Philosophy

Meaning and Nature of Philosophy

✓ Giving a clear-cut definition for is difficult, because philosophy has no a specific subject matter to
primarily deal with. Philosophy deals primarily with issues. What contents philosophy has are not
the specific subject matters, but issues, which are universal in nature. To understand philosophy, it
is better to read different thoughts of philosophers, consciously see its salient features by yourself,
participate in it, and do it. Philosophy is not as elusive as it is often thought to be. Nor is it remote
from our various problems. It is unanimously agreed that the best way to learn and understand
philosophy is to philosophize. Socrates once stated that “Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher,
and philosophy begins in wonder”. We may not have a clear knowledge about the history,
nature, language, and issues of philosophy. But, we all think and reflect in our own way about
issues that matter us most. We all participate, more or less, in philosophical issues, even though
thinking alone cannot make us philosophers.
✓ Etymologically /from its foundation/ the word Philosophy comes from two Greek words: “Philo”
and “Sophia”, which mean “love” and “wisdom”, respectively. Thus, as a pursuit of wisdom,
philosophy refers to the development of critical habits, the continuous search for truth, and the
questioning of the apparent. It is, however, important to note that “questioning the apparent”
does not mean denying the obviously real. It simply refers to the extraordinary ability and
curiosity to deal creatively with the phenomenal world, to go beyond the common
understanding, and to speculate about things that other people accept with no doubt.
✓ The ancient Greek thinker Pythagoras was the first to use the word “philosopher” to call a
person who clearly shows a marked curiosity in the things he experiences. Anyone who raises
questions, such as Does God exists? What is reality? What is the ultimate source of being? What is
knowledge? What does it mean to know? How do we come to know? What is value? And the like,
is really showing a curiosity that can be described as a vital concern for becoming wise about the
phenomena of the world and the human experiences. The wisdom that philosophers seek is not the
wisdom of the expertise or technical skills of professionals. According to Socrates, wisdom consists
of a critical habit and eternal vigilance about all things and a reverence for truth, whatever its
form, and wherever its place.
✓ Philosophy: Is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as
existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, law, justice, validity, mind, and language.
Questioning/criticism is not the final end of philosophy, though raising the right question is
often taken not only as the beginning and direction of philosophy but also as its essence. The
philosophical enterprise, as Vincent Barry stated, Philosophy is “an active imaginative process of
formulating proper questions and resolving them by rigorous, persistent analysis”.
✓ Therefore, philosophy is a rational and critical enterprise that tries to formulate and answer
fundamental questions through an intensive application of reason, an application that draws
on analysis, comparison, and evaluation. It involves reason, rational criticism, examination,
and analysis.

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 ✓ Philosophy, as a rational and critical enterprise that tries to formulate and answer fundamental questions
through an intensive application of reason, is a dual-sided universal discipline: constructive and critical
sides:
➢ As Constructive side, it attempts to formulate rationally defensible answers to certain
fundamental questions concerning the nature of reality, the nature of value, and the nature of
knowledge and truth.
➢ As Critical side, it deals with giving a rational critic, analysis, clarification, and evaluation of
answers given to basic metaphysical, epistemological, and axiological questions.
✓ Philosophy is an activity; it is not something that can be easily mastered or learned in schools. A
philosopher is a great philosopher, not because he mastered philosophy, but because he did it. It is not his
theory, but his extraordinary ability to critically think, to conceptualize, to analyze, to compare, to
evaluate, and to understand i.e., to philosophize that makes him so. The product of philosophizing is
philosophy as a product. However, what makes someone a great philosopher is not the produced
philosophy, but his/her outstanding ability to philosophize.

