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    Introduction PDF

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    김민스와
    This document provides an introduction to the course Philosophy 101. It begins with a table of contents that outlines the course's 4 units: Introduction, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Ethics. The introduction defines philosophy as addressing major questions through various subdisciplines like epistemology, metaphysics, axiology, and logic. It notes philosophy considers both academic topics and personal life questions. The course will explore these questions through historical and contemporary readings and class discussions to introduce students to philosophy as both an academic field and way of life. The following unit will focus on defining philosophy, examining its word origin, beginnings, and perspectives from three philosophers on what philosophy entails.

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    Introduction PDF

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    78 views6 pages
    This document provides an introduction to the course Philosophy 101. It begins with a table of contents that outlines the course's 4 units: Introduction, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Ethics. The introduction defines philosophy as addressing major questions through various subdisciplines like epistemology, metaphysics, axiology, and logic. It notes philosophy considers both academic topics and personal life questions. The course will explore these questions through historical and contemporary readings and class discussions to introduce students to philosophy as both an academic field and way of life. The following unit will focus on defining philosophy, examining its word origin, beginnings, and perspectives from three philosophers on what philosophy entails.

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    This document provides an introduction to the course Philosophy 101. It begins with a table of contents that outlines the course's 4 units: Introduction, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Ethics. The introduction defines philosophy as addressing major questions through various subdisciplines like epistemology, metaphysics, axiology, and logic. It notes philosophy considers both academic topics and personal life questions. The course will explore these questions through historical and contemporary readings and class discussions to introduce students to philosophy as both an academic field and way of life. The following unit will focus on defining philosophy, examining its word origin, beginnings, and perspectives from three philosophers on what philosophy entails.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    78 views6 pages

    Introduction PDF

    Uploaded by

    김민스와
    This document provides an introduction to the course Philosophy 101. It begins with a table of contents that outlines the course's 4 units: Introduction, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Ethics. The introduction defines philosophy as addressing major questions through various subdisciplines like epistemology, metaphysics, axiology, and logic. It notes philosophy considers both academic topics and personal life questions. The course will explore these questions through historical and contemporary readings and class discussions to introduce students to philosophy as both an academic field and way of life. The following unit will focus on defining philosophy, examining its word origin, beginnings, and perspectives from three philosophers on what philosophy entails.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 6

    PHILOSOPHY 101

    INTRODUCTION TO
    WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

    Edited by:

    DR. BARRY F. VAUGHAN


    Table of Content

    UNIT ONE – Introduction (What is Philosophy?)

    Introduction 1-4
    Plato – The Defense of Socrates 5-22
    John Locke – “Philosophy as the Love of Truth” 23-28
    Bertrand Russell – “The Value of Philosophy” 29-32

    UNIT TWO – Epistemology (What is knowledge and how do we get it?)

    Introduction 33
    Plato – Republic (selections) 34-46
    Plato – Meno (selections) 47-67
    Rene Descartes – Meditations on First Philosophy 1-3 68-86
    John Locke – An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (selections) 87-99
    David Hume – An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (selections) 100-110

    UNIT THREE – Metaphysics (What is the ultimate nature of reality?)

    Introduction 111-112

    Part One: Philosophy of Religion -


    St. Anselm – Proslogium (selections) - The Ontological Argument 113-121
    St. Thomas – Summa Theologica (selections) - The Cosmological Argument 122-125
    William Paley – Natural Theology (selections) - The Teleological Argument 126-128
    David Hume – Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (selections) 129-137

    Part Two – Philosophy of Mind -

    UNIT FOUR – Ethics (What is good and how do I do it?)

    Introduction 138-140
    Aristotle – Nicomachean Ethics (selections) 141-151
    Immanuel Kant – Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (selections) 152-168
    John Stuart Mill – On Utilitarianism (selections) 169-183
    2

    What is Philosophy?
    In the past, I've asked students what they thought Philosophy was, and often received interesting
    answers.

    "Philosophy is . . ."

    • "a bunch of crap that people do when they want to make money but don't want to work."

    • "Trying to answer questions through observation and thought. Philosophy could be a formula
    to life, or an informed way of life."

    • "Different peoples views on life, death, and the after-life."

    • "Wanting to know more than the obvious; clarifying (using reason and logic) answers to
    questions-arguing."

    • "How a person thinks."

    • "Sitting around, smoking cigarettes, and getting into deep discussions about life's little
    quirks."

    • "The rational inquiry into the nature of the universe, both physical and metaphysical."

    • "In-depth reasoning about literary works (analyzing)."

    • "The search for truth through the contemplation to reach a higher sense of self or self-
    actualization."

    Each of these definitions is interesting in its own way, and to some degree capture some of what
    Philosophy is about, or at least what people THINK it's about. What we can glean from these
    definitions is that Philosophy is a kind of conversation about important questions, much of which is
    focused on human existence. But more specifically, we can divide Philosophy into major groups of
    questions that we can call the "sub-disciplines" of Philosophy.

    The Major Subdisciplines of Philosophy:

    Epistemology - the philosophical study of knowledge:

    What is knowledge?
    Can we have knowledge?
    How do we get knowledge?

    Metaphysics - the philosophical study of reality:


    3

    Ontology - What kinds of things actually exist?


    Philosophy of Mind - What is the nature of consciousness
    Philosophy of Religion – What is the nature of God?

    Axiology - the philosophical study of value:

    Ethics - the philosophical study of morality:

    What makes an action Right or Wrong?


    Is morality relative?
    What do the words 'right' and 'wrong' actually mean?

    Political Theory - the philosophical study of justice

    Aesthetics - the philosophical study of beauty:

    Philosophy of Literature -
    Philosophy of Art -
    Philosophy of Music -

    Logic - the philosophical study of reason and arguments

    What is an argument?
    What makes an argument work?
    What makes an argument fail?

    History of Philosophy – the philosophical examination of the development of ideas

    People – what did philosophers of the past think about and why?
    Ideas – how do ideas arise over time and influence the development of new ideas in the future?
    4

    These are the main topics or problems in Philosophy. Thinking about it in this way helps us
    understand why it is an academic discipline (i.e., an area of concentration in higher education). In
    the academic world, the word ‘philosophy’ is very much like the word ‘science’: it covers a wide
    variety of distinct, but related topics. But, as you can see, the field of Philosophy is more broad than
    Science because it has more primary subdisciplines (Science only has three: Physics, Chemistry,
    and Biology).

    Unlike other academic disciplines, Philosophy also has a profoundly personal dimension. Many, if
    not most, people will—at some point in their life—struggle with philosophical questions. “Why am
    I here?” “Why do bad things happen?” “Is there consciousness beyond the death of the body?”
    “How do I know when I can trust my senses or the testimony of other people?” “Are the choices I
    make really free, and will they have an impact on my future?” And, of course, there’s the old classic
    from “The Breakfast Club,” “who am I?” Being aware of these questions, struggling with possible
    answers, considering how others have tried to answer them makes up the personal dimension of
    Philosophy.

    In the readings that follow, and over the course of this semester, we will explore some of these
    questions both in their historical and contemporary contexts. The material we will be reading and
    discussing in class is aimed to help introduce you to, and guide you through this very cursory
    introduction to Philosophy as an academic discipline and way of life.
    5

    In the following unit we are going to confine ourselves to one simple question: What is
    Philosophy? We are going to examine that question from a number of perspectives including, where
    the word itself came from, when Philosophy (as we think of it) started and why, and how three
    different paradigmatic philosophers can help us to better understand what it is all about.

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