Angelica T.

Gadier
BSRT 1

NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY

The
word
"philosophy"
comes
from
the Ancient
Greek (philosophia), Philos for love and Sofia for wisdom which
literally means "love of wisdom".
Philosophy is a study that seeks to understand the mysteries of existence
and reality. It tries to discover the nature of truth and knowledge and to find
what is of basic value and importance in life. It also examines the
relationships between humanity and nature and between the individual and
society. Philosophy arises out of wonder, curiosity, and the desire to know
and understand. Philosophy is thus a form of inquiry a process of analysis,
criticism, interpretation, and speculation.
1. Philosophy analyzes the foundations and presuppositions underlying
other disciplines.
Philosophy investigates and studies the
underpinnings of science, art, and theology.
2. Philosophy attempts to develop a comprehensive conception or
apprehension of the world. Philosophy seeks to integrate the
knowledge of the sciences with that of other fields of study to achieve
some kind of consistent and coherent world view.
3. Philosophy studies and critically evaluates our most deeply held beliefs
and attitudes; in particular, those which are often held uncritically.
Philosophers have an attitude of critical and logical thoughtfulness.
4. Philosophy investigates the principles and rules of language, and
attempts
to
clarify
the
meaning
of
vague
words
and
concepts. Philosophy examines the role of language in communication
and thought, and the problem of how to identify or ensure the
presence of meaning in our use of language.

BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY

1. Metaphysics - This philosophy study deals with the question concerning

ultimate reality and strives to explain it in its most general terms through its
first and most universal principle.
2. Cosmology - This philosophy study strives to formulate a theory
explaining the origin, nature and end of the universe.
3. Ethics - This philosophy study look into the rightness or wrongness of
human act.

4. Theodicy - This philosophy study concerns God: His existence and His
nature. It also attempts to reconcile the seeming conflict between the
goodness of God and the existence of evil in the world.
5. Epistemology - This philosophy study concerns human knowledge: what
knowledge is, what the conditions are which make human knowledge
possible and the extent to which human knowledge can grasp or reach.
6.Political Philosophy - This philosophy study is concerned with good
governance of the State, which includes the theory of its origin, the structure
of the government and its different forms, and the qualities of a good leader.
7. Philosophy of the Human Person - This philosophy study focuses on
the human person, his or her natures with the hope maximizing his or her
good attributes in order to live life fully human. The goal of this study is to
humanize the person and enable him or her to lead a good life.
8. Aesthetics - This philosophy study sets forth several theories concerning
beauty and good taste.
9 - logic - This philosophy study is concerned with the structure and
principles of correct thinking and right reasoning.

DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHERS
Thales (c.585 BC) - Everything is made of water
Pythagoras (c.570-495 BC) - The universe is underpinned by mathematics
Heraclitus (c.535-475 BC) - Everything changes, fire is the basic matter of
the universe
Parmenides (c.510-450 BC) - Nothing changes, change and motion are
illusions of the senses
Confucius (6th / 5th century BC) Founder of Confucianism; the highest
moral ideal is jen (humanity or goodness) which is achievable by all; the rites
and traditions of society are to be followed but not without question.
Gorgias (c.485-380 BC) - founding Sophist; believed there is no truth, only
argument; mastered the art of rhetoric
Socrates (469-399 BC) Said "All I know is that I know nothing" and yet was
prepared to die for his beliefs. Saw philosophy as the pursuit of moral good.
Democritus (460-370 BC) - Conceived the atomic theory of matter
Plato (427-347 BC) - The father of Western philosophy; most famous for his

theory of The Forms.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) - The first scientist; emphasised direct observation
of nature and believed that theory should follow fact. Hugely influential on
Islam, Christianity and Judaism; also tutored Alexander the Great.
Epicurus (341-271 BC) - All sensations are true; pleasure is our natural
goal.
Zeno of Citium (335-263 BC) - founder of stoicism; pointed out that
humans have two ears and one mouth so should listen more than they
speak.
Seneca (4BC-65AD) - Archetypal Roman Stoic and tutor to Emperor Nero;
believed philosophy was for the edification of the soul.
Marcus Aurelius (121-180) Emperor and Philosopher;
his Meditations reveal a man applying philosophy to the highest office in the
Roman world.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) - Greatest of the early church fathers;
converted to Christianity after finding Manicheanism and Neo-Platonism
unsatisfying; upheld the doctrine of original sin and wrote The
Confessions and City of God .
Hildegaard of Bingen (1098-1179) - Medieval theologian who
wrote Scivias, 'Know the Way' interpreting her own visions. Also a poet and
musician.
Ibn-Rushd (Averroes) (1126-98) - Introduced much of Aristotle to
Medieval Europe; magisterial commentator on both Aristotle and Plato; also
defended philosophy's role in Islam
Maimonides (1135 - 1204) - His masterpiece, The Guide to the Perplexed ,
combined Aristotelian rationalism with Jewish theology; also organised and
systematised Jewish law.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) - Reconciled faith and reason for the Christian
church.
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) - Renaissance Humanist; criticised the
Catholic church but also contested with Luther on free will; made a seminal
translation of the Greek New Testament.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) - Political philosopher and father