Basic Features of Philosophy

✓ Philosophy, as an academic discipline, has its own salient features that distinguish it from other
academic disciplines, be it natural, social and humanistic disciplines. Its systematic, logical and
flexible approach to the ultimate reality of the universe, human life, knowledge experience, truth
and values and its holistic and evolutionary nature are some the fundamental features of
philosophy. The general features of philosophy can be summarized as follows:
1. Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and the universe, which are often held
uncritically. Usually when a person says “my philosophy” is, he or she is referring to an informal
personal attitude to whatever topic is being discussed.
2. Philosophy is a process of reflecting on and criticizing our most deeply held conceptions and
beliefs. A genuine philosophical attitude is searching and critical; it is open-minded and tolerant
willing to look at all sides of an issue without prejudice.
➢ To philosophize is not merely to read and know philosophy; there are skills of
argumentation to be mastered, techniques of analysis to be employed, and a body of
material to be appropriated such that we become able to think philosophically.
➢ To philosophize also means to generalize. Philosophers are reflective and critical. They take
a second look at the material presented by common sense. They attempt to think through a
variety of life’s problems and to face all the facts involved impartially.
✓ Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others disagree, because:
➢ They view things from different points of view and with different assumptions. Their personal
experiences, cultural backgrounds, and training may vary widely. This is especially true of
people living at different times and in different places.
➢ They live in a changing universe. People change, society changes, and nature changes. Some
people are responsive and sensitive to change; others cling to tradition and the status quo, to
systems that were formulated some time ago and that were declared to be authoritative and final.
➢ They deal with an area of human experience in which the evidence is not complete. Different
people may interpret the evidence we do have in various ways. Despite these disagreements,

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however, philosophers continue to probe, examine, and evaluate the material with the hope of presenting
consistent principles by which we can live.
3. Philosophy is a rational attempt to look at the world as a whole. Philosophy seeks to combine the
conclusions of the various sciences and human experience into some kind of consistent
worldview. Philosophers wish to see life, not with the specialized slant of the scientist or the
businessperson or the artist, but with the overall view of someone cognizant of life as a totality.
Philosophy’s task is to give a view of the whole, a life and a worldview, and to integrate the
knowledge of the sciences with that of other disciplines to achieve a consistent whole. Accordingly,
Philosophy attempts to bring the results of human inquiry-religious, historical, and scientific
into some meaningful interpretation that provides knowledge and insight for our lives.
4. Philosophy is the logical analysis of language and the clarification of the meaning of words and
concepts. The aim of philosophy is to expose confusion and nonsense and to clarify the meaning
and use of terms in science and everyday affairs.
5. Philosophy is a group of perennial problems that interest people and for which philosophers
always have sought answers. Philosophy presses its inquiry into the deepest problems of human
existence. The content of philosophy is better seen as asking the right questions rather than providing
the correct answers. It even can be said that philosophy is the study of questions. Examples of
philosophical questions: What is truth? And what is the distinction between right and wrong?.
Sometimes we think seriously about fundamental life issues:
➢ What is life and why am I here? Why is there anything at all?
➢ What is the place of life in this great universe? Is the universe friendly or unfriendly?
➢ Do things operate by chance or through sheer mechanism, or is there some plan, purpose, or
intelligence at the heart of things?
➢ Is my life controlled by outside forces, or do I have a determining or even a partial degree of
control?
➢ Why do people struggle and strive for their rights, for justice, for better things in the future?
What do concepts like “right” (meaningful and relevant) and “justice” means, and what are
the marks of a good society? Often men and women have been asked to sacrifice their lives,
if need be, for certain values and ideals.
➢ What are the genuine values of life and how can it attained?
➢ Is there really a fundamental distinction between right and wrong, or is it just a matter of
one’s own opinions?
➢ What is beauty?
➢ Should religion count in a person’s life? Is it intellectually valid to believe in God? Is there a
possibility of a life after death?
➢ Is there any way we can get an answer to these and many related questions? Where does
knowledge come from, and can we have any assurances that anything is true?
✓ The attempt to seek answers or solutions to them has given rise to theories and systems of thought,
such as idealism, realism, pragmatism, analytic philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, and
process philosophy. Philosophy also means the various theories or systems of thought developed by the
great philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke,
Berkeley, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Royce, James, Dewey, Whitehead, and others.

