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The Meaning, Nature, and Significance of
Philosophy
Introduction
The word Logic is often treated as an instrument/tool and as a field of study simultaneously. As
an instrument, it is something that can be used to formulate one's own rational arguments and to
evaluate the validity/soundness of others’ arguments critically. Before logic itself has become a
field of study, philosophers have been using it as a basic tool to investigate issues that won their
philosophical attention, such as, reality, knowledge, value, etc. As a field of study, logic is a
branch of philosophy that studies the formulation of the principles of right reasoning. In this
course, we will learn logic as a field of study; i.e., as one of the various fields of philosophy.
Knowing the fact that logic is a branch of philosophy, you may now raise the question: 'What is
philosophy, then?' If you do, you are raising a legitimate question! To understand logic
properly, it is very important to have at least a cursory knowledge about the meaning, nature, and
significance of philosophy. It is for that purpose that this introductory chapter is developed.
The question, 'What is management?' may be raised in management class, the question, 'What is
mathematics?' in mathematics class, the question, 'What is biology?' in biology class, the
question, 'What is civil engineering?' in civil engineering class, etc. However, none of these
questions is a self-involving question. However, the question 'What is philosophy?' is a
philosophical question as it is a self-involving question. In other words, raising the question
'What is philosophy?' by itself is raising a philosophical question.
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physics, geography, etc. in terms of a subject matter, for they have their own specific subject
matters to primarily deal with. However, it is difficult to do the same with philosophy, for it 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. This should not,
however, lead us into thinking that philosophy is incomprehensible. It is only to say that
whenever you want to understand philosophy, it is better to read different thoughts of
philosophers, to consciously see its salient features by yourself, to participate in it, and to 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; i.e., to be confronted with philosophical questions, to use philosophical language,
to become acquainted with differing philosophical positions and maneuvers, to read the
philosophers themselves, and to grapple with the issues for oneself. Socrates argues that
“Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder”. It is true that most
of us 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
have touched and moved by the feelings of wonder from which all philosophy derives. Thus, we
all participate, more or less, in philosophical issues, though thinking alone cannot make us
philosophers.
If you still want a clear-cut definition of philosophy, it is better to refer to the etymology of the
word itself, instead of trying to associate it with a certain specific subject matter. Etymologically,
the word “philosophy” comes from two Greek words: “philo” and “sophia”, which mean “love”
and “wisdom”, respectively. Thus, the literal definition of philosophy is “love of wisdom”. 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, which can be described as a vital concern for becoming wise
about the phenomena of the world and the human experiences. Therefore, seeking wisdom is
among the various essences of philosophy found from its etymological definition. But, this is not
sufficient by itself to understand philosophy, for all wisdoms are not philosophy.
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What is the wisdom that philosophers seek? The wisdom that philosophers seek is not the
wisdom of the expertise or technical skills of professionals. Someone may be encyclopedic, and
thus seemingly intelligent, but he may actually be foolish when it comes to understanding the
meaning and significance of what he knows. 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. Based on the Socratic understanding of wisdom, philosophy, as a pursuit of
wisdom, is, thus, the development of critical habits, the search for truth, and the questioning of
the apparent.
But, what does it mean to question the apparent? To interrogate the obvious means 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. But, 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. Raising the right question is an art that includes
the ability to foresee what is not readily obvious and to imagine different possibilities and
alternatives of approaching the apparent. When we ultimately wonder about the existing world,
and thus raise different questions about its order, each question moves us from the phenomenal
facts to a profound speculation. The philosophical enterprise, as Vincent Barry stated, is “an
active imaginative process of formulating proper questions and resolving them by rigorous,
persistent analysis”.
Thus, philosophy is a rational and critical enterprise that tries to 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. Accordingly, we
can say that Philosophy has a constructive side, for 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. At the same time, its critical side is manifested when it
deals with giving a rational critic, analysis, clarification, and evaluation of answers given to basic
metaphysical, axiological, & epistemological questions.
The other thing which we have to know is that philosophy is not something which we can master
or learn- philosophy is an activity. A philosopher is a great philosopher, not because he mastered
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philosophy, but because he did it. It is not his theory, but his extraordinary ability to critical
think, to conceptualize, to analyze, to compare, to evaluate, and to understand- i.e., to
philosophize- that makes him so. Of course, 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.
Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and the universe, which are often held
uncritically.
Philosophy is a process of reflecting on and criticizing our most deeply held conceptions
and beliefs.
Philosophy is a rational attempt to look at the world as a whole.
Philosophy is the logical analysis of language and the clarification of the meaning of
words and concepts.
Philosophy is a group of perennial problems that interest people and for which
philosophers always have sought answers.
The other thing, which is worthy of noting, is that philosophy is an activity. It is not something
that can be easily mastered or learned in schools.
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i) 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?”
ii) 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?”
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iii) 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.
iv) 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?
2. Epistemology is the other field of philosophy that studies about the nature, source,
scope, meaning, and possibility of knowledge. It deals with issues of knowledge,
opinion, truth, falsity, reason, experience, and faith
The following are among 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?
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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 they become human knowledge?
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supernatural reality that breaks into the natural order. Christians believe that such
revelation is God’s communication concerning the divine will.
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.
3. 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?
Who benefits from values?
It deals with issues of value in three areas: Ethics, Social/Political Philosophy, and Aesthetics.
I. Ethics is the science that deals with studying the 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 has three main branches: meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics.
There are various questions that ethics raises, such as:
What is good/bad?
What is right/wrong?
Is it the Right Principle or the Good End that makes human
action/conduct moral?
Is an action right because of its good end, or it is good because of its
right principle?
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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.
Consequentialism or Teleological Ethics, Deontological Ethics, and Virtue Ethics are the
major examples of normative ethical studies.
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.
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.
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come afterwards. These are games…I have never seen anyone die for the
ontological argument…the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions.
Some modern psychologists point out that human beings have both maintenance and actualizing
needs. The former refer 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. The
later 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-actualization to whose achievement studying
philosophy has a primordial contribution. Here 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
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The other benefit of studying philosophy that should not be missed is that it helps us to deal with
the uncertainty of living. Philosophy helps us to realize the absence of an absolutely ascertained
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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