Curtain of

Knowledge

Conquest without
ontribution is Insignifica

What the history of Philosophy shows us

is a succession of noble minds, a gallery

of heroes of thought, who, by the power of
Reason, have penetrated into the being of
things, of nature and of spirit, into the
Being of God, and have won for us by
their labours the highest treasure, the
treasure of reasoned knowledge. (G.W.F.
Hegel, History of Philosophy)

This is the function of our own and of

every age: to grasp the knowledge

which is already existing, to make it our
own, and in so doing to develop it still
further and to raise it to a higher level.
In thus appropriating it to ourselves we
make it into something different from
what it was before. (G.W.F. Hegel,
History of Philosophy)

What will your

Contribution be?

What kind of dent will

OU make in the Universe

What is Philosophy?
No one is entirely sure what is philosophy
(Constraints in defining the field)
1. The very definition of this discipline is

essentially contested
2. The scope of this discipline is so

extensive to the point that any definition

fails to encompass the discipline of
philosophy
3. It runs contradictory the very nature of

philosophizing to define its own essence.

What is Philosophy?
Some say
1. Academic Discipline
2. Way of Thought (A methodology in

approaching reality)
3. Way of Life (Series of principles and

guidelines in living)

The way we understand

Philosophy
For a Filipino a philosopher is
1. Eccentric Person
2. Person who states the obvious

What is Philosophy?
The very core of Philosophizing
Allow me to tell you a story
3 types of questions
A. Empirical Answers depend on the data of

observation
B. Formal Answers depend on fixed axioms and
certain rules of deduction and calculation.
C. Philosophical Most diverse/ Perplexing, no
existing pointer or built-in techniques in finding the
answers.

What is Philosophy?
The only common characteristic which all these

questions appear to have is that they cannot be answered

by either observation or calculation, by either inductive or
deductive methods; and as a crucial corollary of this, that
those who ask them are faced with perplexity they do
not know where to look for answers; there are no
dictionaries, encyclopedias, compendia of knowledge, no
experts, no orthodoxies which can be referred to with
confidence as possessing unquestionable authority or
knowledge in these matters.
A. Philosophy as Love of Wisdom (Etymological Definition)
Philia/Philein and Sophia
B. Philosophy as Thinking about Thought

Origin of Philosophy
Philosophy begins where the universal is comprehended as

the all-embracing existence, or where the existent is laid hold

of in a universal form, and where thinking about thought first
commences Philosophy is properly to be commenced where
the Absolute is no more in the form of ordinary conception,
and free thought not merely thinks the Absolute but grasps its
Idea. That is to say where Thought grasps as Thought, the
Being (which may be Thought itself), which it recognizes as
the essence of things, the absolute totality and the immanent
essence of everything, and does so as an external being
Thought, this universal determination which sets forth itself,
is an abstract determinateness; it is the beginning of
Philosophy, but this beginning is at the same time in history,
the concrete form taken by a people, the principle of which
constitutes what we have stated above.

What does Philosophy Do?

There is an old tradition that it is the faculty of thought

which separates men from beasts; and to this tradition we

shall adhere. In accordance with this, what man has, as
being nobler than a beast, he has through thinking.
Everything which is human, however it may appear, is so
only because the thought contained in it works and has
worked. But thought, although it is thus the essential,
substantial, and effectual, has many other elements. We
must, however, consider it best when Thought does not
pursue anything else, but is occupied only with itself - with
what is noblest - when it has sought and found itself. The
history which we have before us is the history of Thought
finding itself, and it is the case with Thought that it only
finds itself in producing itself; indeed, that it only exists and
is actual in finding itself.

7 Branches of Philosophy
Metaphysics
Epistemology
Ethics
Philosophical Anthropology
Theodicy
Aesthetics
Logic

Historical Timeline of (Western)

Philosophy: Major
Ancient Period
-Consciousness Collective/Pagan/Secular
-Turning Point Abandonment of Mythology
-Metaphysics Thought coincides with and perfects

Being
(Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle etc.)
Medieval Period
-Consciousness Collective/Christian/Religious
-Turning Point Institutionalization of Christianity
-Metaphysics Thought is a supplement to Divine
Revelation
(Church Fathers, Scholastics, etc.)

Historical Timeline of (Western)

Philosophy: Transitions
Renaissance Period
-Consciousness Individualist/Christian/Humanist
-Turning Point Decline of Christianity and Interests

in Graeco-Roman Texts
-Metaphysics Thought is human and it is rational
and creative
Age of Enlightenment
-Consciousness - Revolutionary/ Speculative/
Secular
-Turning Point The Scientific Revolution
-Metaphysics Thought can understand the
workings of reality

Historical Timeline of (Western)

Philosophy: Major
Modern Period
Consciousness

Revolutionary/Secular/Scientific/Critical
Turning point (Descartes/Kant) Separation
of Subjectivity from Objectivity: Emergence
of Freedom and Rational Thought
Metaphysics Thought is the possibility of
experience and reality is fully unknowable