PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy is not merely another field of learning. It serves as a framework for all
knowledge, and its study is invaluable for acquiring the skill of critical thinking that is the
mark of a well-educated person. It also serves as a way of integrating knowledge.

The term “philosophy” was invented by Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher, who

noted that there are three types of man: a lover of pleasure, a lover of success, and a lover
of wisdom; the last according to him, is the superior type. The word comes from the Greek
philia, which means love, and sophia which means wisdom. Philosophy, therefore
literally means, “love of wisdom”.

IS PHILOSOPHY A SCIENCE?
Philosophy, in its real definition, is the science of all things by their first causes as
known in light of reason.

a. Philosophy as Science

The word science comes from the Latin verb scire, which means to know. Science,
however, is not just any kind of knowledge; it is a scientific knowledge. Now, a scientific
knowledge is knowledge of causes of things. Someone truly has the science of something
only if one has knowledge of its causes. To advance in one’s understanding, the “why” of
things must be addresses, not merely the “what”.

When a person knows the causes of things, one has attained certitude. Certitude is
the natural result of knowing not only the facts but also their causes. Now since scientific
knowledge is knowledge of causes, it must, therefore, be certain. It is not merely an
opinion, a conjecture or a belief. Rather, it is a certain knowledge that results from an
analysis of causes of things.

In this regard, we can say that philosophy is a science because it seeks to acquire the
knowledge of the causes of things.

b. Philosophy as the Science of All Things

Philosophy deals with concrete, real, contingent things. Many are of the belief that
philosophy deals only with the abstract that is beyond the physical. But this is not
completely true. It is true that we make use of abstract concepts in philosophy but only to
aid us in our understanding of concrete things.

Concrete, real, contingent things are things that are not self-existent. A being that is
not self-existent owes its existence to something other than itself. It is that which has its
own cause for its existence.
c. Philosophy as Known in Light of Reason

Philosophy is the science of all things by their first causes known in light of natural
reason. The italicized phrase means that philosophy seeks the first causes of things as far
as they can be rationally established by the human mind unaided by Divine Revelation.

DIVISIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
Philosophical inquiry is divided into major branches based on the objects they
address. The discipline of philosophy has traditionally been broken into 9 main branches or
areas of study:

 Ethics or moral philosophy is the philosophical study of the morality of human

acts, the search for an understanding of the good life and the ultimate basis of what
is good or bad.
 Metaphysics or ontology the philosophical quest for what reality is in the final
analysis. It is the study of beings, in general.
 Theology is the philosophical inquiry into the existence of God, His nature, and His
relations to man and the rest of creation
 Philosophy of man is the philosophical search for a deeper understanding of what
man is and what it means to be fully human.
 Cosmology is the philosophical search for a deeper understanding of the material
universe.
 Political philosophy is the philosophical search for knowledge of the ultimate
foundation of the state, its ideal form and its basic power.
 Aesthetics is the search for a deeper understanding and knowledge of beauty.
 Epistemology is the philosophical search for answers to the fundamental questions
concerning the conditions of knowledge, its extent and limitations.
 Logic is the philosophical science and art of correct inferential thinking and setting
forth its conditions. Logic is the basic tool that philosophers use to investigate
reality.

OBJECT AND GOAL OF PHILOSOPHY

The object and goal of philosophy becomes clearer when it is compared with other
sciences. Like them, philosophy is knowledge of the cause of things, but in a very special
way. For all other sciences are particular science because they concern themselves with
just a part of reality and look for the causes operative within the one restricted area of the
real. Philosophy, however, is a universal science because it considers the totality of reality
and investigates the basic causes of all beings. The aim of philosophy is not this truth or
that truth, my truth or your truth, but “the Truth”. The truth that philosophy searches for is
a truth that applies to all people at all times. This truth has been referred to as a
transcendent truth.

WHAT IS LOGIC?
Logic is defined as the science of correct reasoning. As a science, it is a body of
information concerning the different relations that arise in our mind when it knows things.
The order that is reflected in our thought and actions is characteristic of the operation of
the intellect when it knows the truth.

Logic is not the foundation of philosophy or scientific knowledge; it is only its tools.
By itself, it is incapable of giving a comprehensive criterion of validity. It merely facilitates
in organizing our ideas, expressing them with more accuracy, and drawing from them some
legitimate conclusions. Further, it equips us with logical skills that are needed for
intelligent and rigorous inquiry.

Logic is basically a theoretical science, even though it includes some practical

directions, as for example, the rules of a good definition and rules of valid argument, among
other things.

IMPORTANT DIVISION AND MATERIAL TO LOGIC

Logic is divided according to the three basic operations of human thought: simple
apprehension, judgement, and reasoning.

1. Simple apprehension is the act by which the intellect grasps the essence of
something (apprehension because it lays hold of the thing mentally; simple because
the intellect merely takes the thing in without any affirmation or denial about it).
2. Judgement is a mental operation that pronounces the identity or non-identity
between two ideas.
3. Reasoning is a mental act that proceeds from the previously known truth to a new
truth.

All other mental operations (such as dividing, comparing, abstracting, etc.) may
involve any or all of these basic mental operations.

