THE NATURE OF

PHILOSOPHY
Chapter 1

Mr. J.D. Carreon, RPm.

“The brighter you are, the more you
have to learn.”

-Don Herold
 Nominal Definition of Philosophy
• Philosophy
comes from the Greek word philo,
meaning friend and Sophia, meaning wisdom. It
means “the love of wisdom,” or “a friend of
wisdom.”
 Real Definition
• Philosophy is the science of all that exist in their
ultimate cause through the aid of the human
intellect alone.
 ELEMENTS IN THE DEFINITION OF
PHILOSOPHY
1. IT IS SCIENCE, a systematic body of knowledge which is not only
based on opinions, hypothesis and theories, but ideal knowledge.
2. OF BEINGS, Everything that exists, or may exist, of everything
knowable. It is the highest synthesis of all sciences dealing with
man, nature and God. It is also considered as the mother of all
sciences because of its very vast scope and subject matter.
3. IN THEIR ULTIMATE CAUSE, because is asks and answers not only
facts and proximate causes but also the deepest causes of things.
4. THROUGH THE AID OF THE HUMAN INTELLECT ALONE,
because philosophy uses natural reason and not Divine Revelation
of the recourse to the Bible; it is the product of one’s own thinking
and not of imagination or fantasy.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF PHILOSOPHY
TO SCIENCE.
• Philosophy and Science are alike. They are both interested in
knowledge. Both of them are fields on inquiry and investigation.
Both seek to ask questions and determine answers to these
questions.
A. SCIENCE- seeks knowledge of facts.
B. PHILOSOPHY – seeks ultimate knowledge
Therefore, Philosophy takes full awareness in the findings of
science because Science seeks to determine facts and facts are its
end products.
VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY
• The value of philosophy is in fact to be sought largely in
its very uncertainty. Philosophy is to be studied, but not
for the sake of finding definite answers to its questions,
since no definite answer can, as a rule, be known to be
true. Rather, it is studied for the sake of the question
themselves, because these questions enlarge our
conception of what is possible and thus enrich our
intellectual imagination.
TYPES OF PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHY is basically divided into two major types: PURE
Philosophy and applied Philosophy
I. Pure Philosophy
1. Metaphysics - The philosophical study of essence &
existence of beings.
2. Cosmology – The philosophical study of material world in
connection to the order of universe.
3. Anthropology – The philosophical study of man with regard
to the union of the body & soul.
4. Rational Psychology – The philosophical study of
immaterial soul as the life principle of every living beings.
5. Theodicy – The philosophical study of God.
6. Epistemology – The philosophical study of human
knowledge with regard to the certainty of truth.
7. Ethics – the philosophical study of morality.
8. Logic – The science and art of correct thinking.
Applied Philosophy
1. Philosophy of Man – the inquiry into man as a person
2. Social Philosophy – the study of the relationships between
man and society.
3. Philosophy of Religion - the study of man’s relationship with
God.
4. Axiology – the study of man’s values.
5. Aesthetics - the study of beauty and perfection.
6. Oriental Philosophy – the study of oriental ways of life and
mind.
7. Philosophy of Education – the philosophical approach to
teaching and learning processes.
THE BASIC OF LOGIC
Chapter 2

Mr. J.D. Carreon, RPm.

“The problem with humans are they seldom
think, remember that humans are not only
plain thinking but thinking correctly and
logically.”
WHAT IS LOGIC?
 NOMINAL DEFINITION
LOGIC comes from the Greek word logos,
which means thought, word, speech or
science.
 REAL DEFINITION
LOGIC is order and consistency. It is the science of those
principles, laws and methods which the mind of man must
follow in its thinking for the secure and accurate attainment
of truth.

In short,
“LOGIC IS THE SCIENCE AND ART OF CORRECT
THINKING”
 THINKING
• LOGIC deals with the acts of mind – the mental
process THINKING. most of the time, it is
associated with some mental processes like
memorizing, recall and the like. Others may say
that imagining and daydreaming are thinking, but
these are not the kind of thinking that we consider
in LOGIC.
According to Corazon Cruz (1995), there are
two criteria for a mental process to be
considered thinking:
1. When the objective is TRUTH
2. When the truth we have becomes the
nucleus of further knowledge
THINKING is the process of drawing out
conclusions from previously known data.

