GST 104- PHILOSOPHY, LOGIC AND

HUMAN EXISTENCE
DR. RONKE GRACE AWOPETU
GENERAL STUDY UNIT, AFIT
PHONE NO: 07031535566
 COURSE OUTLINE
• Philosophy: Meaning and Branches
• Symbolic Logic; Special symbols in symbolic logic-conjunction,
negation, affirmation, disjunction, equivalent and conditional
statement.
• Law of Tort
• Deductions: The method of deduction using rules of inference
and bi-conditionals, qualification theory
• Inductions: Rules of Inductive inference
• Distinction between inductive and deductive references; etc (
Illustrations will be taken from familiar texts, including literature
materials, novels, law reports and newspaper publications.
• Types of discourse, nature of arguments, validity and
soundness.
• Techniques for evaluating arguments.
Philosophy: Meaning and Branches

• Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems,

such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values,
reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is the rational
attempt to formulate, understand, and answer fundamental
questions
• However, defining philosophy is as difficult as trying to define
love. The word philosophy is not much help. Philosophy is a
combination of two Greek words, philein sophia, meaning
lover of wisdom. In ancient times a lover of wisdom could be
related to any area where intelligence was expressed. This
could be in business, politics, human relations, or carpentry
and other skills
Defining Philosophy from different Perpectives

❑ The Historical Approach to Defining Philosophy:

