INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

WEEK 2

Assist. Prof. Dr. Fikriye Gözde Mocan

 COURSE FLOW – WEEKLY
Week 1- Introduction to Introduction to Philosophy
Week 2- Branches of Philosophy
Week 3- Introducing Aristotle’s Ethics
Week 4- Aristotle’s Ethics: Virtues, Theoretical Life, Happiness
Week 5- Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Week 6- A Representative from Mediavel Philosophy: Al Farabi
Week 7- Review
Week 8- Descartes’ Basic Concepts and Rationalism
Week 9- John Locke and Empiricism
Week 10- Hume’s Epistemology
Week 11- Kant’s Basic Concepts
Week 12- Kant’s Categorical Imperative and Moral Law
Week 13- Nietzsche and Zarathustra
Week 14- General Review

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 Areas of Philosophy
The branches of philosophy are divided into the many fields of philosophy:
• Ontology
• Epistemology
• Ethics
• Aesthetics – Philosophy of art
• Logic
• Political philosophy
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of science
• Philosophy of language
• Philosophy of mind

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 Areas of philosophy

PHI LOSOPHY OF ART (AESTHEI CS)

M ajor Concepts: beauty, süblime, pleasure, objectivity

LOGI C
M ajor Concepts: deduction, induction, premise, validity / invalidity

ONTOLOGY
M ajor Concepts: being, beings, existence,
categories,
PHI LOSOPHY

PHI LOSOPHY OF SCI ENCE Philos + Sophia

M ajor Concepts: experience,
Science, paradigma, theory EPI STEM OLOGY
M ajor Concepts: Knowledge, truth,
justified belief, falsehood, rationalism,
empiricism, justification

PHI LOSOPHY OF LAW

M ajor Concepts: law, right ETHI CS / M ORALI TY
Legal, legitimacy, human rights, M ajor Concepts: good, virtue, happiness
Criteria for legal validity, Right, rational principle, rational rule
Justice, rules, norms POLI TI CAL PHI LOSOHY
M ajor Concepts: Politics, liberty,
right, society, state, democracy, being-
with, togetherness

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 Areas of philosophy - Ontology
• Ontology is the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of
being.
•
• Metaphysics: is concerned with questions such as what it is to be,
who we are, what is existence, what are things, what is time and
space.

• There are two opposite metaphysical views:

• 1- Idealism
• 2- Materialism

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 Two Opposite views on Metaphysics
• Idealism: it advocates that reality is all in the mind, that
everything that exists is in some way dependent on the activity of
the mind. Hence, as phenomena are reliant on mental and social
factors they are therefore in a state of constant change e.g. music
is not just sound, it is an emotional experience.

• Materialism (or reductionism): it insists that only physical

things and their interactions exist and that our minds and
consciousness are wholly due to the active operation of materials.
Hence, phenomena are independent of social factors and are
therefore stable e.g. music is just vibrations in the air.

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 Back to Ontology
• Ontology is the branch of metaphysics dealing with the
nature of being.

• In the broad sense, it is a set of concepts and categories in a

subject or domain that shows their properties and the
relations between them.

• Etymologically, Ontos + logos = ontology

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 • Ontos or ’on’ is derived from verb ‘einai’ which refers to ‘to be’. Thus, ontos addresses
‘being that exists’.

• Logos, on the other hand, is a very famous word in the realm of philosophy and it has
more than one meaning.

• ‘Reason’, ‘speech’ is one of those meanings. Logos is derived from the verb ‘legein’
which is ‘to speak’.

• Therefore, ontology is concerned with being and it speaks about being that exists.

• Ontology examines ‘what being is’ and ‘in what senses it is spoken of’.

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 Metaphysics
• Metaphysics: is concerned with questions such as what it is
to be, who we are, what is existence, what are things, what is
time and space.

• There are two opposite metaphysical views:

• 1- Idealism
• 2- Materialism

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 Questions of Ontology
• What is being?

• What is a mode of being?

• Is being only a physical thing?

• What are the categories of beings?

• What are the reasons of beings?

• What are the qualities of beings?

• What is the origin of beings?

• What is being and non-being?

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 What ontology examines
• As Aristotle calls ontology ‘prote philosophia – first philosophy, it tries to trace the answer of the fundamental
questions such as ‘what beings are ’ or ‘what existence is’.