We call it REASONING or INFERENCE

CORRECT THINKING is the process of thinking
or reasoning that follows the right procedure.
However, this reasoning may not always be true.
Logic does not investigate the truth as the
certainty of the data but rather focuses on the
correct operation of thinking. CORRECT
THINKING and TRUE KNOWLEDGE are two
different things. TRUE KNOWLEDGE deals with
knowledge which conforms to reality.
EXAMPLES:
1. All men are mortal
Socrates is a man
Socrates is mortal ---------------------------🡪 Correct & True

2. All animals are rational

Dogs are animal
Dogs are rational ----------------------------🡪 Correct & False
EXAMPLES:
3. Girls are kind
Anna Rose is kind
Anna Rose is a girl---------------------------🡪 Incorrect & True

4. Girls are sweet

Julius is sweet
Julius is a girl----------------------------------🡪 Incorrect & False
 THE FORMAL OBJECT OF LOGIC
Logic deals with reasoning. The soundness or
reasoning is the one that is important. The first
concern of logic is validity. It leads man in the
search for truth from the known towards the
unknown and from the easiest towards the most
difficult. An argument is sound when it is both valid
and true.
 Examples:
• All plants need water
All flowers are plants
Therefore, all flowers need water

Consider the argument which follows:

• All lawyers are honest
Some defenders of our rights are lawyers.
Therefore, some defenders of our rights are honest.
This inference is not sound but VALID.
 VALID ARGUMENT
• It is one whose premises, if they are assumed to be
true, entail this conclusion. Since not all lawyers are
honest, the proposition is not true. A proposition is
true when it describes an actual state of affairs.
Therefore, even though the inference is valid, it is
not sound, because it is not both valid and true.
LOGIC is generally interested only in the
correctness or validity of reasoning. It is not
concerned with the truth or falsity of the
premises or of the conclusion. Consider the
following arguments:
• All men are rational being
Arman is a man
Therefore, Armand is a rational being
• All animals are rational
Dogs are rational
Therefore, dogs are animals.
 IMPORTANCE OF LOGIC
BY BENITO REYES (1947)

1. It develops the habit of clear thinking

2. It is guide in the process of drawing conclusion
3. It emphasizes the importance of definition
4. It helps us interpret facts adequately
5. It cultivates the habit of looking for the assumptions
presupposed in reasoning
6. It trains us in the technique of determining
implications
7. It helps us detect fallacies, avoid self-deceptions and
combat fallacious arguments.
 IMPORTANCE OF LOGIC
BY BENITO REYES (1947)

8. It helps us persuade and convince others

9. It stimulates scientific thinking and love of truth
10. It familiarizes us with terminology and problems in
Philosophy.
 TYPES OF LOGIC
1. Based on the form and content
2. Based on the process of thinking
 BASED ON THE FORM & CONTENT
A. FORMAL LOGIC – is concerned with the aspect of form, its
structure, correctness, sequence and the following of the
rules. It looks at whether there is conformity with the given
standards or with the existing rules of LOGIC.
EXAMPLE: Peter is a student
From this we can ask: what is the subject? The verb? The
predicate? Our concern is how it is structured or built to create a
sound reasoning.
 BASED ON THE FORM & CONTENT
B. MATERIAL LOGIC – is concerned with the subject matter,
content or truth. It looks at whether there is conformity with
reality.
EXAMPLE: Peter is a man
From this example we can ask: is Peter really a man as he
exists in reality? If so, then our statement is TRUE.
 MATERIAL LOGIC

REASONING is materially true if there is

conformity with reality; it becomes
materially false when there is no conformity
with reality.
BASED ON THE PROCESS OF THINKING
A. DEDUCTIVE LOGIC is one in which the premises flow
logically into the conclusion. That is why it is also called
formal deductive logic. It is from universal to
particular.