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1.3. Core Fields of Philosophy
✓ Philosophy uses its major primary and secondary branches to deal with the most important issues
human beings face, namely Metaphysics, Epistemology, Axiology, and Logic.

1.3.1 Metaphysics
✓ The term metaphysics is derived from the Greek words “meta” means (“beyond”, “upon” or “after”)
and “physika”, means (“physics”). Literally, it refers “those things after the physics”. Metaphysics is
the most important fields of philosophy that deal with the studies of ultimate reality and human
knowledge, respectively.
✓ Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the ultimate nature of reality or existence. It deal
with issues of reality, God, freedom, soul/immortality, the mind-body problem, form and substance
relationship, cause and effect relationship, and other related issues. Metaphysicians seek an irreducible
foundation of reality or “first principles” from which absolute knowledge or truth can be induced and
deduced. Some of the questions that Metaphysics primarily deals with:
➢ What is reality? What is the ultimately real? What is the nature of the ultimate reality?
➢ Is there a cause and effect relationship between reality and appearance?
➢ Can reality be grasped by the senses, or it is transcendent? What makes reality different from a
mere appearance?
➢ Is it one thing or is it many different things?
➢ What is mind, and what is its relation to the body?
➢ What is the meaning of life? Does God exist, and if so, can we prove it?
➢ Are human actions free, or predetermined by a supernatural force?
➢ What is human being? A thinking mind? A perishable body? Or a combination of both?
➢ What is time?
✓ Metaphysical questions are the most basic to ask because they provide the foundation upon which all
subsequent inquiry is based. Metaphysical questions may be divided into four subsets or aspects.
1. Cosmological Aspect: Cosmology consists in the study of theories about the origin, nature, and
development of the universe as an orderly system. Questions such as these populate the realm of
cosmology: “How did the universe originate and develop? Did it come about by accident or design?
Does its existence have any purpose?”
2. Theological Aspect: Theology is that part of religious theory that deals with conceptions of and
about God. “Is there a God? If so, is there one or more than one? What are the attributes of God? If
God is both all good and all powerful, why does evil exist? If God exists, what is His relationship to
human beings and the „real‟ world of everyday life?”
3. Anthropological Aspect: Anthropology deals with the study of human beings and asks questions
like the following: What is the relation between mind and body? Is mind more fundamental than
body, with body depending on mind, or vice versa? What is humanity’s moral status? Are people
born good, evil, or morally neutral? To what extent are individuals free? Do they have free will, or
are their thoughts and actions determined by their environment, inheritance, or a divine being? Does
each person have a soul? If so, what is it? People have obviously adopted different positions on
these questions, and those positions influence their political, social, religious, and educational ideals
and practices.

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 4. Ontological Aspect: Ontology is the study of the nature of existence, or what it means for anything
to exist. Several questions are central to ontology: “Is basic reality found in matter or physical
energy (the world we can sense), or is it found in spirit or spiritual energy? Is it composed of one
element (e.g., matter or spirit), or two (e.g., matter and spirit), or many?” “Is reality orderly and
lawful in itself, or is it merely orderable by the human mind? Is it fixed and stable, or is change its
central feature? Is this reality friendly, unfriendly, or neutral toward humanity?”

