CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCING PHILOSOPHY

Logic 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. 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.

Lesson 1: Meaning and Nature of Philosophy

Because of its universal nature, it is difficult to define philosophy in terms of a specific subject matter.
However, we can define it etymologically as ‘love of wisdom’. 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. In this lesson, students will be introduced with the fundamental meaning,
nature, and concepts of philosophy.

Dear learners, it is important to note first that giving a clear-cut definition of philosophy is difficult. It
may be easy to define other disciplines, such as, chemistry, 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, 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. However, this should not lead us
into thinking that philosophy is incomprehensible. It is only tosay that whenever you want to
understand philosophy, it is better to read different thoughts ofphilosophers, 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; 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 once stated 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

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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, even though
thinking alone cannot make us philosophers.

If, however, you still want to find its clear-cut definition, 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
that 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 that it
has got from its etymological definition. Nevertheless, this is not sufficient by itself to understand
philosophy, for not all wisdoms are philosophy. 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 allthings 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 continuous search for truth, and the questioning of 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

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“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.
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, epistemological, and axiological questions.

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. 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. 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.

Lesson 2: Basic Features of Philosophy

1) Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and the universe, which are often held uncritically.
We refer to this meaning as the informal sense of philosophy or “having” a philosophy. 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. This is the formal sense of “doing” philosophy. These two senses of philosophy-‖having‖ and
“doing”- cannot be treated entirely independent of each other, if we did not have a philosophy in the
formal, personal sense, then we could not do a philosophy in the critical, reflective sense. However,
having a philosophy is not sufficient for doing philosophy. 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

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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. The accumulation of knowledge does not by
itself lead to understanding, because it does not necessarily teach the mind to make a critical
evaluation of facts that entail consistent and coherent judgment. Critical evaluations often differ.
Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others disagree, first 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. A second reason philosophers disagree is that they live ina changing universe. People change,
society changes, and nature changes. Some people areresponsive 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. A third reason philosophers disagree is that 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, 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. Although there are
difficulties and dangers in setting forth any worldview, there also are dangers in confining attention to
fragments of human experience. 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. Philosophy, according to this view, 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. Certainly, this is one function of philosophy. In fact, nearly all philosophers have used

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methods of analysis and have sought to clarify the meaning of terms and the use of language. Some
philosophers see this as the main task of philosophy, and a few claim this is the only legitimate
function of philosophy. Such persons consider philosophy a specialized field serving the sciences and
aiding in the clarification of language rather than a broad field reflecting on all of life‘s experiences.
This outlook has gained considerable support during the twentieth century. It would limit what we call
knowledge to statements about observable facts and their interrelations i.e., to the business of the
various sciences. Not all linguistic analysts, however, define knowledge so narrowly. Although they
do reject and try to ―clean up‖ many non-scientific assertions, many of them think that we can have
knowledge of ethical principles and the like, although thisknowledge is also experientially derived.
Those who take the narrower view neglect, when theydo not deny, all generalized worldviews and life
views, as well as traditional moral philosophy and theology. From this narrower point of view, 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.
Some of the philosophical questions raised in the past have been answered in a manner satisfactory to
the majority of philosophers. Many questions, however, have been answered only tentatively, and
many problems remain unsolved. What are philosophical questions? The question “Did Ram make a
false statement on his income tax return?” is merely a question of fact. However, the questions “What
is truth?” and “What is the distinction between right and wrong?” have philosophical importance.
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” 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

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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 above questions are all philosophical. 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. Without these people and their thoughts, philosophy would not have the rich
content it has today. Even though we may be unconscious of the fact, we are constantly influenced by
ideas that have come down to us in the traditions of society.

Lesson 3 Core Fields of Philosophy

3.1 Metaphysics
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. 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.’ Aristotle‘s
writings on ‘first philosophy’ came after his treatise on physics, therefore, Aristotle‘s editor,
Andronicus of Rhodes, named them metaphysics.

Here are 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 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?

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 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?
At first, questions like, ‘What is real?’ seem too simple to bother asking. But consider George
Knight‘s example about the existence of a floor and one will see that the question has far reaching
implications: What is exactly the nature of the floor upon which you stand? It may seem to have a
rather straightforward existence. It is obviously flat, solid, and smooth; it has a particular color; it is
composed of an identifiable material, such as wood or concrete; and it supports your weight. Suppose,
however, that a physicist enters the room and questioned about the reality of the floor. She will reply
that the floor is made of molecules; that molecules consistof atoms, electrons, protons, and neutrons;
and these, finally, of electric energy alone. A thirdposition is offered by a passing chemist. To him the
floor is a hotbed of hydrocarbons associated in a particular way and subject to certain kinds of
environmental influences, such as heat, cold, wetness, dryness, and oxidation.

It is evident that the question of reality is not as simplistic as it appears. If the reality of a common
floor is confusing, what about the larger problems that presents themselves as humankind searches for
the ultimate reality of the universe?

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

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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?”

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 spiritualenergy? 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?”

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 following are among the questions/issues with which Epistemology deals:

 What is knowledge?

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 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 withoutthe 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 Gorgias, 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
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

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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. (Forexample, 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

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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
occursbeneath 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.

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

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authoritative knowledge is built upon a foundation of incorrect assumptions, then such knowledge will
surely be distorted.

Dear learners, it is important to note that 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 sourceas
being more basic than, or preferable to, the others, and then use it as a benchmark for testingother
sources of knowledge. For example, in the contemporary world, knowledge obtained empirically is
generally seen as the most basic and reliable type.

3.3 Axiology
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?  What is the relationship between values and

knowledge?
 Where do values come from?
 What kinds of values exist?
 How do we justify our values?
 Can it be demonstrated that one value is
 How do we know what is valuable? better than another?
 Who benefits from values? Etc.
Axiology deals with the above and related issues of value in three areas, namely Ethics, Aesthetics,
and Social/Political Philosophy.

I. Ethics
Ethics, which is also known as 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 has three main
branches: meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Ethics raises various questions including:

 What is good/bad?

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 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?
 Are moral principles universal, objective, & unconditional, or relative, subjective &conditional?
 What is the ultimate foundation of moral principles? The supernatural God?Humanreason?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: Normative ethics, Metaethics,
and Applied Ethics.

Normative Ethics refers to the ethical studies that attempt to study and determine precisely themoral
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.

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 metaethical 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. 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.

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II. Aesthetics
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.

The following are 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?
III. Social/Political Philosophy
Social/Political Philosophy studies about of the value judgments operating in a civil society, be it
social or political. The following questions are some of the major Social/Political Philosophy primarily
deals with:

 What form of government is best?  Does society exist? If it does, how does it come
to existence?
 What economic system is best?
 How are civil society and government come to
 What is justice/injustice? exist?
 What makes an action/judgment just/unjust?  Are we obligated to obey all laws of the State?
 What is society?  What is the purpose of government

3.4. Logic: Logic is the study or theory of principles of right reasoning. It deals with formulating the
rightprinciples of reasoning; and developing scientific methods of evaluating the validity and
soundness of arguments. The following are among the various questions raised by Logic:

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 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?
Lesson 5: Importance of Learning Philosophy

Dear learners, if you 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 actualizingneeds. The
former refer to the physical and psychological needs that we must satisfy in order tomaintain 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 below are some of them.

1) 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.

2) 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.

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3) 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.

4) 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.

5) 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 ofvalue; 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 raises, 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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