricist stated that all

knowledge, including both contents and mechanism of thinking, comes from
sense experience. Extreme rationalist stated that no genuine knowledge
comes from sense experience.

Language and thought. The relation of language and thought, touch both
philosophy of mind and epistemology.
Thought isnt merely an inner speech. Thinking is an inner speech so human
can think about anything for which a word /sentences that exist in their

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language. Thought is productive because there is no limit to the variety of

thought we can entertain
Languages are an unlimited numbers of sentences in any language, very
many of them never before use. Language help human think complicatedly.
A universal language of thought. Thought is just not an inner speech
because there the existence of nonlinguistic thought. Inner speech is
unconscious.
There is a special universal and innate language for thinking, which is being
shared by all human in this world. The language is, the Language Of
Thought (LOT)
Images in human are operation on LOT sentences. The advantage of LOT is
it overcomes a number of other problem associated with taking inner speech
to occur in publicly spoken languages.

2.4 MIND
The nature of the mind and its relation to the brain:

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DUALISM

MATERIALISM

MIND(MENTAL) AND
BRAIN(NEURAL) ARE DIFFERENT
THINGS.
EXAMPLE:
A CAUSES B, WHICH MEAN A
ANB B ARE TWO DIFFERENT
THINGS CASUALLY AFFECTING
THE OTHER.

MIND IS BRAIN (SOME ASPECT OF

THE BRAIN OR THE BRAIN PLUS
SOMETHING ELSE-AT ANY RATE,
NOTHING BUT PROCESSES OF
MATTER)
EXAMPLE:
A IS B, WHICH MEAN ,MIND IS
MATERIAL SYSTEM ( BRAIN OR
BRAIN PLUS SOMETHING MORE).
THERE IS ONLY ONE THING.

The modern concept of mind and the proposed criteria of the mental by Descartes:
N O N S PAT IA LITY

It is the idea that

SPECIAL ACCESS AND
the m ind, the
CONSCIOUSNESS
m ental doe s not
have a precise
Special
locus, in the
seaccess
nsealso call as,
of having a privileged
clearaccess. Access
is simply of one kind of
shape, precise
location, e tc
consciousness
IN TE
TIO
NA
LIT Yinvente d
ItNis
aw
ord

by philosop hers to
.
de scrib
e states and
e vents of certain
kinds that have the
interesting
cha racte ristic of
be ing about
som e thing.

3.0 ANALYSIS
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3.1 Relating Knowledge with Minds.

WITTGENSTEINIANISM THEORY

DUCK/RABBIT (WITTGENSTEINIANISM) BY WITTGENSTEIN

The figure show the duck rabbit. This is the Wittgensteins approach to the problem of other
minds. Wittgenstein approach to knowledge of other mind begins with his famous aphorisms,
My attitude towards him is an attitude towards a soul. I am not of the opinion that he has a
soul. its means that, we do not arrive a belief that another has a mind by assembling evidence
from how they behave (or the way their brain is) and inferring that a body in front of us must
have a mind. Mind is manifest in behavior.
. Based on his approach I considered that that duck/rabbit diagram is an information that a
human can get by their sense of sight. However, the information is not a direct information
because not everyone that realize there is two meaning on one picture. Every person have their
own view when see that picture, some of them will see that picture and analyze it as the picture
is the picture of a duck, but some see it as it is a rabbit, some realize it is a rabbit and also a
duck and some of them also thought that the picture is mean nothing. Minds are manifest in
behavior. The duck-rabbit case is different from other people in one respect. It is entirely
optional whether we see the figure as a duck or as a rabbit, but it is not optional in the same
way that we see others as having minds. Indeed in practice it is virtually impossible not to see
others as having minds.
The problems of other mind.

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Nothing seems more obvious than that we know what is going on in the minds of others,
most at the time at any rate. For an example, Bella say to me Lets go to the shopping
complex. It would seem obvious that I know a whole bunch of things about her. What I know
is: she want to go to the shopping complex, she want to go with me, she has decided to act this
want rather than any other want she may have, by the signs Lets, go, in English by the
sentence Lets go to the shopping complex and so on. So, we can conclude that we have
knowledge of other minds.
We cannot justify our beliefs about other minds or what is going on
in other people behind their behavior
We form many beliefs about what others are thinking, feeling, meaning, and so on but we
cannot justify these belief because we have no direct knowledge of other peoples mental states.
A belief must be justified to be knowledge
If we cannot justify a belief, we do not know whether it is true or false. So, the conclusion is
we do not have knowledge of other minds.
The example is when we share an ice cream with our friend. Focus on the taste and texture of
the ice cream. Then ask yourself: how we know that our friend experienced the same taste,
texture, sensation of cold as we did? It is not possible that our friend gets no sensation at all
from the ice cream but she merely acting as though she did. How could we know? In
philosophy, Qualia is the way something feels or seems to someone while, inverted qualia is the
problem where the sensations that our friend is experiencing is totally difference from us.
Absent qualia is the problem when our friend might not have any sensation at all even if even if
she behaving as she does. So, the conclusion based on the example problem is we dont know
how the ice cream taste to others even if it has a taste for others.

Conclusion

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So, what I can conclude to understand philosophy easily is just to understand

that philosophy is the love of wisdom. The love of wisdom means that,
philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand
fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their
relationships to the world and to each other. Philosophy are important in human
life because it enables us to think carefully and clearly about important issues and
philosophy it enables us to learn not what to believe, but how to think. Secondly,
philosophy can help us to sharpen our analytical abilities, enabling us to identify
and evaluate the strengths and weakness in any position. Nature of philosophy
means that philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and the universe,
which are often held uncritically. Pure philosophy deals only with a priori
concepts, which is, the concepts that occur to us independents of any experience
or perception while applied philosophy is marked out from philosophy in general
by its focus on matters of practical concern.
Based on what I have elaborates on the topic of philosophy is the study of
general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with knowledge and
mind, the conclusion that I can made are knowledge is mostly related with
epistemology while mind is related with metaphysic, philosophy of mind and
epistemology. Knowledge and mind is related with epistemology, while
epistemology has close ties with the metaphysics. If metaphysic is the study of
the fact and reality of something, epistemology is the study about the justification
can be made based on the metaphysic. There are some justification of belief and
the source of knowledge. It is sensation, intuition, revelation (wahyu), authority,
and belief. Moreover, there are three branches of epistemology, which is
rationalism, empiricism and skeptism. There are two nature of mind which is
dualism and materialism.

References
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Wolff, Robert Paul. About Philosophy. 8th edition. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
River, NJ 07458, 2000.
Andrew Brook and Robert J. Stainton. Knowledge and Mind, A Philosophical
Introduction. The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England, 2000.
Ahmad Sunawari Long. Sejarah Falsafah. Published by Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia, Bangi, 2008.
Florida State University Department of Philosophy, What is Philosophy? ,
http://philosophy.fsu.edu/content/view/full/36588, (Accessed 2014-11-28)
Sparks Notes. Grounding For The Metaphysics Of Morals.
http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/kantsgrounding/section2.rhtml, (Accessed
2014-11-29)
Citizendium, the citizens Conpendium. Applied Philosophy.
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Applied_Philosophy, (Accessed 2014-11-29)
The Famous People. Philosopher.
http://www.thefamouspeople.com/philosophers.php, (Accessed 2014-11-30)
PM. Dr Munif Zarriruddin Fikri Nordin; lecturer at Northern University of
Malaysia. Interview 2014-11-15 and 2014-12-29.

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