DOING PHILOSOPHY

Jose Ramon E. De Leon

Professor III
BUCSSP
 Topic : DOING PHILOSOPHY
CONTENT STANDARD:
The Learner understands the meaning and
process of doing philosophy

PERFORMANCE STANDARD:
The Learner reflects on a concrete
experience in a philosophical way
 Learning Competencies:
1. Distinguish a holistic perspective from a
partial point of view.
2. Recognize human activities that emanated
from deliberate reflection.
3. Realize the value of doing philosophy in
obtaining a broad perspective on life.
4. Do a philosophical reflection on a concrete
situation from a holistic perspective.
 Suggested Activities: 30 mins
WHAT TO DO:
1. List one thing, event or situation that you
encountered or experience which confused
or puzzled you and consequently made you
wonder and ask question about it. Were you
satisfied with the answer or not?
2. Share your reflection in class.
3. Anyone in the class may interact with the
presenter.
 Strategies:
I. Participatory Discussion

TOPICS:

1. The beginning of Philosophizing ( or doing philosophy) and

Philosophy
2. Branches of Philosophy ( the various questions that humans ask
and consequently offered answers/solutions.
3. The nature of Philosophizing
4. Philosophical reading and writing
5. The contribution of Doing Philosophy to human development.

II. Poem Reading

 A. The Beginning of Philosophizing
and Doing Philosophy
A.1 Prior to the beginning of philosophizing
peoples head were occupied and believed
the fantastic tales about the Olympian
gods and goddesses ( Homers Odyssey)
The world was explained and understood
in terms of the activities, including the
moods and the whims of these gods and
goddesses ( Leni Garcia)
Event in the world Mythological
explanation
Rain and thunder Zeus is angry

Earthquake Poseidon is
complaining
Intoxication Dionysus

Changing of seasons The mourning and joy

of Demeter
 a.2 The Rise of Pre-Socratic
thinkers/philosophers
THALES, the founder of philosophy, WONDERED
and asked: WHAT IS THE WORLD MADE OF?

PRE-SOCRATIC Explanation of the world

thinker
THALES WATER is what makes the world

ANAXIMANDER The BOUNDLESS INFINITE

ANAXIMENES Air is the ultimate reality of the world

PYTHAGORAS The world consists of numbers

 The philosophizing of the Pre-socratic
thinkers is COSMOCENTRIC ( focus on the
cosmos or universe to explain
reality/everything)
Their ways of doing philosophy is simple
OBSERVATION and REASONING.
a.3. Transformation from MYTHOS to
LOGOS or the TRIUMPH of Logos over
MYTHOS (myth)

MYTHOS- means story or the folk narrative

( Homer/Hesiod)

LOGOS- means word, REASON or Truth

From irrational/uncritical forms of
thinking (mythos) to scientific thinking (
logos)
 a.4 The Word Philosophy
Pythagoras coined the term Philosophy
from 2 Greek words

PHILIA- means LOVE

SOPHIA- means WISDOM (intellectual excellence)
Philosophy- love of wisdom
Philosopher-lover of wisdom
 Pythagoras said:
Only God is truly wise and the
wisdom of man is derived from the
wisdom of God. God is wisdom.
Hence, man can only be a lover or
friend of wisdom (see Chroust 1964)
 Plato/Socrates:
I see, my dear Theaetetus, that
Theodorus had a true insight into
your nature when he said that you
were a philosopher, for wonder is the
feeling of a philosopher, and
philosophy begins in wonder
 Aristotle:

It was their wonder, astonishment,

that first led men to philosophize and
still leads them
PHILOSOPHY BEGINS WITH WONDER

Starting with Aristotle, many

philosophers have thought of
PHILOSOPHICAL WONDER as a sort
of puzzlement that prompts us to
seek out new, better understanding
of ourselves and our world.
a.5 Man WONDERS and QUESTIONS

RATIONAL NATURE- our capacity to

THINK, REASON out and choose
FREELY
 What Philosophy say about human
nature
PHILOSOPHERS Views on Human nature ( Rationality)

Plato and Aristotle Rational, social animal. Our nature is to reason

Stoics Humans are rational, and their irrationality is the

result of error
Decartes/Cartesianism Man is thinking substance (bodies arent
required for thinking, we are thinking spirits)
Buddhism It is human nature to be conscious and to desire