The material object of a science refers to the things that the science covers in its
study. The material object, then, of logic are concepts and conceptual structures like
propositions and syllogisms.
SHORT HISTORY OF LOGIC
The founder of logic is Aristotle of Stagira in Thrace (384-322 B.C.), son of the
physician Nichomadus, and who became Plato’s student at eighteen years of age and
studied with him for twenty years. Shortly afterward in 343 B.C., he became a tutor for
three years to the thirteen-year-old Alexander, who was to rule the world as Alexander the
Great. In 335 B.C., he founded his own school, the Peripatetic School of philosophers.

Aristotle’s work on logic is found in his Organon (meaning the method or organ of
investigation) which consisted of a number of his writings.

For two thousand years, Aristotle has been accorded the title, “the philosopher,”
reflecting a correct perception of this most gifted student of Plato. Aristotle advised his
students to familiarize themselves with the two volumes of the Analytics before studying
his metaphysical doctrines set forth in his First Philosophy, o Metaphysics. Aristotle
intended logic to be used as a method of finding truths rather than as a compendium of
truths. He regarded logic as a preparatory study for students of philosophy proper.

Aristotle understood truth to mean the agreement of knowledge with reality; truth
exists when the mind’s mental representations, otherwise known as ideas, correspond with
things in the objective world. He had said: “Affirming the non-existence of the existent or
existence of the non-existent is falsehood; but affirming the existence of the existent, and
non-existence of the non-existent, is truth.”

Logical reasoning makes us certain that our conclusions are true, and this provides
us with accepted scientific proofs of universally valid propositions or statements.

WHO GIVE FOUNDATION TO LOGIC?

It was Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) who laid the foundations of the science by treating
logical questions separately from other parts of philosophy.

WHO NAMED THE TERM LOGIC?

The term “logic” comes from the Greek word “logike” and was coined by Zeno, the
Stoic (c. 340-265 B.C.).

OTHER PHILOSOPHERS CONTRIBUTED TO DEVELOPMENT OF LOGIC

There are other successors of Aristotle. Of this category, Zeno of Citium (c.340-265
B.C.), otherwise known as Zeno the Stoic, is most famous for having introduced its actual
name. After Zeno came, other philosophers like Porphyrius (c. 232-304 A.D.), Severinus
Boethius (c. 470-524 A.D.), Arabian philosophers, and a number of Jewish scholars.
 The other great Logicians were Chrysippus (279-206 B.C.), Galen (129-199 A.D.),
William of Ocam (1285-1349) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) who is known as
the ”Father of Symbolic Logic” and who perfected symbolic language or “calculus” which
could be utilized to settle all forms of disputes.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY AN ARGUMENT?

Argument is a series of statements typically used to persuade someone of something
or to present reasons for accepting a conclusion

SOUNDNESS AND VALIDITY OF ARGUMENT

A sound argument is a valid argument whose conclusion follows from its
premise(s), and the premise(s) of which is/are true.

Deductive arguments may be either valid or invalid. If an argument is valid, it is a

valid deduction, and if its premises are true, the conclusion must be true: a valid argument
cannot have true premises and a false conclusion. An argument is formally valid if and only
if the denial of the conclusion is incompatible with accepting all the premises.
The validity of an argument depends, however, not on the actual truth or falsity of
its premises and conclusion, but solely on whether or not the argument has a valid logical
form. The validity of an argument is not a guarantee of the truth of its conclusion. Under a
given interpretation, a valid argument may have false premises that render it inconclusive:
the conclusion of a valid argument with one or more false premises may be either true or
false.
Logic seeks to discover the valid forms, the forms that make arguments valid. A form
of argument is valid if and only if the conclusion is true under all interpretations of that
argument in which the premises are true. Since the validity of an argument depends solely
on its form, an argument can be shown to be invalid by showing that its form is invalid.
This can be done by giving a counter example of the same form of argument with premises
that are true under a given interpretation, but a conclusion that is false under that
interpretation. In informal logic this is called a counter argument.
The form of argument can be shown by the use of symbols. For each argument form,
there is a corresponding statement form, called a corresponding conditional, and an
argument form is valid if and only its corresponding conditional is a logical truth. A
statement form which is logically true is also said to be a valid statement form. A statement
form is a logical truth if it is true under all interpretations. A statement form can be shown
to be a logical truth by either (a) showing that it is a tautology or (b) by means of a proof
procedure.
 The corresponding conditional of a valid argument is a necessary truth (true in all
possible worlds) and so the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises, or follows of
logical necessity. The conclusion of a valid argument is not necessarily true, it depends on
whether the premises are true. If the conclusion, itself, just so happens to be a necessary
truth, it is so without regard to the premises.
2 KINDS OF ARGUMENTS (HOW THEY DIFFER FROM EACH OTHER)
 Deductive argument is one that, if valid, has a conclusion that is entailed by its
premises. In other words, the truth of the conclusion is a logical consequence of the
premises—if the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true. It would be
self-contradictory to assert the premises and deny the conclusion, because the
negation of the conclusion is contradictory to the truth of the premises.
 Non-deductive logic is reasoning using arguments in which the premises support
the conclusion but do not entail it. Forms of non-deductive logic include
the statistical syllogism, which argues from generalizations true for the most part,
and induction, a form of reasoning that makes generalizations based on individual
instances. An inductive argument is said to be cogent if and only if the truth of the
argument's premises would render the truth of the conclusion probable (i.e., the
argument is strong), and the argument's premises are, in fact, true. Cogency can be
considered inductive logic's analogue to deductive logic's "soundness." Despite its
name, mathematical induction is not a form of inductive reasoning. The lack of
deductive validity is known as the problem of induction.