1.3.2 Epistemology
✓ Epistemology is the other field of philosophy that studies about the nature, scope, meaning, and
possibility of knowledge. It deals with issues of knowledge, opinion, truth, falsity, reason,
experience, and faith. Epistemology is also referred to as “theory of knowledge”. Etymologically, the
word epistemology has been derived from the Greek words episteme, meaning “knowledge,
understanding”, and logos, meaning “study of”. In other words, we can say that Epistemology is the study
of the nature, source, and validity of knowledge. It seeks to answer of the basic questions as “What is
true?” and “How do we know?”. Thus, epistemology covers two areas: the content of thought and thought
itself. The study of epistemology deals with issues related to the dependability of knowledge and the
validity of the sources through which we gain information.
✓ The questions/issues with which Epistemology deals:
➢ What is knowledge? What does it mean to know?
➢ What is the source of knowledge? Experience? Reason? Or both?
➢ How can we be sure that what we perceive through our senses is correct?
➢ What makes knowledge different from belief or opinion?
➢ What is truth, and how can we know a statement is true?
➢ Can reason really help us to know phenomenal things without being informed by sense experiences?
➢ Can our sense experience really help us to know things beyond our perception without the assistance
of our reasoning ability?
➢ What is the relationship and difference between faith and reason?
✓ Epistemology seeks answers to a number of fundamental issues. One is whether reality can even be
known. Skepticism in its narrow sense is the position claiming that people cannot acquire reliable
knowledge and that any search for truth is in vain. That thought was well expressed by Georgia’s, the
Greek Sophist who asserted that nothing exists, and that if it did, we could not know it. A full-blown
skepticism would make intelligent action impossible. A term closely related to skepticism is agnosticism.
Agnosticism is a profession of ignorance in reference to the existence or nonexistence of God.
✓ Most people claim that reality can be known. However, once they have taken that position, they must
decide through what sources reality may be known, and must have some concept of how to judge the
validity of their knowledge. A second issue foundational to epistemology is whether all truth is relative, or
whether some truths are absolute. Is all truth subject to change? Is it possible that what is true today may
be false tomorrow? If the answer is Yes‟ to the previous questions, such truths are relative. If, however,
there is Absolute Truth, such Truth is eternally and universally true irrespective of time or place. Closely
related to the issue of the relativity and absoluteness of truth are the questions of whether knowledge is
subjective or objective, and whether there is truth that is independent of human experience.
✓ A major aspect of epistemology relates to the sources of human knowledge. If one accepts the fact that
there is truth and even Truth in the universe, how can human beings comprehend such truths? How do

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They become human knowledge? Central to most people’s answer to that question is empiricism (knowledge
obtained through the senses). Empirical knowledge appears to be built into the very nature of human
experience. Thus, when individuals walk out of doors on a spring day and see the beauty of the landscape, hear
the song of a bird, feel the warm rays of the sun, and smell the fragrance of the blossoms, they „know‟ that it is
spring. Sensory knowing for humans is immediate and universal, and in many ways forms the basis of much of
human knowledge.
✓ The existence of sensory data cannot be denied. Most people accept it uncritically as representing
“reality”. The danger of naively embracing this approach is that data obtained from the human senses have
been demonstrated to be both incomplete and undependable. (For example, most people have been
confronted with the contradiction of seeing a stick that looks bent when partially submerged in water but
appears to be straight when examined in the air.) Fatigue, frustration, and illness also distort and limit
sensory perception. In addition, there are sound and light waves that are inaudible and invisible to unaided
human perception.
✓ Humans have invented scientific instruments to extend the range of their senses, but it is impossible to
ascertain the exact dependability of these instruments since no one knows the total effect of the human
mind in recording, interpreting, and distorting sensual perception. Confidence in these instruments is built
upon speculative metaphysical theories whose validity has been reinforced by experimentation in which
predictions have been verified through the use of a theoretical construct or hypothesis. In general, sensory
knowledge is built upon assumptions that must be accepted by faith in the dependability of human sensory
mechanisms. The advantage of empirical knowledge is that many sensory experiences and experiments
are open to both replication and public examination.
✓ A second important source of human knowledge is reason. The view that reasoning, thought, or logic is
the central factor in knowledge is known as rationalism. The rationalist, in emphasizing humanity’s power
of thought and the mind’s contributions to knowledge, is likely to claim that the senses alone cannot
provide universal, valid judgments that are consistent with one another. From this perspective, the
sensations and experiences humans obtain through their senses are the raw material of knowledge. These
sensations must be organized by the mind into a meaningful system before they become knowledge.
Rationalism in a less extreme form claims that people have the power to know with certainty various
truths about the universe that the senses alone cannot give. In its extreme form, rationalism claims that
humans are capable of arriving at irrefutable knowledge independently of sensory experience. Formal
logic is a tool used by rationalists. Systems of logic have the advantage of possessing internal consistency,
but they risk being disconnected from the external world. Systems of thought based upon logic are only as
valid as the premises upon which they are built.
✓ A third source of human knowledge is intuition- the direct apprehension of knowledge that is not
derived from conscious reasoning or immediate sense perception. In the literature dealing with intuition,
one often finds such expressions as “immediate feeling of certainty”. Intuition occurs beneath the
threshold of consciousness and is often experienced as a sudden flash of insight. Intuition has been
claimed under varying circumstances as a source of both religious and secular knowledge. Certainly many
scientific breakthroughs have been initiated by intuitive hunches that were confirmed by experimentation.
The weakness or danger of intuition is that it does not appear to be a safe method of obtaining knowledge
when used alone. It goes astray very easily and may lead to absurd claims unless it is controlled by or
checked against other methods of knowing. Intuitive knowledge, however, has the distinct advantage of
being able to bypass the limitations of human experience.