According to this approach philosophy is really the study of historical figures
who are considered philosophers.
One may encounter the names of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine,
Thales, Philo, Plotinus, Aquinas, Kant, Erigena, Hume, Marx, Hegel,
Russell, Wittgenstein and many more.
All are considered philosophers.
What holds them together since they are so diverse in many of their views?
One answer lies in their common set of problems and concerns.
Many were interested in the problems of the universe, its origin, what it is in
its nature, the issue of man's existence, good and evil, politics, and other
topics
❑ Philosophy is the Analysis of Language
This is one of the more extreme definitions of
philosophy.
This definition began as an emphasis in philosophy at
about the turn of the century.
A growing revolt took place against the metaphysical
systems in philosophy.
Metaphysical systems in philosophy explained
everything from the standpoint of a great idea like
"mind" or "spirit."
Their central thesis is that only truths of logic and
empirically verifiable statements are meaningful.
What does scientific verification mean in this context? If you can
validate or reproduce an experiment or whatever, you can say it is
true.
If there is no way to reproduce or validate the experiment in the
context of science, there was then no claim for truth.
How do verification and language work together? Try this example.
How do you know when to take a statement as referring to a fact?
We can use three sentences:
(l) God is love,
(2) Zaria is in Kaduna State, and
(3) Rape is wrong.
These sentences are constructed in a similar manner. But only
one is factual, i.e., it can be scientifically verified. Thousands of
people travel daily to Zaria day and night and anyone who doubts
can go see for himself. But you cannot scientifically verify that rape
is wrong and that God is love
❑ Philosophy is a Program of Change
Karl Marx declared that the role of philosophy is not to
think about the world, but to change it.
Philosophy is not to be an ivory tower enterprise
without relevance to the world of human conditions
❑ Philosophy is a Set of Questions and Answers
Philosophy has a long list of topics it has been
interested in.
Some of these are more interesting and up-to-date
than others
Is the world of one or more substances?
Is it matter, mind, or other?
Is man only a body? Is he, or does he have a soul?
Does God exist?
Many other questions could be incorporated here.
Some questions have several proposed solutions.
This is true in trying to answer what the nature of man
is.
Other questions cannot be answered decisively.
Does God exist? can only be answered in terms of a
probability situation.
No scientific proof can decide the question either way.
Some questions have been answered to the
satisfaction of many philosophers for a long period of
time only to be raised again
Some questions have been answered to the
satisfaction of many philosophers for a long
period of time only to be raised again.
One example of this is the old question of
Socrates' day about man being born with
knowledge, called innate knowledge.
For centuries this was accepted by a variety of
people. But John Locke seems to have solved
the matter for many philosophers that man is not
given innate ideas at birth.
Hence, he must gain his knowledge through
experience
❑ Philosophy is a World-View (Weltanschaüung)
Early philosophers attempted to describe the world in
its simple make-up.
Thales asserted that water, and Anaximenes asserted
that air, were the important materials of the universe.
Many other proposals have come from other
philosophers. But the main issue concerns the nature
of the universe.
A world-view, or Weltanschaüung, as the Germans
term it, involves more than the questions of the
universe.
A world-view is the attempt to come to a total view of
the universe as it relates to the make-up of matter,
man, God, the right, the nature of politics, values,
aesthetics, and any other element in the cosmos that is
important.
❑ Philosophy is Criticism
The idea of philosophy being "criticism" needs explanation.
An understanding may be reached by looking at one of the
philosophers who embodied this definition.
Socrates is one of the earliest to engage in philosophic
criticism.
For Socrates, criticism referred to critical thinking involving a
dialectic in the conversation.
A dialectic, one must keep in mind, is a running debate with
claims, counter-claims, qualifications, corrections, and
compromises in the sincere hope of getting to understand a
concept.
This may be seen briefly in Plato's Republic (Bk. I). Socrates
asked Cephalus what his greatest blessing of wealth had
been
Criticism is the attempt to clear away shabby thinking and
establish concepts with greater precision and meaning
BRANCHES/DIVISIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
□ Epistemology
▪ Epistemology is a Greek word translated as the theory of
knowledge.
▪ Epistemology is a foundational area for other areas of
philosophy.
▪ Epistemology involves three main areas:
▪ The source or ways to knowledge. How do we know what we
claim to know? How do we know certain kinds of things?
▪ The nature of knowledge. What do we mean when we say we
know something? If I declare I know a pin oak tree, do I know
this directly or indirectly?
▪ The validity of knowledge. In this the matter of truth or falsity is
considered. How do I claim to know that something is true? Why
is one statement regarded as true or false?
□ Metaphysics
▪ Metaphysics is another Greek word
which refers to the attempt to describe
the nature of reality.
▪ It involves many questions such as the
nature and makeup of the universe,
whether the world is purposive or not,
whether man is free, whether the world
is eternal or created, and many other
issues
□ Logic
▪ Logic is a term used to describe the various
types of reasoning structures, the relationship of
ideas, deduction and inference, and in modern
times.
▪ Symbolic logic which becomes quite
mathematical.
▪ Logic is too technical to consider in the confines
of a general introduction to philosophy.
▪ There are many excellent texts that may be
consulted for a general look at logic.
□ Axiology
▪ Axios, the Greek word of worth, is related to two different
areas of worth.
▪ There is, first, moral worth, or ethics.
▪ Ethics is a discipline concerning human moral behavior and
raises the questions of right or wrong.
▪ Ethics has generally been the science or discipline of what
human behavior ought to be in contrast to a discipline like
sociology which is the study of what human behavior is.
▪ The second area, aesthetics, is concerned with the beautiful.
▪ What is a beautiful work of art? music? sculpture? What
makes a beautiful woman? a handsome man? an ugly one?
Aesthetics seeks to give some answers to these questions
□ "Philosophies of"
Another category of philosophy is called "philosophies of"
because of the term being related to various other subjects or
disciplines. For example:
Philosophy of art , Philosophy of biology, Philosophy of history,
Philosophy of law, Philosophy of philosophy, Philosophy of
physics, Philosophy of the natural sciences, Philosophy of
religion, Philosophy of sociology, philosophy of science,
Philosophy of Psychology etc.
The "philosophy of" is basically the application of metaphysical
and epistemological questions to a certain subject area. It is
concerned with the basic structures of the discipline and the
presuppositions needed for the study.
If the philosophy of a discipline is changed,
it changes the outcome of the discipline.
As an example, how should one write
history? If it is written around the theme of
conflict, one gets a certain emphasis; if it is
written around a "great man" theme, it will
give a different emphasis and interpretation.
If history is written from a Marxist view it will
come out differently than from a capitalist
view
□ Social and Political Philosophy
Social and political philosophy investigates value
judgments concerning society, the state, and the
individual’s relation to these institutions.
The following questions reflect the concerns of social
and political philosophy:
Why should individuals live in society?
What social ideals of liberty, rights, justice, equality
and responsibility are desirable?
Why should anyone obey any government?
Why should some individuals or groups have political
power over others?
What criteria are to be used in determining who should
have political power?
What criteria are to be used in determining the scope of
political power, and what rights or freedoms should be
immune from political or legal control?
To what positive goals should political power be directed,
and what are the criteria for determining this?