WHAT IS AN IDEA?
An idea is abstract because it focuses only on the nature or essence it signifies and
leaves aside the concrete, sensible characteristics of that thing. An idea is a mental sign
whereby we grasp the essence of a thing. The mental operation by which we grasp the
essence of a thing without yet making a statement about it is called simple apprehension
whose product is a term.

WHAT IS A TERM?
Term is the verbal manifestation of the ideas. It is defined as a conventional sign
that is expressive of an idea.
WHAT ARE THE 2 LOGICAL PROPERTY OF A TERM?
Connotation and Denotation are the logical properties of terms. A term connotes
something when it indicates the meaning of something; it denotes something if it refers to
something.

 Connotation refers to the group of characteristics essential to a term. It is also

known as intention, signification, or comprehension.
 Denotation is a set of things to which the term refers. It is also known as extension.

WHAT ARE THE CLASSIFICATION OF TERMS?

A. According to Comprehension

1. Concrete – it expresses something that has attributes that can be perceived through
the senses.
Examples: pen chalk phone ring computer
2. Abstract – it expresses something separated from any single object. It is a pure idea
expressed in words.
Examples: truth happiness height knowledge

B. According to Extension

1. Singular – it represents a single object only.

Examples: EDSA Revolution 2 my father
Blessed Virgin Mary this phone
2. Universal – it represents not only a class as a whole but also each member of the
class.
Examples: towel laptop faucet bottle
3. Particular – it represents only a part of the universal whether it is definite or
indefinite.
Examples: many pages few voters
some customers several complaints
4. Collective – it represents a number of things constituting a unit-group or whole.
Examples: family choir band fleet team

C. According to Origin

1. Immediate – (intuitive) it is formed from the direct perception of things.

Examples: chair whistle chirping of birds doll pencil
2. Meditate – (abstractive) it is formed through the meditation of other ideas.
Examples: God human soul mystery philosophy
D. According to Relation

1. Compatible – that can co-exist in a subject.

Examples: fun and dangerous brain and beauty
hot and spicy smooth and silky
2. Incompatible – terms that cannot coexist in a subject. They exclude each other.
There are four kinds of incompatible ideas:
 Contradictory – terms that are mutually exclusive such that the affirmation
of one is the denial of the other. Between these two terms, there is no third
(middle) ground.
Examples: same-different guilty-innocent dead-alive
 Contrary – terms that express extremes belonging to the same class.
Between these two terms, there is a third (middle) ground
Examples: rich-poor fat-thin
cheap-expensive fast-slow
 Privative – two opposed ideas, one of which expresses perfection, and the
other its lack that ought to be possessed.
Examples: sight – blindness (With reference to man, blindness is a privation;
with reference to a book, however, it is a mere negation.)
truth – error walking – lame hearing – deafness sane – insane
 Correlative – two opposed terms that bear mutual relation to one another
such that one cannot be understood without the other. They imply each other
because one depends on the other.
Examples: cause – effect husband – wife whole – part parent - child

E. According to Meaning

1. Univocal – a term that carries only one meaning in its several uses.
Examples: human person astronaut computer
2. Equivocal – a term that carries different meanings in its different uses. The term
may be equivocal:
 only in pronunciation
marry and merry blue and blew
cue and queue jeans and genes
hill and heal not and knot

 in pronunciation and spelling

march means a walk in a military manner or the third month of the year, or a
procession as a protest or demonstration
 strike means to hit forcibly, a refusal to work, a sudden attack, or a request to
remove from the record
dear means precious, or expensive or the beloved
odd means unusual, has no pair unoccupied
3. Analogous – a term that carries meaning in some ways the same and in other ways
different.
Examples: dead end face lift
sweet sixteen dirty joke
Good Friday false teeth

F. According to Quality

1. Positive in form, positive in meaning

joy victory liberation charity life
2. Positive in form, negative in meaning
crazy idiot crisis despair arrogant death
3. Negative in form, negative in meaning
immature unprepared disgrace loveless
4. Negative in form, positive in meaning
uncorrupted selfless unrivalled painless

G. According to Object

1. Real – it expresses something that has existential actuality, whether positive or

negative.
Examples: salvation corruption pain
blackboard cartoons telephone
2. Logical – it is used as a conceptual device to facilitate learning.
Examples: subject classification phyla
species enneagram genera
3. Imaginary – it has no correspondence in reality but is merely a fabrication of the
mind.
Examples: Iron man flying carpet batman
Darna talking tree catwoman