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Logic and Critical Thinking

Chapter One

Chapter One
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.

1.1. On the Meaning and Nature of Philosophy


Have you heard of the word philosophy? How often have you heard of it? And what do you
understand about philosophy as a discipline? What is philosophy, then?

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.

The word 'philosophy' is defined in different ways by different philosophers


because of its multifaceted characteristic feature. Hence, it is difficult to give a
clear-cut definition of philosophy. It may be easy to define other disciplines, such as, chemistry,

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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.

1.2. Basic Features of Philosophy

 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.

1.3. Branches of Philosophy


Philosophy, as a multidisciplinary science, studies almost every aspect of life
with the help of its various branches. The branches of philosophy include Metaphysics,
Epistemology, Axiology, and Logic.
1. Metaphysics is the study or theory of the ultimate nature of reality or existence. It is
concerned with things in themselves and the first principle that causes
the things that exist in the universe.
- Metaphysicians seek an irreducible foundation of reality or ‘first principles’ from
which absolute knowledge or truth can be induced and deduced.

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- It deals with issues of reality, God, freedom, soul/immortality, the mind-body


problem, form and substance relationship, cause and effect relationship, and other
related issues.
Here are some of the questions that Metaphysics deals with:
 What is reality?
 What is the ultimately real?
 What is the nature of the ultimate reality?
 Is it one thing or is it many different things?
 Can reality be grasped by the senses, or it is transcendent?
 What makes reality different from a mere appearance?
 What is mind, and what is its relation to the body?
 Is there a cause and effect relationship between reality and appearance?
 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?
 What is the meaning of life?
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.

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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 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.
Agnosticism is a profession of ignorance in reference to the existence or nonexistence of God.

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?

 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.
 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.
 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.
 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

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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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 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 has created the evil
things?
 If so, how can God be an Omnipotent creator?
 Why we honor and obey moral rules? For the sake of our own individual
benefits? For the sake of others? For the sake of fulfilling our infallible duty?
Ethics, or ethical studies, can be grouped into three broad categories: Normative ethics, Meta-
ethics, and Applied Ethics.

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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II. Social/Political Philosophy studies about of the value judgments operating in a


civil society. It deals with the following questions:
 What form of government is best?
 What economic system is best?
 What is justice/injustice?
 What makes an action/judgment just/unjust?
 How are civil society and government come to exist?
 Are we obligated to obey all laws of the State?
 What is the purpose of government?
III. 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.
Typical Aesthetic questions:
 What is art?
 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?
 Does art have any moral value, and obligations or constraints?
 Are there standards of quality in Art?
4. 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?

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 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. Approaches (Conceptions) of Philosophy


1. Speculative Approach: - the speculative approach of philosophy is probably the most
familiar approach. On this view, philosophy is a grandest of all disciplines. The
speculative philosopher raises and tries to answer the most ultimate and far-ranging
questions of all (what is reality? What is the ultimate good? What is the total meaning of
things) and to make sense of reality and experience as a whole. Philosophers such as:
Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant and Hegel are speculative philosophers.
2. Analytic approach: - this view of philosophy takes linguistic analysis or the analysis of
language, as the ultimate task of the philosopher. Although these philosophers see their
forerunners among the traditional philosophers, analytic philosophy, as clearly defined
approach to philosophical issues, is essentially a recent and contemporary movement.
According to analytic philosophers, because many traditional philosophical problems
arise out of problems of language, the proper task of a philosopher is therefore to unravel
and clarify philosophical language. One of the best-known of these philosophers is the
English-philosopher G.E. Moore (1873-1958).
3. Existential approach: - the existential approach of philosophy is fundamentally
concerned with human existence. For the existentialist philosopher, traditional philosophy
has been too occupied with abstractions and trivialities. The primary object of philosophy
for existentialist philosophers is, however, the human being as concretely existing reality
with all existential crises. For instance, the existentialist philosopher Albert Camus in his
work The Myth of Sisyphus claimed that:
Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the
fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest– whether or not the world
has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories-

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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.

1.5. On the Significance of Philosophy


Whenever you ask a 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. 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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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.
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. 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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