Juadeo-christian Free-willed creations of God

Religious Existentialism Radically free, essentially uncertain beings

 AYN RAND:
The virtue of Rationality means the recognition
and acceptance of reason as ones only source
of knowledge, ones only judge of values and
ones only guide to action...It means a
commitment to the principle that all ones
convictions, values, goals, desires and actions
must be based on, derived from, chosen and
validated by a process of thought.
 B. Branches of Philosophy
The many and various questions that humans
ask and correspondingly offered
answers/solutions gave rise to categorization of
philosophy into distinct branches. The traditional
view of philosophy is that it is composed of 4
majors branches: metaphysics, epistemology,
logic and axiology.
Owing to the movement towards
specialization, the 4 major branches had its
respective sub-branches.
Branch of Philosophy and Issues/Questions being Philosophical views or
sub-branches dealt with answer offered

I. METAPHYSICS What consists ultimate Materialism

REALITY? Idealism

Cosmology What is the origin and Pre-socratic Philosophers

nature of the universe? Creationism
Scientific Evolution
Theodicy Does God Exists? Theism, Atheism,
Is there life after death? Buddhism

Rational/Philosophical Does man have soul? Dualism

Psychology How does soul connect Monism
with the body?
Philosophy of Mind What is mind? Is it the Dualism, Materialism,
brain? Physicalism, Functionalism,
How does mind interact Epiphenomenality
with the body?
II. EPISTEMOLOGY What is knowledge? How Empiricism/externalism
is knowledge acquired? Rationalism/internalism

What is truth? Correspondence Theory

Coherence Theory
Pragmatic Theory

Is knowledge or truth Relativism

relative? Absolutism
III. AXIOLOGY What is Value?

ETHICS What makes an action right or Consequentialism,

wrong? Deontologism,
Which is correct moral/ethical Virtue ethics,
theory? Christian ethics,
Does morality depend on Buddhist Ethics
religion?
Bioethics Morality of medical practices
(abortion, Contraception,
euthanasia, cloning)
Business Ethics Morality of Business practices

Environmental Ethics Practices including the use of

natural environment

Computer Ethics Morality of use of

computers/social media
Aesthetics What is beauty?
Is art intrinsically good or bad, or
is aesthetic beauty simply in the
eyes of the beholder?
IV. LOGIC What is valid and sound argument?
What are some of the ways we go wrong in our
thinking?

Formal Logic Study of inference with purely formal or explicit

-Deductive logic content such as the rules of formal logic
-Inductive Logic

Informal Logic Studies natural language arguments, and attempts to

develop a logic to assess, analyze and improve ordinary
language

Symbolic logic The study of abstractions that capture the formal

features of logical inference. It deals with the relations
of symbols to each other in an attempt to solve
intractable problems traditional form logic is not able
to address
Mathematical logic Both the application of the techniques of formal logic
to mathematical reasoning, and conversely, the
application of mathematical techniques to the
representation and analysis of formal logic.
From the discussion above, we
extend/expand the definition of
philosophy from its original meaning as
love of wisdom

1. The science of beings ( all

things/everything) in their ultimate
causes, reasons and principles acquired
by aid of human reason alone (Bittle)
2. The search for meaning ( Cruz)
C. The Nature of Philosophizing/Doing
Philosophy
C.1. What is doing Philosophy?