• Therefore, ontology deals with being and beings, their connections, their categories, and their existential modes.

• Questioning ‘being qua being’ refers to explaining its qualities, quantities, its time and space.

• That’s the reason why ontology gives a complete explanation of the structure of being.

• The fundamental question ‘what is being?’ is also asked before Socrates by Pre-Socratic philosophers.

• For instance, Thales, one of the pre-socratic philosopher, says the origin of beings is water (arkhe issue).

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 Ontology
• Thus, ontology can be defined as a rational way of being qua being.

• ‘Substance’ is one of the fundamental concepts ontology discusses.

Substance (substantia – underlying, underlying – the Latin
translation of the Greek) is that which exists independently, in
itself, unlike accidents, or properties existing in another (namely,
in substance) and through another.

• Question: Who are the key people of this field?

• Answer: Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Heidegger, Hartmann.

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 Areas of philosophy- Epistemology
• Epistemology is one of the fundamental disciplines of philosophy.

• Episteme + logos = epistemology

• In Ancient Greek sense, episteme means ‘knowledge’. It combines with the term logos,
which was explained as speech or reason. Therefore, epistemology is defined as
reasoning about knowledge.

• Rather than practical or normative realms of philosophy, epistemology belongs to the

theoretical realm.

• Instead of gaining or applying knowledge, it is concerned more with the question

‘what is knowledge?’.

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 Questions of Epistemology
• What is knowledge?

• How is knowledge acquired?

• What do people know?

• What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge?

• What is its structure, and what are its limits?

• What makes justified beliefs justified?

• How we are to understand the concept of justification?

• Is justification internal or external to one's own mind?

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 Epistemology
• Therefore, fundamental questions of epistemology are about
knowledge, its possibility of truth, its limits and its origin.

• That’s the reason why its fundamental concept is related to

‘knowledge’.

• With regards to epistemology, rationalism, empiricism,

relativism and positivism are some epistemological issues
discussed.

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 What is Rationalism?

• Rationalism is the belief in innate ideas, reason and

deduction.

• Innate ideas: we have ideas even before we are born.

• Reason is the main source of knowledge

• The 5 senses only give you opinions, not reasons.

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 So, what is empiricism?
• Unlike rationalists, empiricists believe that sense perception
is the main source of knowledge.

• Empiricism is the belief in sense perception, induction and

that there are no innate ideas.

• Ideas are only acquired through experience and not through

innate ideas.

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 Epistemologies of the Natural Sciences
• The epistemologies of the natural sciences are empiricist.
Empiricism holds that all knowledge is derived from our
perceptions (transmitted by the five senses of touch, smell,
taste, hearing, and sight), experience, and observation.
Empiricism, the “ruling ‘ideology’ of science,” assures us that
observation and experimentation make scientific
explanations credible and the predictive power of its theories
ever increasing (Rosenberg, 2000, p. 146).

• However, the epistemologies of the natural sciences make

scientific approaches inadequate for addressing value issues
(Kelly, 1996, p. 95).

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 What is positivism?
• According to positivists, the world around us is real and we can find out about these
realities.

• Order is observable and universal.

• Knowledge is derived using scientific method and based on sensory experience

gained through experiments or comparative analysis.

• It aims at developing a unique and elegant description of any chosen aspect of the
world that is true regardless of what people think. By developing these scientific facts,
knowledge is built up in a cumulative fashion, despite some false starts.

• Science builds on what is already known.

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 Relativism
• Relativism – is based on the philosophical doctrines of idealism
and humanism. It maintains that the view of the world that we see
around us is the creation of the mind. This does not mean that the
world is not real, but rather that we can only experience it
personally through our perceptions which are influenced by our
preconceptions, beliefs and values; we are not neutral,
disembodied observers but part of society.

• As well as concentrating on the search for constants in human

behavior which highlights the repetitive, predictable and invariant
aspect of society, the relativist researcher does not ignore what is
subjective, individual and creative – facts and values cannot be
separated.

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 Areas of philosophy -Ethics
• Ethics is also called moral philosophy, the discipline concerned with what is
morally good and bad and morally right and wrong. The term is also applied
to any system or theory of moral values or principles.