of Realpolitik ; believed morality is subordinate to power. Set down his ideas
in The Prince.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) - people are inherently selfish and need
strong governance, otherwise anarchy will reign and life become "nasty
brutish and short". Such social contract thinking influenced Rousseau,
Spinoza and Locke.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) - Declared Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore
I am) as the only proposition not open to doubt. A dualist, he separated mind
and matter as incompatible substances.
Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) - Pantheist; believed the universe to be a single
substance with infinite attributes; God and nature are therefore the same
thing. Influenced German idealism, especially Goethe
John Locke (1632-1704) Founder of British Empiricism; the mind is a
tabula rasa (a blank canvas) in which knowledge arises from sensation and is
perfected by reflection. Science is possible because the senses faithfully
represent reality.
Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716) - Claimed we live in
the best of all possible worlds; believed the universe possessed a divinely
established harmony and developed the calculus to unlock how it worked.
George Berkeley (1685-1753) - believed matter cannot exist independent
of perception, thus reality only exists in the mind. However, God organises
sensations to give the impression of a real world.
Voltaire (1694-1778) - Enlightenment rationalist; based religious tolerance
on empirical scepticism - if we cannot know things ourselves, we cannot
persecute those with whom we disagree.
David Hume (1711-76) Reason is subject to the emotions; knowledge
cannot go beyond experience.
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) "Man was born free but everywhere he
is in chains". Philosopher of the French Revolution.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) "Act as if the maxim from which you act were
to become through your will a universal law" (Kant's Categorical Imperative

or moral law).
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) - Advocated equality of education
between the sexes; herVindication of the Rights of Women is a founding work
of feminist thinking.
Georg Hegel (1770-1831) Thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis - the inevitable
dialectic of history.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) - Founder of Utilitarianism; believed
morality was a question of 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number".
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) - Man is a slave to his will, pleasure is
merely the absence of pain
John Stuart Mill (1806-73) - Utilitarian and campaigner for women's rights;
influential empiricist especially on Bertrand Russell and J.M. Keynes
Karl Marx (1818-83) - "From each according to his abilities, to each
according to his needs".
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55) - Suffering is necessary; the individual must
stand alone against the crowd.
William James (1842-1910) - wrote The Varieties of Religious Experience ;
believed the individual is free from biological or social context.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) - God is dead; man is governed by the
'will to power'.
W.E.B. Dubois (1868-1963) pioneering advocate of Pan-Africanism, that
all people of African descent had common interests and should work together
to achieve their freedom; huge influence on post colonial thought.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) - Analytic philosopher; argued philosophy
should be conducted with the rigour of science; masterful logician.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) - Analytic philosopher; philosophical
problems are primarily confusions about language; language is a game
without formal relationships to reality.
Gilbert Ryle (1900-76) - The mind belongs to the body and is not "a ghost
in the machine"; philosophical problems are usually problems of language
not logic.
A.J. Ayer (1910-89) - Meaningful statements must be empirically verifiable;

otherwise they are simply expressions of like and dislike.

Karl Popper (1902-94) - philosopher of science; conceived the falsification
principle - a claim must be capable of being proven false to be a proper
scientific theory.
Jean Paul Sartre (1905-80) - Grand existentialist; "Man is condemned to
be free"
Simone De Beauvoir (1908-86) Feminist existentialist; tried to make
women subjects of their own lives; not objects of men's lives.
Fanon, Frantz (1925 - 1961) - Psychologist and theorist of colonialism who
studied the effects of racism and colonization; an inspiration for freedom
causes throughout the Third World.
Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) - Meaning is internal to language; language
must be deconstructed to reveal how its assumptions and ideologies
masquerade as reality.