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✓ A fourth influential source of knowledge throughout the span of human history has been revelation.
Revealed knowledge has been of prime importance in the field of religion. It differs from all other sources
of knowledge because it presupposes a transcendent supernatural reality that breaks into the natural order.
Christians believe that such revelation is God’s communication concerning the divine will. Believers in
supernatural revelation hold that this form of knowledge has the distinct advantage of being an omniscient
source of information that is not available through other epistemological methods. The truth revealed
through this source is believed by Christians to be absolute and uncontaminated. On the other hand, it is
generally realized that distortion of revealed truth can occur in the process of human interpretation. Some
people assert that a major disadvantage of revealed knowledge is that it must be accepted by faith and
cannot be proved or disproved empirically.
✓ A fifth source of human knowledge, though not a philosophical position is authority. Authoritative
knowledge is accepted as true because it comes from experts or has been sanctified over time as tradition.
In the classroom, the most common source of information is some authority, such as a textbook, teacher,
or reference work. Accepting authority as a source of knowledge has its advantages as well as its dangers.
Civilization would certainly stagnate if people refused to accept any statement unless they personally
verified it through direct, firsthand experience. On the other hand, if authoritative knowledge is built upon
a foundation of incorrect assumptions, then such knowledge will surely be distorted.
✓ One source of information alone might not be capable of supplying people with all knowledge. It might be
important to see the various sources as complementary rather than antagonistic. However, it is true that
most people choose one source as being more basic than, or preferable to, the others, and then use it as a
benchmark for testing other sources of knowledge. For example, in the contemporary world, knowledge
obtained empirically is generally seen as the most basic and reliable type.
1.3.3 Axiology
✓ Axiology is the philosophical study of value, which originally meant the worth of something. It
includes the studies of moral values, aesthetic values, as well as political and social values. Axiology
is the study or theory of value. The term Axiology stems from two Greek words “Axios”, meaning
“value, worth”, and “logos”, meaning “reason/ theory/ symbol / science/study of”. Hence, Axiology is
the philosophical study of value, which originally meant the worth of something. Axiology asks the
philosophical questions of values that deal with notions of what a person or a society regards as
good or preferable, such as:
➢ What is a value? Where do values come from? How do we justify our values?
➢ How do we know what is valuable?
➢ What is the relationship between values and knowledge? What kinds of values exist?
➢ Can it be demonstrated that one value is better than another is?
➢ Who benefits from values? And so on.
✓ Axiology deals with the above and related issues of value in three areas, namely Ethics, Aesthetics, and
Social/Political Philosophy.

1. Ethics /Moral Philosophy/: is a science that deals with the philosophical study of moral principles,
values, codes, and rules, which may be used as standards for determining what kind of human
conduct/action is said to be good or bad, right or wrong. Ethics raises various questions including:

➢ What is good/bad? Or what is right/wrong?

➢ Is it the Right Principle or the Good End that makes human action/conduct moral?

