PHILOSOPHY (CH 1 AND 3) - Engaging can lead to new and more relevant

CHAPTER 1 doctrines
LESSON 1: WHAT PHILOSOPHY MEANS - Philosophical discipline is:
SOME COMMON MEANINGS 1. Dynamic - Continuous process
- Refers to ideas, views, principles, or beliefs 2. Critical - Analyzes frameworks and
- The activity of reasoning perspectives
- An academic course or degree 3. Creative - Formulation of better
IDEAS, VIEWS, PRINCIPLES, OR BELIEFS frameworks
- Held either by individuals or groups LESSON 2: KINDS OF PHILOSOPHY
- Specific nature: Religious, cultural, scientific, FIVE GENERAL TYPES
historical, psychological - Five bases for classifying philosophies:
- Sense of purpose in living 1. Kind of questions or issues being
- “Philosophy of something” addressed
ACTIVITY OF REASONING 2. Kind of answer or solution
- Filipino: “pilosopo”, English: “philosopher” 3. Kind of method used to arrive at solution
- Philosophy is the activity of the philosopher 4. Geographical location or region
- Philosopher is someone who likes to reason 5. Time frame
out or to engage in the activity of reasoning - Five general types:
ACADEMIC COURSE OR DEGREE 1. Thematic - According to topic
- Academic subject taught in colleges, 2. Positional - Solution proposed for issue
universities, and seminaries 3. Methodological - Method used to resolve
- Study of reasoning skills an issue
LOVE OF WISDOM 4. Regional - Geographical location
- Greek Etymology: “philosophia” 5. Historical - time period or frame
- “Philo”: love and “Sophia”: wisdom THEMATIC TYPES
- “Philosopher”: lover of wisdom, first used by - Branches of philosophy or areas of philosophy
Pythagoras - Major topics of philosophical investigations
- “sophist”: wise man or one who knows
- The Sophists: group of intellectuals who
taught oratory or art of public speaking
- “All truths are relative in that all truth are
determined by or based on human interests.” -
Sophists
- “There is no truth that holds for all humans” -
Sophists
- Certain truths are universal and objective
- Pythagoras: Math, Plato and Socrates:
Debates
- Traits of a wise person:
1. Aware of their ignorance
2. Has justified true beliefs
3. Knows things that are valuable in life
4. Puts knowledge into practice
5. Knows what should be done and acts
accordingly
ASKING FRAMEWORK QUESTIONS
- Umbrella discipline
- Queen of the sciences
- “Scientists” = “Natural Philosophers”
- Foundational/framework questions are
directed to our belief systems or worldviews
- Also knows as philosophical questions and
external questions
PHILOSOPHY AS AN ACTIVITY - Disciplinal philosophies examines foundations
- Ludwig Wittgenstein: “Philosophy is not a of various areas of study
body of doctrine but an activity.” - Ex: philosophy of music, …of biology
- Collection of theories/Activtiy
- To study is to know theories/To study is to
engage POSITIONAL TYPES
- End-products of philosophizing/Engages in - Philosophical schools of thought or
very-process of philosophizing philosophical views
- Competing views or positions
 - Replies to inquiries of the thematic types - Does not provide final answers
- Names directly indicate position or after the - Answers differ from one to another
philosopher - No objective way to determine which answer
is the best
- Waste of time and energy
2. Impracticality of philosophy
- Does not help us satisfy our materialistic needs
- No practical benefits
- Does not help us survive in the world
CONTRAST WITH SCIENCE
- Unlike philosophy, science provides definite
answers and objective means
- Science gives us satisfaction for our survival
needs
- Scientific questions are capable to be
answered in a definite way
- Philosophical questions has no objective
answer
- Science: definitely answerable
- Philosophy: indefinitely answerable
PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS
- Engages in debates to ascertain which
METHODOLOGICAL TYPES perspective is the most promising
- Kind of method used to deal with issue - The moment the question is answerable, it
- Philosophical movements, approaches, becomes a scientific question