• Ethics’ subject consists of the fundamental issues of practical decision

making, and its major concerns include the nature of ultimate value and the
standards by which human actions can be judged as right or wrong.
•
• The terms ethics and morality are closely related. It is now common to refer
to ethical judgments or to ethical principles where it once would have been
more accurate to speak of moral judgments or moral principles. These
applications are an extension of the meaning of ethics. In earlier usage, the
term, ethics, referred not to morality itself but to the field of study, or branch
of inquiry, that has morality as its subject matter. In this sense, ethics is
equivalent to moral philosophy

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 The distinction between morality and ethics https://keydifferences.com/difference-
between-morals-and-ethics.html

BASIS FOR COMPARISON MORALS ETHICS

Meaning Morals are the beliefs of the individual or group as to what is Ethics are the guiding principles which help the individual or
right or wrong. group to decide what is good or bad.

What is it? General principles set by group Response to a specific situation

Root word Mos which means custom Ethikos which means character

Governed By Social and cultural norms Individual or Legal and Professional norms

Deals with Principles of right and wrong Right and wrong conduct

Applicability in Business No Yes

Consistency Morals may differ from society to society and culture to Ethics are generally uniform.
culture.

Expression Morals are expressed in the form of general rules and Ethics are abstract.
statements.

Freedom to think and choose No Yes

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 • In other words…
• Ethics is the process of examination of moral conduct.

• Morality is concerned with our character and our behavior

towards others.

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 Questions of ethics
• Do you consider yourself to be an ethical person?
• Have you ever found a smart phone? What did you do?
• Would you risk your life to save another person?
• Would you jump into a deep river to save a drowning animal?
• What should a person do if they find a wallet? What are
some ethical dilemmas you have faced?
• Is stealing ALWAYS wrong?
• What is happiness?
• What is good for human life?

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 Types of Ethics:
• Meta-ethics: the origin and meaning of ethical concepts (metaphysical and
psychological issues: motives, reasons, morals, e.g. free will)

• Normative: the norms for right and wrong behavior (not contingent on cultures, e.g :
Kant)

• Applied Ethics: (analytic) analysis of controversial issues according to the context of

action.

• Utilitarian Ethics: the right/ wrong of action is a balance of the good/evil produced by
the action (Jeremy Bentham : (good/evil)= (pleasure/pain))

• Virtue Ethics: Where does a virtuous person come from?

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 • Virtue Ethics: Where does a virtuous person come from?
• Aristotle: virtues that pertain to human character.
• Guiding Questions: Who am I? +What are the standards I
compare myself to? + Am I using good measures?+ Who am I
to become?
• Requires prudence : having a vision that is grounded in
reality and an awareness of all aspects, combining them all
and understanding the middle point

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 Areas of philosophy - Logic
• Philosophy of logic, the study, from a philosophical perspective, of the nature and
types of logic, including problems in the field and the relation of logic to mathematics
and other disciplines.

• The term logic comes from the Greek word logos. The variety of senses
that logos possesses may suggest the difficulties to be encountered in characterizing
the nature and scope of logic.

• When logic is said, for instance, to be the study of the laws of thought, these laws
cannot be the emprical (or observable) regularities of actual human thinking as
studied in psychology; they must be laws of correct reasoning.

• Logic may thus be characterized as the study of truths based completely on the
meanings of the terms they contain.

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 Logic
• Aristotle defined logic as "new and necessary reasoning", "new" because it allows
us to learn what we do not know, and "necessary" because its conclusions are
inescapable.

• It asks questions like "What is correct reasoning?", "What distinguishes a good

argument from a bad one?", "How can we detect a fallacy in reasoning?”

• Types of Logic: Logic in general can be divided into

• 1. Formal Logic
• 2. Informal logic
• 3. Symbolic logic
• 4. Mathematical logic

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 Logic
• Deductive Logic (Deductive reasoning)
• Deductive reasoning concerns what follows necessarily from
given premises (i.e. from a general premise to a particular one).

• Major premise: All humans are mortal.

Minor premise: Socrates is human.
Conclusion: Socrates is mortal.

• An example of deduction is:

• All apples are fruit.
All fruits grow on trees.
Therefore all apples grow on trees.