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 ➢ Is an action right because of its good end, or it is good because of its right principle?
➢ Are moral principles universal, objective, and unconditional, or relative, subjective and
conditional?
➢ What is the ultimate foundation of moral principles? The supernatural God? Human reason?
Mutual social contract? Social custom?
➢ Does God exist? If so, is he Benevolent and Omnipotent?
➢ If God is Benevolent, why He creates evil things? If God does not create evil things, then, there
must be another creator who is responsible to creation of the evil things? But, if it is so, how can
God be an Omnipotent creator?
➢ Why we honor and obey moral rules? For the sake of our own individual benefits? Or for the sake
of others? Or just for the sake of fulfilling our infallible duty?
✓ Ethics, or ethical studies, can be grouped into three broad categories/ main branches/: Normative
ethics, Meta-ethics, and Applied Ethics.
A. Normative Ethics refers to the ethical studies that attempt to study and determine precisely the
moral rules, principles, standards and goals by which human beings might evaluate and judge the
moral values of their conducts, actions and decisions. It is the reasoned search for principles of
human conduct, including a critical study of the major theories about which things are good, which
acts are right, and which acts are blameworthy. Consequentialism or Teleological Ethics,
Deontological Ethics, and Virtue Ethics are the major examples of normative ethical studies.
B. Meta-ethics is the highly technical philosophical discipline that deals with investigation of the
meaning of ethical terms, including a critical study of how ethical statements can be verified. It is
more concerned with the meanings of such ethical terms as good or bad and right or wrong than
with what we think is good or bad and right or wrong. Moral Intuitionism, Moral Emotivism, Moral
Prescriptivism, Moral Nihilism, and Ethical Relativism are the main examples of meta-ethical
studies.
C. Applied Ethics is a normative ethics that attempts to explain, justify, apply moral rules,
principles, standards, and positions to specific moral problems, such as capital punishment,
euthanasia, abortion, adultery, animal right, and so on. This area of normative ethics is termed
applied because the ethicist applies or uses general ethical princes in an attempt to resolve specific
moral problems.
2. Aesthetics is the theory of beauty. It studies about the particular value of our artistic and aesthetic
experiences. It deals with beauty, art, enjoyment, sensory/emotional values, perception, and matters
of taste and sentiment. A typical Aesthetic question includes:
➢ What is beauty? What is the relation between art and beauty?
➢ What is the connection between art, beauty, and truth?
➢ Can there be any objective standard by which we may judge the beauty of artistic works, or beauty
is subjective?
➢ What is artistic creativity and how does it differ from scientific creativity?
➢ Why works of art are valuable?
➢ Can artistic works communicate? If so, what do they communicate?
➢ What is art? Does art have any moral value, and obligations or constraints?
➢ Are there standards of quality in Art?

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 3. Social/Political Philosophy studies about of the value judgments operating in a civil society, be it social
or political. Some of the major Social/Political Philosophy questions:
➢ What form of government is best? What is the purpose of government?
➢ How are civil society and government come to exist? Are we obligated to obey all laws of the State?
➢ What economic system is best?
➢ What is justice/injustice? What makes an action/judgment just/unjust?
➢ What is society? Does society exist? If it does, how does it come to existence?

1.3.4 Logic
✓ Logic is a philosophical study of arguments and the methods and principles of right reasoning. Is
concerned with the study of arguments, and it seeks to establish the conditions under which an
argument may be considered as acceptable or good; including the development of standard methods
and principles of arguments. Is often treated simultaneously as a field of study and as an instrument. As
a field of study, it is a branch of philosophy that deals with the study of arguments and the principles and
methods of right reasoning. As an instrument, it is something, which we can use to formulate our own
rational arguments and critically evaluate the soundness of others „arguments.
✓ Logic is the study or theory of principles of right reasoning. It deals with formulating the right
principles of reasoning; and developing scientific methods of evaluating the validity and soundness
of arguments. The following are among the various questions raised by Logic:
➢ What is an argument; what does it mean to argue?
➢ What makes an argument valid or invalid? What is a sound argument?
➢ What relation do premise and conclusion have in argument?
➢ How can we formulate and evaluate an argument?
➢ What is a fallacy? What makes an argument fallacious?