traditions - Philosophy does preliminary work for science
- Based on analyses in finding answers
- Ex: Marxism, Feminism, Existentialism - Satisfies the needs of the mind (nonphysical
REGIONAL TYPES needs)
- Western and Eastern philosophy - Logic and critical thinking can lead to good
- National philosophies decision-making and satisfy material needs
- Activities flourishing in particular countries SOME MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS
- Ex: Chinese philosophy, Filipino philosophy - Creates holistic explanations for scientific
- Influenced by culture, socio-economic questions
situations etc. - Aristotle division of four causes
- Western: focused in distinctions and 1. Material - composition of something
oppositions 2. Formal - form of something that makes
- Eastern: focused in commonalities and what it is
harmonies 3. Final - purpose of something
HISTORICAL TYPES 4. Efficient - initiates the change of
- Western philosophy: something
1. Ancient - ancient Greek and Roman - Investigates the final causes or purposes of
2. Medieval - Saints, Religion things
3. Modern - rationalism, empiricists, idealists - Contributes to development of areas of
4. Contemporary - analytic philosophy, knowledge
phenomenology, phenomenological- - Philosophy provides ethical guidelines for the
existential use of technology
- Eastern philosophy (Indian): - Contributes to social transformation
1. Vedic - Vedas and Upanishads - Expands boundaries of knowledge
2. Epic - Mahabharata and Ramayana
3. Sutra - orthodox and unorthodox schools
4. Commentary
5. Renaissance

CHAPTER 3
LESSON 7: WHAT IS A HUMAN PERSON
LESSON 3: IMPORTANCE OF PHILOSOPHY AN EMBODIED SPIRIT
THE CHARGE OF FUTILITY - Philosophical studies of the human person:
1. Existential Approach
- Betrand Russell: “The Value of Philosophy” - Kind of life
- Reasons behind the charge of uselessness: - Mode of existence
1. Indefiniteness of philosophy - Essential features
 - Who of a human person -Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas
2. Metaphysical Approach -Aristotle’s argument:
- Materials and capacities that make up a 1. Soul is the principle cause of life
person - Soul is what gives life to something
- Essential components - All living things have souls
- What of a human person - Body: matter and Soul: formal
METAPHYSICAL - Form is the function of something
- Soul: emphasizes life-giving function - A soul is a set of abilities that gives life to
- Mind: emphasizes its consciousness something
- Spirit: emphasizes its nonbodily, - Vegetative or nutritive soul = Plants
nonbiological, or nonphysical nature - Sensitive soul = Animals
- What essentially makes up a person?: - Rational soul = Humans
1. UNSPIRITED BODY VIEW - Aquinas’ arguments:
- A human is essentially just the body and - Rational soul has dual nature
nothing more - Has dependent and independent parts
- No such thing as a spirit - Vegetative and sensitive souls are
- Mental states (emotions and thoughts) are dependent because it needs the body to
physical states operate
- Mind-brain identity theory: mental states are - Rational soul is independent because it
the neutral states of the brain does not need organs
- Behaviorism: mental states are our tendencies - The human soul is subsistent and
to show certain behaviors incomplete in nature
2. DISEMBODIED SPIRIT VIEW MARKS OF MENTAL
- A human is essentially just the spirit - Soul: source of life
- Body is nonessential - Mind: source of consciousness
- Spirit is not dependent on body - Approaches on the mind’s identity:
- Body will die if there is no spirit 1. General level
- Plato and Descartes: Substance dualism, body - How to distinguish between minds and
is physical while spirit is nonphysical, non-minds
immortality of spirit, reincarnation - Or between mental and physical states
- Plato’s arguments: 2. Particular level
1. Soul is immortal because of the nature of - Distinguish mental states from one
recollection another
- One learns something by remembering - Five major properties of the mind:
something that was forgotten 1. CONSCIOUSNESS