Examines what it means to think, read,

discuss and write philosophically.
Involves asking the right questions,
critically examining the work of previous
philosophers (wikibook)
 When we philosophize we must not be
afraid to say what we think. But we must
think carefully, we must consider what it
is we are thinking about and respect the
ideas of others in the same way.
When we do philosophy we must not
think of ourselves but of the general
case, we must move from the particular
to the universal.
Expose your ideas to the ideas of others
(www.practicalphilosophy.org.uk)
 Allow the spirit of wonder to flourish
in your breast. Speculate and explore
different point of views and world
views. Do not stifle childlike curiosity.
Doubt anything unsupported by
evidence until the evidence
convinces you of its truth. Do not
fear intellectual inquiry.(Pojman)
 Love the truth. Philosophy is the
eternal search for truth, a search
which inevitably fails and yet is never
defeated; which continually eludes
us, but which always guides us.
Revise and rebuild. Be willing to
revise, reject and modify your beliefs
and the degree to which you hold
any belief.(Pojman)
 Seek simplicity. This is the
Principle of Parsimony,
sometimes known as Occams
Razor.
Prefer the simpler explanation to
the more complex, all things
being equal.
Live the truth!
Live the good!
 We can do Philosophy by:
1. Reflecting ( by ourselves) on the
question that concerns us. In order to
explore the philosophical life, we must
explore ourselves. Looking at what we are,
what that means and can mean are the
first steps in our philosophical journey. The
only way of doing philosophy is to actually
do it as part of life.
2. Dialogue. Talking to a friend to try and
work out a particular question of
concern, or in a group. Philosophizing
with another taps into our urge as
individuals to communicate- obtain ideas
and perspectives of another.
(www.practicalphilosophy.org.uk
 Doing Philosophy would involve
READING the ideas of others
(Philosophers) and understanding
them. It also includes writing.
 D. Philosophical Reading and Writing
D.1. Philosophical Reading (by Saunders,
Mossley et.al)

The process of reading philosophical could

be seen as consisting of 3 main activities:

a. Getting an overview of the text, its structure

and the philosophical problem under
discussion.
b. Understanding the arguments used and the
conclusions reached, that is, analyzing the
details of the structure.

c. Interpreting the overall meaning,

understanding the concepts and ideas and
how they find into other ideas discussed in
other texts and other philosophers.

d. Take notes.
 D.2 Philosophical Writing
It means getting down your own ideas
and correct arguments using your own
words.
Using written word to express ideas
clearly and logically, and to convey new
concepts, and relationships between
concepts, creatively, and accurately.
Structure of a Philosophical Essay
1. Introduction it sets the stage in a
concise and clear way. It spells out the
basis of what will be argued for.
2. The Body of the essay that carries the
main arguments
3. A conclusion that summarizes the
arguments, recapitulates the position
and points.
 Philosophizing or doing
philosophy is not a waste or
worthless undertaking. Human
progress can be attributed to
philosophizing/philosophy.
 E. Contribution of Doing Philosophy
Philosopher Contribution to the World

Thales Father of geometry. Discovered the

solstice and equinox.

Anaximander Cartography. He created the first map of

the known world.

Pythagoras Pythagorean theorem. The first to realize

that the Morning star and the Evening
star are the same
Aristotle Father of zoology/biology. Classified
animals.
Blaise Pascal Laid the foundation for modern theory of
probabilities.
Adam Smith Capitalist Economy

Karl Marx Socialist Economy

John Rawls Theory of Social Justice

Alan Turing Artificial Intelligence

POEM READING:

PRELUDE
The following pages
may cause you to wonder
Thats what philosophy is.
Wondering.

To philosophize
is to wonder about life-
about right and wrong,
love and loneliness,
war and death,
about freedom, truth, beauty, time
and a thousand other things.
To philosophize
is to explore life.
It means breaking free
to ask questions.
It means resisting
easy answers.
To philosophize
is to seek oneself
the courage to ask
painful questions.

But if by chance
you have already asked
all your questions
and found all the answers-
if youre sure to know
right from wrong
and whether God exists,
and what justice means,
and why men fear and hate and pray-
and if indeed you have done your
wondering
about freedom and love and loneliness
and those thousand other things
then the following pages
will waste your time.

Philosophy is for those

who are willing to be disturbed
with a creative disturbance.

Philosophy is for those

who still have the capacity
for wonder.
 II. Poem Reading
Instructional Materials
A. Handouts
B. books
C. internet
D. Power point presentation
 List of credible online sources
A. EpistemeLinks (www.epistemelinks.com)
B. Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy(http://plato.stanford.com.edu)
C. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(www.utm.edu/research/iep)
D. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
E. www.philosophybasics.com
F. Sparknotes
G. Intute (www.intute.ac.uk)
H. Project Gutenberg
I. Google Scholar ( scholar.google.com)
 Evaluation
A. Reflection Paper
B. Argumentative or Critical Paper
C. Essay type of Exams