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 • Inductive Logic (Inductive Reasoning)
• Inductive reasoning is the process of deriving a
reliable generalization from observations (i.e. from the particular to the general), so
that the premises of an argument are believed to support the conclusion, but do not
necessarily ensure it. Inductive logic is not concerned with validity or conclusiveness,
but with the soundness of those inferences for which the evidence is not conclusive.
• An example of strong induction (an argument in which the truth of the premise would
make the truth of the conclusion probable but not definite) is:
• All observed crows are black.
• Therefore:
• All crows are black.
• An example of weak induction (an argument in which the link between the premise and
the conclusion is weak, and the conclusion is not even necessarily probable) is:
• I always hang pictures on nails.
• Therefore:
• All pictures hang from nails.

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 Areas of Philosophy- Political Philosophy
• Political philosophy begins with the question: what ought to be a person's
relationship to society?
• Political philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about
the state, government, politics, liberty, justice and the enforcement of a legal
code by authority.
• It is ethics applied to a group of people, and discusses how a society should be
set up and how one should act within a society. Individual rights (such as the
right to life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness, free speech, self-
defense, etc) state explicitly the requirements for a person to benefit rather
than suffer from living in a society.
• Western political philosophy has its origins in Ancient Greek, when city-
states were experimenting with various forms of political organization
including monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy and democracy. Among the
most important classical works of political philosophy are Plato's "The
Republic" and Aristotle's "Politics".

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 Questions of political philosophy
• What is a government?
• Why are governments needed?
• What makes a government legitimate?
• What rights and freedoms should a government protect?
• What duties do citizens owe to a legitimate government, if
any?
• When may a government be legitimately overthrown, if ever?

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 Areas of Philosophy – Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of law (or legal philosophy) investigates the nature of law.
• It is concerned with providing a general philosophical analysis of law and
legal institutions.
• Issues in the field range from abstract conceptual questions about the nature
of law and legal systems to normative questions about the relationship
between law and morality and the justification for various legal institutions.
• Topics in legal philosophy tend to be more abstract than related topics
in political philosophy and applied ethics.
• There are three categories into which the topics of legal philosophy fall:
• 1. analytic jurisprudence
• 2. normative jurisprudence
• 3. critical theories of law

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 Questions of the Philosophy of Law:
• What is the law?
• What are the criteria for legal validity?
• What is the relationship between law and morality?
• How do we draw a line between moral obligation and legal obligation?
• When people act voluntarily, are their actions caused by their desires?
• What is the scientific method suitable for research in the area of legal
philosophy?

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 Areas of Philosophy – Philosophy of Art

• Philosophy of art, the study of the nature of art, including concepts such
as interpretation, representation and expression, and form.

• It is closely related to aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and

taste.

• The philosophy of art is distinguished from art criticism, which is

concerned with the analysis and evaluation of particular works of art.

• It deals with beauty, the sublime and the piece of art.

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 Questions of the Philosophy of Art
• What is art?
• What is beauty?
• What is the sublime?
• What is the line between art and non-art?
• What is the most philosophically defensible definition of art?
• How does meaning arise out of perception?
• How do the arts communicate emotions? How central is emotional communication to
the nature of art?
• What do the arts have in common?
• Why think about art? Why not just experience it?
• Is art essentially related to beauty?
• What's the status of aesthetic standards? Do they simply express individual or cultural
tastes? Is there something objective about them?

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 Areas of philosophy- Philosophy of
Science
• Philosophy of science, the study, from a philosophical perspective, of the elements of scientific
inquiry.

• The philosophy of science is concerned with all the assumptions, foundations, methods,
implications of science, and with the use and merit of science.

• The history of the philosophy of science, certainly in the Western world, begins with the
philosophers of Ancient Greece.

• Two central questions about science are:

• (1) what are the aims of science

• (2) how should one interpret the results of science?

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 Questions of the Philosophy of Science
• What is science?

• Is there one thing that constitutes science?

• Does or can science lead to certainty?

• What is the nature of scientific statements, concepts, and conclusions?

• Is there any such thing as a scientific method?

• Does science make progress?,

• What are the implications of scientific methods and models for the larger society, including for the sciences
themselves?

• Is there a relationship between history of science and philosophy of science?

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 • Today, we saw the sub-fields of philosophy. As you all
realized, there is more than one branch of philosophy.
Next week, we will do the second part of branchers of
philosophy, but mostly review our week 1 and 2.

• As being mentioned in our weekly syllabus We will start

our new topic Aristotle’s ethics

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Thank you
for your participation