1.4 Importance of Learning Philosophy

✓ If we ask any philosophy student what is the necessity of studying philosophy„, he/she may give you the
following famous philosophical statement: “The unexamined life is not worth living”. The ancient
Greek philosopher, Socrates, once said that “I tell you that to let no day pass without discussing goodness
and all the other subjects about which you hear me talking and examining both myself and others is really
the best thing that a man can do, and that life without this sort of examination is not worth living ” Thus,
among the various benefits of learning philosophy is that philosophy provides students with the tools they
need to critically examine their own lives as well as the world in which they live. Let us clarify it more.
✓ Some modern psychologists point out that human beings have both maintenance and actualizing needs.
Maintenance needs refers to the physical and psychological needs that we must satisfy in order to
maintain ourselves as human beings: food, shelter, security, social interaction, and the like.
Actualizing needs appear to be associated with self-fulfillment, creativity, self-expression, realization
of one’s potential, and being everything one can be.
✓ Although philosophy may not necessarily lead to this sort of self-actualization, it can assist us to
actualize ourselves by promoting the ideal of self-actualization. There are many characteristics of self-

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actualization to whose achievement studying philosophy has a primordial contribution. Here below are some of
them.
A. Intellectual and Behavioral Independence: - This is the ability to develop one’s own opinion and
beliefs. Among the primary goals of philosophy, one is the integration of experiences into a unified,
coherent, and systematic world views. Studying philosophy helps us not only to know the alternative
world views but also to know how philosophers have ordered the universe for themselves. As a result,
we can learn how to develop and integrate our experiences, thoughts, feelings, and actions for
ourselves, and thus how to be intellectually and behaviorally independent.
B. Reflective Self-Awareness:- self-actualization cannot be realized without a clear knowledge of
oneself and the world in which one lives. Philosophy helps us to intensify our self-awareness by
inviting us to critically examine the essential intellectual grounds of our lives.
C. Flexibility, Tolerance, and Open-Mindedness:- by studying different philosophical perspectives we
can understand the evolutionary nature of intellectual achievement and the ongoing development of
human thought. As we confront with the thoughts of various philosophers, we can easily realize that
no viewpoint is necessarily true or false-that the value of any attitude is contextual. Finally, we
become more tolerant, open-minded, more receptive, and more sympathetic to views that contend or
clash with ours.
D. Creative and Critical Thinking: - this is the ability to develop original philosophical perspective on
issues, problems, and events; and to engage them on a deeper level. From the study of philosophy, we
can learn how to refine our powers of analysis, our abilities to think critically, to reason, to evaluate,
to theorize, and to justify. i.e., critical thinking means correct thinking in the pursuit of relevant and
reliable knowledge about the world.
E. Conceptualized and well-thought-out value systems in morality, art, politics, and the like: -
since philosophy directly deals with morality, art, politics, and other related value theories, studying
philosophy provides us with an opportunity to formulate feasible evaluations of value; and thereby to
find meaning in our lives.
✓ The other benefit of studying philosophy that should not be missed is that it helps us to deal with the
uncertainty of living, meaning it helps us to realize the absence of an absolutely ascertained
knowledge, and hence prepare ourselves to the ever growing human knowledge. But, what is the
advantage of uncertainty? What Bertrand Russell stated in his book, The Problem of Philosophy, can be a
sufficient answer for this question.
➢ The value of philosophy is, in part, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture
of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual
benefits of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the
cooperation or consent of his deliberate reason. To such a man the world tends to become definite, finite,
obvious; common objects rouse no questions, and unfamiliar possibilities are contemptuously rejected. As
soon as we begin to philosophize, on the contrary, we find... that even the most everyday things lead to
problems to which only very incomplete answers can be given. Philosophy, though unable to tell us with
certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it rises, is able to suggest many possibilities which
enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom. Thus, while diminishing our feeling of
certainty as to what things are, it greatly increases our knowledge as to what they may be; it removes the
somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never traveled into the region of liberating doubt, and it
keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect (Bertrand, 1912, P; 158).

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