EXAMPLE: All Filipino are industrious. (general)

Peter is a Filipino. (particular)
Therefore, Peter is industrious. (particular)
BASED ON THE PROCESS OF THINKING
B. INDUCTIVE LOGIC is one in which the argument flows
from specific to general or particular to universal.
Inductive reasoning implies a sense of probability. It is
closely related to the scientific method of inquiry which
proves from the particular to the universal.

Example: Chalk falls, book falls, pen falls & eraser falls
Therefore, bodily objects fall.
ACTS OF THE MIND: THE
MENTAL OPERATIONS
 Our mind is always active. It never rest.
We know that it is one of the most complex
realities in existence. But to help us
understand its nature, it is better to deal
with it through the three essential
operations of the intellect: simple
apprehensions, judgment and reasoning.
 APPREHENSION
• It is the process through which the mind grasps the
objective reality as it is outside the mind. When
something is grasped, an idea or concept is formed
which is then expressed through the use of terms.

Example of terms: Man, mortal, Peter

 JUDGMENT
• It is the process through which the mind can assert or
deny something. This second process can be achieved
only after having ideas because it is the ideas that are put
together in order to come up with judgment. The
expressions of judgments are called propositions.

Example of propositions: Every man is mortal.

Peter is a man.
 REASONING
• It is the process through which the mind arrives at
the conclusion from previously possessed judgments.
It draws out new propositions from premises. We
also call this inference. This is express through
syllogism.
Example of syllogism: All men are human.
All human are mortal,
therefore, all men are mortal.
 Activity # 1
Show your ability to reason out by answering the following questions:

1. What exactly are you doing when you are thinking?

2. Is man a natural born logician? Justify
3. When do you say that an argument is definitely correct? Cite
examples.
4. Differentiate an argument from reasoning.
5. Do you think that Logic is an important subject? Why?
“Music may be the language of the soul, but
the stuff with which we live out our daily life
is words.”

-Corazon Cruz
THE BASIC OPERATION OF
LANGUAGE
What is language?
 According to Irving Copi (1978) list three
basic function of language. These are
informative, expressive and directive which
based on the three integral part of man: head,
heart, & hands (guts).

1. HEAD --------🡪 COGNITIVE

2. HEART ------🡪 AFFECTIVE
3. HANDS -----🡪 ACTIVE/ACTION
 INFORMATIVE LANGUAGE
This is the most common function of
language wherein we inform about things we
know and ask about things we do not know yet.
Example: When a person asks for your name (he
wants to be informed) and you tell him: “I am
Peter”, then what you used is informative
discourse.
 INFORMATIVE LANGUAGE
Example: When we say: “Balanga is the capital
of Pampanga & Mt. Samat is in Baguio”, we
are giving INFORMATION, but these two
pieces of FALSE information.
 EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE
This kind of discourse is best illustrated in poetry where
emotion and attitude are express beautifully.
Examples: “Oh, no!”
“Right!”
“Look out!”
“Wow!”
“Amen!”
--------🡪 This language does not affirm nor deny. Hence, we
cannot say whether this is true or false.
According to Copi (1978) “…….. Expressive
discourse is used to express the speaker’s
emotions or evoke certain feelings on the
part of the author, or sometimes it may do
both”.
 DIRECTIVE LANGUAGE
This function of language is most easily seen in
commands or requests. It is that which lets go or prevent an
action to be done.

Examples: Kindly arrange all the requirements before leaving.

Do not mess with me now.
------🡪 One can say that this is true or false. Weather the
command or request is obeyed or not is irrelevant to its truth
– value, which is nonexistent in the first place.
 MULTIPLICITY OF THE USES OF
LANGUAGE
It is more often the case rather than an exception that any
ordinary discourse would contain all three uses of language.

Example: Newspaper --🡪 may be biased if it is created for

propaganda or protection of business interests.
Noli Me Tangere by Rizal --🡪 is an expression of the
grievances of the Filipinos to the Spanish misrule; nevertheless,
it motivates and instructs Filipinos to yearn for freedom and
independence.
“Think like a wise man but communicate in
the language of the people,”

-William Butler Yeats

Thank you for listening!