- Soul existed prior to its union with the - Identified with awareness
body - To be aware of things around us
- It will be forgotten once it occupies - Begin when we wake up, stops when we
another body fall asleep
2. Souls are immaterial - Most fundamental among other marks
- Not composed of parts - “Consciousness indicators”:
- Cannot decompose and die
- Descartes arguments:
1. Reality is composed of mind
- The nonphysical kind
- Conscious but not extended in space (not
observable and quantifiable)
- Is free and has free will
- Nature, human bodies, animals
2. Reality is composed of matter
- The physical kind COGNITIONS Knowing,
- Extended in space but not conscious believing,
- Is not free and has no free will thinking…
- Imperfect minds of humans and perfect EMOTIONS Anger, fear, joy…
mind of God SENSATIONS Pain, tickles,
- To doubt is to be conscious and to be itches…
conscious is to have a mind PERCEPTIONS The five senses
- “I think therefore I am.” QUASI-PERCEPTIONS Dreaming,
3. EMBODIED SPIRIT VIEW imagining,
- Unity of the body and spirit hallucinations…
- Cannot exist independently without each
other
 CONATION Wanting, - Existence that can no longer be changed
intending, - Givens the human is already having the
trying… moment they become conscious
- Physical features, genes, parents, historical
2. SUBJECTIVE QUALITY period
- The way a person is conscious of his - Givens acquired without being consulted
mental states - “Thrown into the world”
- The way a person undergoes experiences - Previous experiences and decisions
- Quale/Qualia EXISTENTIALITY (FUTURE)
- Phenomenal/experiential feel - Possibilities that the person has and can
- What is it like to experience something choose to have
3. INTENTIONALITY - Projects to accomplish
- Property of mental states to be about - “Thrown possibility”: death
something or to be directed FALLENESS (PRESENT)
- The property of the belief to be about - Inauthentic existence
something is the intentionality of the - Not making the decisions for self
belief - Most humans experience falleness
- Inherent or original TRANSCENDENCE AND LIMITATIONS
- Intentionality is not something we decide - Rooted in intentionality
on or create - Intentional consciousness: rooted outside
- Language, maps, and signs are derived or itself
imposed for it is our decision to make - Fundamental property of consciousness: more
them intentional basic than reflexivity of consciousness
4. ONTOLOGICAL SUBJECTIVITY - Inherent property of consciousness:
- The property of mental states to exist only something not up to us
if there is a subject who experiences them - Consciousness: incomplete, a lack, a
- Dependent on a subject for their existence deficiency, or a nothing
5. PRIVACY - Directed outside or transcendent to
- The property of mental states to be known consciousness
only by person who experiences them - Always trying to fill gaps within itself
LESSON 8: WHO IS A HUMAN PERSON? - Lack of fixed essence
A BEING IN THE WORLD - Two fundamental kinds of being:
- Martin Heidegger: analysis of the human 1. Being-for-itself = Consciousness
person 2. Being-in-itself = Nonconsciousness
- Jean-Paul Sartre: analysis of the possibility and - Factors that limit one’s transcendence:
limitations of human transcendence 1. The natural environment
EXISTENTIAL - Natural laws or forces
- Mode of existence: - Natural events
1. Human person exists in the world - Natural facts
- The person has a self that they define to 2. The body
exist in the world - Characteristics
- Being-in = existence 3. Other people
- Characterized by involvement or - Relationship
engagement - Perception of us
- Two ways a person gets involved:
1. Being-alongside
- Equipmental world
- Character of utility
- Alongside form of equipment
- Practical purposes: Satisfies practical
needs
- Theoretical purposes: Things that can be
studied or observed
2. Being-with
- Social/Public world
- Character of considerateness
- With fellow persons
- Temporality: past, present, future
- Past: no longer real
- Future: not yet real
- Present: real
FACTICITY (PAST)